LAKMÉ FASHION WEEK ANNOUNCES 6 FINALISTS FOR THE

 LAKMÉ FASHION WEEK ANNOUNCES 6 FINALISTS FOR THE SECOND EDITION OF CIRCULAR CHANGEMAKERS

~ The shortlisted start-ups will pitch their circular business models to an investor panel on Day 2 of Sustainable Fashion Day ~

 The second edition of Circular Changemakers, India’s first investment readiness program for circular fashion start-ups presented by Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) in partnership with Circular Design Challenge -an initiative of Reliance Industries Ltd.’s R | Elan ‘Fashion For Earth’, United Nations Environment Programme and Lakmé Fashion Week- has announced a shortlist of six start-ups.

 

This season, the platform received over 45 applications from innovators across fibre/yarn, alternative materials, packaging, rental & reuse business models, traceability & supply chain solutions, wastewater treatment and circular inclusive businesses. Six start-ups have been chosen to make pitches to an esteemed panel after having gone through a rigorous online enterprise bootcamp to fine tune their business models, financial models, and presentations.

The finalists – Infinichains, BigThinx, Phabio, Twirl Store, Desi Hangover, Paiwand Studio will pitch their businesses to the eminent jury on 22^nd October, Day 2 of Sustainable Fashion Day of Lakmé Fashion Week. Each of these enterprises work at different segments of the value chain in an effort of making fashion truly circular.

InfiniChains® is a leading Blockchain based technology company that help brands deeply engage with their users and build lasting trust through transparency. They are building a pilot with Pratibha Syntex for the application of blockchain in supply chain transparency in the apparel & textile industry.

 

Phabio creates PHA (Polyhydroxyalkanoates) pellets from organic waste and/or by-products. They have created a sustainable loop that create plastics which comes from nature and goes back to nature. Phabio claims to be on-course to become the first PHA producing facility in India and to bring the manufacturing cost of pellets down to the price of traditional polymers.

 

Twirl.store has a mission to reduce cloth wastage, ensure women empowerment, conserve natural resources, and meet the clothing needs of the poor. Twirl.store is perhaps the only Indian platform which offers a distinct buy-back policy for all clothing bought from the store.

 

Desi Hangover’s vision is to be a global sustainable, conscious fashion brand that elevates underserved communities using the forces of capitalism for good. Their mission is to develop rural craft clusters through social innovation, ensuring a secure and sustainable livelihood for artisan communities in India.

Paiwand’s mission is to design for circularity and longevity by producing authentic up-cycled fabric and apparel by creating employment opportunities for handloom weavers, artisans, and unskilled/semiskilled workers. Within 20 months Paiwand has up cycled 700 kgs of waste from such designers and is still left with 2000 kgs of waste to add value to. Their mission is to repurpose 40,000 kgs of textile waste by 2023.

   

Bigthinx is an AI company operating in the $2.5 trillion fashion and retail industry, offering 3D mobile body scanning, clothing size predictions, virtual avatars, digital clothing, and virtual fashion shows, to address problems of clothing fit and look, e-commerce returns, and human body data. These avatars can be used to visualize clothing look and fit, to solve an additional 30% of the reason for clothing returns.

 

The investor & strategic partner panel comprises of experts from across fields namely, Ms Disha Gandhi, Associate Director, Aavishkaar Capital, Ms. Marieke Lenders, Head - Reweave Program, Enviu, Mr. Vineet Gautam, CEO, Bestseller India and Ms. Pinar Ademoglu, Investment Director, Sagana Capital.

 

Darshana Gajare, Lead Sustainable Fashion at IMG Reliance, said, “This year we have a very promising cohort of enterprises doing some incredible work across the value chain. Our vision for the Circular Changemakers platform is to enable strategic partnerships, through the online bootcamp curated by CAIF, we could already see great synergies for these startups to work together. We are eager to see how the entrepreneurs pitch during the final showcase at Lakmé Fashion Week.”

 

Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap said: "We are very pleased with the quality of enterprises in our cohort for the second edition of the Circular Changemakers Program based on their impressive work across the textile & apparel value chain. This program is a great example of a platform that can provide both the much-needed investment support as well as facilitate strategic collaborations for innovators with circular solutions to help them scale. The final showcase at the Lakmé Fashion Week will provide tremendous visibility to our promising enterprises and I believe will result in facilitating the required support.”

