Source: The Stitch Times, April 2009

For a long period, fashion designersof European countries like Italy and France have dominated garment and fashionindustry. However, in the last 30 years India has been through a revolution interms of fashion designing. Fashion is a term commonly used in relation toclothes, dresses, garments, etc. There has been perceptible improvement in useof quality textiles and materials by the fashion designers.

Fashion is identified today with status, acceptance and italmost implies social involvement. Fashion is an important aspect in every one'slife. Every person has an inherent tendency to be fashionable though they havedifferent body structures and not every kind of clothes suits him, whichrequire people to know about fashion and dressing sense. Lack of knowledgeabout proper dress code and colour sense, one gets exposed. Fashion is alwaysevolving and therefore it is important for all those fashionable man and womento always update themselves with the hot and happening fashion of differentseasons and occasions. The fashion designer profession has recently emerged asone of the most sought out careers among the youths. They are confident intheir own creativeness, which has helped them in setting new trends rather thanfollowing trends set by others.

Future trend in fashion

A few years back, the need of a cell phone for the users wasonly to talk with others and it was an overwhelming satisfaction for the users.Gradually the demands of the same users increased much more in terms of variousadditional functions and services from the same product besides fulfilling thebasic need. And the dream came true. Today we have the cell phones comprisingof many additional functional services starting from entertainment, games, e-services,photography and what not? So far the fashion designers designing garmentsdepended upon the normal mill made /handloom/ power loom fabrics andaccessories with an objective of making it aesthetically beautiful and thenfollow different business tools so as to reach the product to the common peoplethrough merchandising, popularizing or arranging ramp shows etc.

But now the time has come to think something different.Besides the traditional concept of designing a garment with an eye for better aestheticvalue for satisfying the users, it can be thought of adding some functionalvalue also by utilizing the new textile products and concepts developed throughthe emerging areas like 'smart and intelligent textiles' so as to set up a newtrend for growth for upcoming fashion entrepreneurs. Garments made from 'Smart& intelligent textiles' are a foundation for a new fashion philosophy forthe 21^st century. Present day fashion designers tie up themselveswith the vision of electrical and electronic engineers, material scientists,textile engineers, chemical engineers, IT professionals etc. The world market 1for smart fabrics and interactive textiles (SFITs) has exceeded US$640 mn bythe end of 2008 against the projected figure of US$485 mn.

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About the Author

The author holds M.Tech in Textile and is Reader and Head OfDepartment (Fashion Technology) in College of Engineering & Technology, Bhubaneswar (Orissa).

Originallypublished in The Stitch Times, April 2009