The ever growing number of fashion weeks in India rises glamorously with the announcement of the first season of Rajasthan Fashion Week, to be held from 24th to 26th May, 2012 in Jaipur.

The pre-view of the fashion week was recently organized in New Delhi with the participating designers Rahul & Gunjan, Pam Mehta, Sulakshana Monga and Nitya Bajaj giving a peep into their collections. The designs on display were mainly ethnic in vibrant hues giving an idea that the upcoming week will bring India and its colors on the ramp.

The 3-day fashion extravaganza promising to be high on talent and glamour quotient will bring together as many as 24 renowned national and International designers, and 50 models. The presence of International designer Julia Bruchwitz, known for her JZ Couture brand will be the highlight of the event.

The fashion week would also bring forward various brands or houses to display their latest collections on runway.

In efforts galore to make wool the most modish fabric of tomorrow, the Australian Wool Industry now launches its much venerated International Woolmark Prize after a slumber of quite a few decades.

The prize that is credited to launch the careers of Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent in 1955, where the former won in the coats category and latter for his dresses, and embarked upon their gilded journeys, is now all set to hunt talent through regional design contests in India, Australia, China, Italy, UK and France. The designers have to submit the sketches of a six-piece merino wool capsule collection and a fully created outfit.

The international finalists will get a chance to showcase at an exclusive fashion show and their collections will be sold at Harvey Nichols in UK, Lane Crawford in China and Bergdorf Goodman in US.

The well received light and comfortable Kei Jacket from the house of Canali with its clean cut styling and perfect lines gets a rehash this Spring Summer; keeping its sophisticated formal-cum-sporty essence alive while tweaking it here and there.

In the latest version, the Kei Jacket takes on the semblance of a shirt, from which it draws both comfort and wearability. The construction follows the roundness of the shoulders and it is shorter than traditional jackets. The use of natural and light fabrics such as wool, silk and linen contribute to its lightness, while their combination give to the summer version of the Kei jacket refinement and elegance, enhancing the skillful tailor-made construction.

The under collar is in white linen-cotton as well as the internal profile of the pocket and the jacket has been enriched with a crest in the under collar.

The sight of people working on construction sites, or say simply walking down the streets bare feet is quite common in India. And the reason is obvious; they can’t afford and footwear industry is underdeveloped enough to not deliver the low priced products.

Well, apart from China’s rapidly rising share in the footwear market across the world, sized up at 78%, further increasing the problems of the Indian industry (owning mere 1.5 % of global market) is a shocker in the form of the biased budget, levying hefty taxes.

In light of issues jeopardizing the growth of the industry, All India Footwear Manufacturers & Retailers Association held a meet lately urging government to stop the step brotherly treatment to the industry and bring it at par with the readymade garment industry. The increase in the excise duty from 6.18% to 8.03%, as well as the increase of service tax by 2% and its adverse effects on the industry in the near future was flayed by the speakers in same voice, calling it a step which will lead to natural death of the industry.

Raising his concern about the issue, AmritGulati, President, Footwear Wholesalers Association, said, “The government only knows the Raymonds, the Reliances and the Tatas, so they make reforms for them. They will give relief for a tie manufacturerwhich is a luxury item, but they will not give relief to the footwear industry, and footwear is a necessity. Instead of removing excise duty onfootwear, government is increasing it. The people who suffer because of this are the consumers and the manufacturers. The real manufacturers are the karigars. Footwear will now cost more. We have to depend on imported materialsand with the rupee rate against dollar fluctuating on a day-to-day basis import is also not the best of options. Earlier, we fought for VAT but thegovernment said that VAT will be at 12.5 percent.”

A separate session with the AIFMRA members as panellists discussed the various issues dogging the footwear industry, the most critical being the disparity of taxes. The issues like poor production, lack of raw materials and unfavorable taxation hampering the growth of the industry came to the fore.

 Highlighting one such crucial point is Adnan Sheikh, Director – Citywalk who urged the footwear trade community to share information. He said, “Knowledge cannot be inherited, it comes with time and experience. When we talk of globalization, we saw how liberalization triggered exponential growth. In India we believe that not sharing information is the right way to go ahead. However, if information is exchanged in certain areas such as taxation, excise duties, recent trends, R&D, it will benefit the entire industry. We all wish to know how we can bring quality to our manufacturing methods, improve our selling skills and better our brand and customer satisfaction.”