 

The shortlisted changemakers underwent a rigorous bootcamp by CAIF which focused on three modules, Capital Raising, Business & Financial Modelling and Investor Pitch Preparation, which were delivered by industry experts. Changemakers will get the opportunity to acquire strategic investments and partnerships through their pitch to a group of potential strategic investors from reputed impact investment funds.

 

 

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THE CURTAIN RAISER

THE CURTAIN RAISE

The leader of fashion innovation, Lakmé Fashion Week is back with a digital-first, season-fluid, virtual avatar. Launching the first-ever interactive fashion destination in India, Lakmé Fashion Week is set to put forth a promising line-up of shows, designers, webinars, and ideas to be streamed online from 21st – 25th October 2020.

Open to one and all, the forthcoming season will host an amalgamation of fresh, emerging talent and the biggest and most established names in the fashion industry that will set an unparalleled benchmark in innovations, sustainability, and creativity. Designers like Pankaj and Nidhi, Kunal Rawal, Amit Aggarwal, Sanjay Garg, Aneeth Arora, JADE, Anushree Reddy, Jayanti Reddy, Gaurang, Disha Patil, Hemang Agrawal among many others will present a combination of breathtaking collection shows and fashion films this season.

Moreover, this season’s interactive virtual venue has been specially designed to host state of the art curated shows with top technology, e-commerce, engaging digital content and cyber networking.

Since its inception, Lakmé Fashion Week has strived to nurture and promote young talent, taken the lead on the digital front and has been at the helm of initiating conversations on beauty and inclusivity. This season too, the platform will showcase innovations as it embarks on a digital journey with several new, disruptive formats of showcases using advanced technology.

 LOOKING THROUGH THE LENS | HIGHLIGHTS OF LAKMÉ FASHION WEEK 2020:

VIRTUAL HUB

Going digital this time, Lakmé Fashion Week will reside as an online hub with customised elements for every type of audience tuning in. Audiences can expect to see a showcase area called the ‘runway’ for all designer showcases, fashion film and webinars; a library to access show content ranging from action behind-the-scenes to snippets of shows; a media conference area that exclusively will give Indian and international media direct access to interact with designers and celebrities; as well as an interactive lounge by Lakmé that will allow viewers to engage with its latest beauty collection. Audiences will also enjoy a ‘See Now, Buy Now’ feature that will allow viewers to directly connect with the designer and purchase an outfit immediately after the show.

VIRTUAL SHOWROOM

Lakmé Fashion Week will be launching the ‘Virtual Showroom’ – a first of its kind concept in India with an aim to support designers, artisans, and the business of fashion. The Virtual Showroom will be a marketplace platform for designers and artisans to showcase their past and current collections to consumers, enabling B2C sales for inventories that have been stuck due to the pandemic. It will also serve more importantly, as a B2B platform for designers to showcase their future collections and directly get orders from buyers of multi-designer stores across the world.

INIFD PRESENTS GEN NEXT SHOW

Lakmé Fashion Week takes forward its pursuit to recognize new and emerging talent through home-grown platforms like the GenNext programme that will give three new designers the chance to showcase their creations this season. GenNext, for the first time, will be showcasing a fully sustainable collection on day 1 of Lakmé Fashion Week as ‘Sustainable Fashion Day’ is going to be celebrated on both day 1 & 2 this season.

Kickstarting the five-day virtual fashion extravaganza, the three winning labels Dhātu Design Studio by Anmol Sharma, ­­ MISHÉ by Bhumika & Minakshi Ahluwalia and THE LOOM ART by Aarushi Kilawat will make their debut at Lakmé Fashion Week presented by INIFD.

Additionally, this season LFW has announced several initiatives to support the GenNext alumni as well. The platform will be providing free stall space to all GenNext designers in the LFW virtual showroom. These designers will also get the opportunity to be a part of the schedule through a look book format of showcase without any designer fees. The platform will also support the GenNext designers through promotions on the LFW digital handles for the next six-months to help them market their brands.

SUSTAINABLE FASHION DAYS

Sustainable Fashion Day is a property that celebrates the rich heritage of Indian handloom and indigenous craft season after season. Since 2012, Lakmé Fashion Week has spearheaded conversations on preserving and promoting Indian handlooms and textiles, championing sustainable fashion as the fashion of the future.

