“Grandeur” is what defines designer Suneet Varma’s collection during fashion weeks as he is someone who believes in not just focusing on showing the best of designs on the runway but also adding magnificence through décor. However, with the first digital edition of India Couture Week where physical presence is going to take a miss, the designer promises to add new meanings to his showcasing without compromising on his brand ideologies.
“I had to take a very interesting call because I love massive sets with structures of swans, pigeons, peacocks, and palaces. (For ICW) I had to sit with the influencer and understand how you can not distract your brand from all of that. I still thought let me go to Umaid Bhawan ( a palace in Jaipur) and shoot there but then I said why not I clean that slate and rethink,” Varma told Opoyi while describing the beautiful design that he has created for the digital edition of India Couture Week (ICW) that will start from September 18.
“I built a very beautiful grey sphere, a seamless room and in that I made my girl walk, wander up and down. Also, there is some interesting drama with lighting. When I looked at the edited video, I found that it was far better than what I can see from the naked eye. There is something about lighting, video, and sharpness that makes it so much more appealing and beautiful that my naked eye cannot capture that beauty,” he added.
The fashion week is going digital as a step to combat to spread of COVID-19 in the country. The majority of fashion weeks around the globe took the digital route for the safety of the individual.
Despite Coronavirus impacting the physical aspect of the fashion events, it has not affected the “spirit” of the designer.
He said, “Everyone was saying that are you going to do post COVID-19 or post-trauma collection. I am not going to let COVID-19 beat my spirit and I decided to ignore it and call it a ‘Timeless by Suneet Varma’”.
Talking about taking the digital route for the majority of fashion events, the designer says that “it’s the need of the hour.”
“It would only be a natural progression at the time of crisis that even fashion and retail will go digital. I wanted to give an example of Burberry. The brand was one of the first and probably the only ones who took on the digital world in 2007 and their company went from a relatively small business to a multibillion-dollar business because they were the first ones to do that. They sent the benchmark for all to go digital to a point.
“So it was only a question of time and unfortunately because of the Coronavirus crisis Indian fashion industry also had to adapt to the digital world so I would say individually everyone has been thinking about it. The very fact that the FDCI took it by its horn and said okay we are going to do that was a welcome step,” he added.
Talking about his own experience of convincing himself to say yes to this, he said, “When you do digital fashion week, it’s something I had to understand because I was so much in theatres. I had to understand that when you do digital fashion week, it’s purely about reaching out to customers who can like something, buy something and yet retain the beauty of the brand.”
Calling himself a tactile person who believed in going and trying things before buying it, Varma says that his belief has changed now.
“…because now I have realized that this might be a reality for the next few years and I don’t feel the need to stop myself from having that pleasure. Also, when you are buying something digitally, you not only buying into the product but also the fantasy of the brand,” said the designer.
