Report from Designyatra in Mumbai, Day #3
Design and Fashion dialogues
On the 3rd day of the Designyatra conference, a white room with a minimalistic array of white cubist chairs forms the setting for a debate on future collaboration between fashion and design professionals from India and The Netherlands. The meeting is chaired by Preeti Vyas (white sari, black hair), Chief Creative Officer of Vyas Giannetti Creative (VGC), and Liesbeth in 't Hout (black suit, white hair), director of the Amsterdam Fashion Institute (AMFI).
Starting off the debate, Hridaysh Deshpande of Elephant design, after an impressive list of facts and figures, stresses the need for Indian government and industry to recognize the social and economic relevance of design, and to perceive it as strategy and innovation. Jos Oberdorf of npk design has experience in positioning design as a business tool. "That and the knowledge of process is what we have to offer our Indian partner Elephant design. There's nothing about form and style we can teach them." Elephant and npk have started off their partnership by collaborating on a project that brings together the craftsmanship of the Tambat copper workers in Pune with high-tech laser technology, in an experiment in mass customization. Both are convinced that the future lies in combining the small scale with the large scale.
Preeti Vyas concurs: her company VGC has just finished a collaboration with Dutch design company Flex, creating new products from recycled water bottles, which in India never get thrown away. All above-mentioned collaborations originated earlier this year at the Pune Design Festival, where BNO and Kyoorius co-ordinated the signing of MoU’s for partnerships between Indian and Dutch design offices, in the presence of Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade Frank Heemskerk.
Now to fashion. David Abraham of Abraham & Takore explains that in the past fifteen years, roughly since the establishment of the NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology) in Mumbai, fashion in India has moved from embroidery for tourists to high level couture for a steadliy expanding home market. This market is energized by the demand from the burgeoning Indian middle class for wedding trousseaus. Because of this home market, instead of moving towards a global style, Indian fashion is reinventing the sari and salwar kameez for present-day use. Fashion design has become an extremely popular occupation in India and the demand for craft has risen, raising the level of skills while providing employment for craft communities. Meanwhile, Indian fashion designer Manish Arora is now sucessfully presenting his collections on Paris catwalks.
Earlier this year, Manish Arora wowed the audience at the Arnhem Fashion Biennale. And in november 2008, as part of a collaboration between NIFT and AMFI, Manish spent a week working with Amsterdam students, and young Dutch designer Mada van Gaans worked with students in Mumbai. Based on this experience, AMFI director Liesbeth in 't Hout is eager to continue the collaboration. "It was wonderful to see how readily students and teachers from both sides collaborated. Surprisingly enough, both collections of rainwear showed a lot of similarities".
David Abraham supports the idea of collaboration in education, stating that there is a huge space for dialogue and interchange. Indian fashion education can learn from the Dutch way: calvinistic and conceptual, structured and systematic. While India can offer young Dutch designers a laboratory with high-level craft skills at competitive prices, and teach them some serious recycling skills at the same time.
Mariette Hoitink of HTNK agrees that these collaborations can be inspiring. She has twenty years of experience in working with Indian manufacturers and has invited one of her closest collaborators, Mr P. Parthasarathi of Tubeknit Fashions, to join the debate. Mr P., as he is internationally known, explains that in India, skill sets for large and small volumes survive together. He works for Netherland-based Kyuichi and Solidaridad, raising organic cotton and making sustainable products for new-born babies. Hoitink goes on to present the Red Light Fashion project she initiatied, in which 16 Dutch fashion talents spend two years being mentored towards professional entrepreneurship in an old factory in the middle of Amsterdam's red light district, at the same time showing how fashion can play a role in urban redevelopment. Both Hoitink and Oberdorf see possibilities in establishing 'designer-in-residence' places in India and the Netherlands.
Chair Preeti Vyas concludes the afternoon by describing collaboration as a means of bringing to fruition inner potential on both sides, through looking for mutual necessities. She promises to bring points from the debate to the next meeting of the newly established Indian Design Council, of which she is a member.
Masculinity, group work and uncertainty avoidance
"Indian designers take time to argue all the ins and outs of a problem. Dutch are more eager to structure and conclude." concludes Frits Lintmeijer after a series of vivid 'Intercultural workshops' at Designyatra. Twenty Indian and Dutch professionals tackled imaginairy problems with brothers and boats, made a mood-board and designed a landmark to discover and understand cultural differences, with the ultimate goal to improve mutual business. What differences did we see in the approach to solve a problem, was the main question each time.
Willem Woudenberg, of Edenspiekermann, who have a partnership with Indian design agency Eureka Moment, observed that the Indian participants never stopped bringing in new solutions, even during the final presentations. Whereas the Dutch tended to take the lead in structuring the problem and bringing the input to a conclusion. This brought up questions about formal and informal leadership, individualism versus groupwork and long term versus short term focus. The energetic atmosphere was fueled by the young Indian women who were very active in the discussions, which also brought up the topic of gender in the design business.
Hofstede's model of five cultural dimensions improved the understanding of the role of cultural differences and how they work out between the two countries. We are more equal on uncertainty avoidance and differ most on masculinity and individualism.
Matchmaking between Indian and Dutch agencies
Meanwhile, what was going on behind the closed doors where the Dutch Design Delegation, consisting of 14 Dutch agencies, held their matchmaking sessions? Indian professionals attending the matchmaking were extremely well prepared. Sometimes, right after the exchange of names and business cards, conversations turned so quickly to specific and matter-of-fact questioning that it left the Dutch speechless. Communication was done in English, though parties soon realised the shared language lies in drawing. A side effect of the matchmaking sessions was that Dutch parties who were already doing or aiming to do business in India, found each other. Business cards were exchanged so as not to invent the wheel twice.
npk design director Jos Oberdorf warns: "The Dutch have to watch their step and be prepared lest they are overtaken. What do we have to offer India that can compete with the British and the Danes? We need to find win-win situations where both the Indian and Dutch side can benefit, and then just get to work."
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- Watch the Dutch Profiles online
- View the pics by DutchDFA reporter Ingeborg
[reported by Christine de Baan and Ingeborg van Lieshout]
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