Every season, the platform takes pride in reviving indigenous crafts and bringing artisans to the fore through strong and powerful initiatives and programmes. This season, Lakmé Fashion Week furthers its commitment to sustainable fashion by dedicating two days to the celebration of the craft. Some of the showcases include

'All About India’ Showcase, a unique collaboration of leading designer labels coming together for a multi-designer showcase to promote craft as the backbone of their design principals. Six designers, namely, Abraham & Thakore, Rajesh Pratap Singh for Satya Paul, Anavila, Suket Dhir, Payal Khandwala & Urvashi Kaur will be presenting key pieces from their collections to spotlight crafts like Ikkat, Block prints, Jamdani, Brocade, Khatwa & Shibori techniques, while also talking about the artisans and the clusters they work with as a tribute to their constant support and dedication to their work.

    Day two will also see six enterprising start-ups chosen through the Circular Changemakers program, India’s first investment readiness program for circular fashion start-ups pitch their sustainable business models to an esteemed investor jury.

    The winner of the Circular Design Challenge –MALAI, will be showcasing their collection this season in collaboration with Reliance’s R|Elan™ ‘Fashion For Earth’, Lakmé Fashion Week and United Nations Environment Programme

    High tech Japanese fiber AsahiKASEI Bemberg™ meets Indian Handlooms with Hemang Agrawal to showcase his sustainable collection – Tattva, representing the harmony between 12 elements of the universe

    Designer Pankaj and Nidhi are set to showcase their breath-taking collection on Sustainable fashion day presented by R|Elan™

    Well-known labels such as Raw Mango, Gaurang, Pero, Kaveri and more are set to showcase environment-friendly creations

  Speaking about the upcoming season, Ashwath Swaminathan, Head of Innovations, Lakmé said, “With the first-ever digital edition, Lakmé Fashion Week will continue to create new experiences for audiences and put the spotlight back on the future of fashion. This year the grand finale too will focus on the future of fashion and the details will be shared soon."

  Sharing his views, Jaspreet Chandok, Head - Lifestyle Businesses, IMG Reliance Ltd said, “Every year at Lakmé Fashion Week, we strive to make it a platform that encourages and elevates talent and creativity. With a digital platform, we will bridge gaps between national and international audiences while continuing to support and nurture the design community. We are glad to present to fashion enthusiasts the first-ever digital edition of the platform with the best of talent gracing the virtual runway.”

Presenting sponsor: NEXA
    
NEXA continues to be the presenting sponsor with LFW for the 7th season. This season, the brand is presenting Kunal Rawal’s designer collection

NEXA is focusing on S-Cross as a part of LFW this season. The show will be aired with the collection on 24th October at 8 PM

Co-Sponsor: TRESemm, Ajio.com

TRESemmé continues to be the official hair styling partner for the season. Amit Aggarwal to present his new collection on 23rd October at 8 PM presented by TRESemmé

Ajio.com will be showcasing their exclusive sneakerhood collection on 25th October at 6 PM showcasing exclusive styles by Ajio.com

Official Partner: R|Elan™   INIFD boAt
National Diamond Council St. Regis

R|Elan™ is an umbrella brand from the house of Reliance Industries Limited, encompassing a range of new-age fabrics. It is a perfect blend of art and smart, with fabrics providing enhanced aesthetics, performance, and comfort. Through R|Elan™, RIL aims to cater to all consumers across all apparel segments – active wear, denim, formal wear, and womenswear. They will be showcasing Pankaj and Nidhi’s collection on 22nd October at 7 PM on the virtual runway.

Second edition of India’s first investment readiness program – circular change makers by CDC & CAIF will allow 6 textile value chain startups to pitch to a panel of investors to seek strategic investments and partnerships

INIFD GenNext:

INIFD will once again be the official knowledge partner and will be providing a platform to three young designers to showcase their collection at LFW under GenNext designer showcase on 21st October at 4 PM
boAt will be the official audio partner at LFW integrating their exclusive boAt Headphones and Speakers with design inspiration by Masaba Gupta. The collaboration will be announced this season through a virtual press conference

Earlier known as the Diamond Producers association, National Diamond Council’s objective is to advance the integrity of the modern diamond jewelry industry and inspire the world of fashion.

St. Regis is the official hotel partner for all shoots being conducted this season at LFW

Showcase Partners: Bemberg™

Lakmé Salon: High tech Japanese fiber AsahiKASEI Bemberg™ meets Indian craftsman Hemang Agrawal to showcase his sustainable collection – Tattva.

Lakmé Salon returns to Lakmé Fashion Week in association with JADE to launch their newest collection on 23rd October 2020.

Digital Partner: Chic Nutrix

Chic Nutrix, a product for women delivers beauty inside out with a touch of science and health inside out.  Whether you are a girl next door or a runway rockstar, a pretty girl with twinkling eyes or a lady with elegance and style, running a corporate empire or queen of your castle, the nutrition supplements fit all.

