The II Spain-India Fashion Event will take place on June 11-13 in Madrid and Valladolid with the purpose of strengthening cooperation between Spain and India in the fast-growing fashion industry. Important institutions such as the Indian Institute of Fashion Technology and the Fashion Design Council of India also cooperated in this project, which was extremely successful in its first edition in 2010.
The event offers activities for the general public and others targeted at professionals. Through trade meetings, roundtables, presentations and fashion shows, the attendees will be able to learn about key aspects of the Indian and Spanish textile industries, identify opportunities for exchange and business and discover new trends. Ultimately, the event sets the stage for a fruitful exchange where the world of fashion will unite these two cultures, which are destined to enrich one another and establish mutually beneficial professional and business relations.
According to data from 2010, exports by the Spanish fashion industry to India exceeded 50 million euros, and the expansion of Spanish brands in India is well underway. Zara and Mango have a significant footprint in the country and other Spanish designers and SMEs linked to the textile industry hope that these events will offer a gateway to India, as explained by designers Alfonso Lemoniez and Pablo Merino during the first day of the II Spain-India Fashion Event. Anurag Verma, Managing Director of the Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), announced that representatives of the Spanish fashion industry will be invited to participate in the Fashion Week organised by this institution in Delhi in October, which will be a good opportunity for Spanish designers to showcase their work.
The II Spain-India Fashion Event features not only established names in the Spanish and Indian fashion industry, such as Alfonso Lemoniez, Agatha Ruiz de la Prada and Paras Bairoliya, but also has room for emerging designers and promising young talent from the two countries, such as Indian designer Nida Mahmood. Speaking at the event, Shinju Mahajan, Head of the Fashion & Apparel Department at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) from the Indian Ministry of Textiles, proposed several educational programmes and student exchanges between Spanish design schools and NIFT’s official network of fashion institutes, present in 15 Indian states. In the past 25 years, NIFT has trained over 30,000 students in India.
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