 

Lakme Fashion Week announces the second edition of circular changemakers

LAKMÉ FASHION WEEK ANNOUNCES THE SECOND EDITION OF CIRCULAR CHANGEMAKERS – INITIATIVE FOR CIRCULAR AND SUSTAINABLE FASHION & TEXTILE ENTERPRISES TO GET ACCESS TO INVESTORS AND STRATEGIC PARTNERS

~Entry for applications open now~

Circular Design Challenge (CDC), an initiative by R Elan’s ‘Fashion For Earth’, Lakmé Fashion Week and UN Environment- India’s first and largest sustainability award in fashion partnered with Intellecap’s Circular Apparel Innovation Factory (CAIF) to launch a program ‘Circular Changemakers’ last year.  

The initiative invited start-ups to participate and showcased innovations and solutions for a circular economy across the textile and apparel value chain. After a successful first edition, the program is set to return to Lakmé Fashion Week 2020. CAIF is an industry-led platform with the mission to strengthen capabilities and build the ecosystem needed to transition to a circular textile and apparel industry in India

‘Circular Changemakers’ welcomes applications from start-ups across the country, a key criteria is increasing the use of alternative and sustainable inputs and minimizing wastes.

Entries fitting these criteria and looking for investors and strategic partnerships can submit their applications at http://circulardesignchallenge.net/changemakers.php The last date to submit entries is 15^th September 2020.

From the pool of applications, up to 6 start-ups will be chosen to participate in a bootcamp by industry experts. The three-module bootcamp focuses on providing visibility to change-makers in the sustainable and circular fashion space, exposing them to important aspects of ‘Capital Raising’, ‘Business & Financial Modelling’ and ‘Investor Pitch Development’.

Following the bootcamp, enterprises will pitch their value proposition and business model to an esteemed panel of investors on Sustainable Fashion Day at the upcoming edition of Lakmé Fashion Week. They will get the opportunity to receive investments and partnerships through their pitch to a group of potential strategic investors from reputed impact investment funds

Darshana Gajare, Lead Sustainable Fashion at IMG Reliance said, “Circular Design Challenge and Circular Changemakers is our commitment to provide a platform for upcoming brands and start-ups working tirelessly towards making fashion and textiles a cleaner business. The first edition of Circular Changemakers brought to the fore promising start-ups across fibre to technology innovations and gave them access to key industry investors and partners. With Sustainability at the forefront, now more than ever, we’re looking forward to the upcoming edition with CAIF.”

  

Vikas Bali, CEO, Intellecap said: “As a first of its kind investor readiness program designed to surface innovations in the sustainable fashion space, we were excited by the industry’s response to the first edition of Circular Changemakers. At Intellecap and Circular Apparel Innovation Factory, we recognize the need to build the ecosystem and capabilities through such initiatives and heartened to see the cohort from the first edition gaining access to leading accelerator programs like FFG, Target etc and becoming attractive investment avenues for the funders and investors in the ecosystem. Circular Changemakers is an example of Intellecap CAIF's continued commitment to providing such innovators with access to capital, networks and knowledge all through their journey and we are excited to bring the second edition along with IMG Reliance”

Express Avenue presents The Trunk Show The Diwali Edition

Express Avenue presents The Trunk Show - The Diwali Edition,

a unique Fashion and Lifestyle Exhibition

Express Avenue presented the Diwali edition of The Trunk Show, a unique fashion and lifestyle exhibition curated by Sunita Agarwal. The Trunk Show featured a wide range of products including apparel, jewellery, accessories, home décor and delicious healthy snacks. In addition to this, there were activity stalls like a nail art studio, a bangle cart, food stalls to provide shoppers with a fun experience.

For Apparel lovers, there was a huge lineup of clothing brands like Sarangi, Kaveri, Aquaab, Zari, Shashi & Shika and J'Kriti showcased their breath taking collections whereas jewellery brands like Rudraksha, Wizzowl, Sanaa's Terracotta Jewellery, Artisan by Akansha had their finest collection of intricate designs on display. Well known home decor names from across the country also showcased colourful and quirky diyas and decor ideas for the upcoming Diwali season. .

As part of The Trunk Show, Express Avenue also presented a vintage-themed Fashion Show with Live music. The show showcased stunning outfits from six designers including Lakme Fashion Week Designers Julie Shah and Arvind Ampula.