– India’s Most Admired Fashion Brands, Retailers & Design Concepts Felicitated at Stylish Awards Night
– IFA Fashion Forward League Launched –
Benetton’s expertise at fashion creation and store design, its outstanding business performance in terms of customer connect, market expansion, trading density and YOY same-store sales growth saw three of the IFA titles bestowed upon the brand at the spectacular 14th Images Fashion Awards (IFA) ceremony. United Colors of Benetton was awarded the Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year trophies in the Menswear and Kidswear categories. In addition, the 100% Benetton concept emerged as the Most Admired Design Concept across all categories.
In the womenswear category, while in westerns Vero Moda received the honour, which a visibly pleased Vineet Gautam, CEO, Bestseller accepted, Biba made it in the Indianwear category, with the trophy being received by Siddharth Bindra, Managing Director, Biba.
Reliance Trends was adjudged the IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the year: Private Label, and Lifestyle took the honours in the Large Format category. Sin was adjudged the Most Admired Brand Launch of the Year.
“Fashion in India has come of age and IMAGES Fashion Awards recognises the continuing evolution of the industry’s most dynamic and forward-looking brands every year. This year, we also announced the launch of a unique initiative to recognise the country’s most progressive regional and local fashion retailers through the IFA Fashion Forward League. IFA is designed to not just recognise achievers, but also to inspire future leaders of the business,” said Amitabh Taneja, Chief Convenor, IMAGES Fashion Awards.
IMAGES Fashion Awards 2014 recognised outstanding achievers in the business of fashion in India for their performance in the calendar year 2013. Held at the Bombay Exhibition Centre in Goregaon, Mumbai, the ceremony to honour the achievements of India’s leading fashion brands and retailers kicked-off with the high voltage entertainment sequence by “All Starr Jamm”, a multi-artist jamming session with Shibani Kashyap, Shalmali Kholgade, Aditya Narayan and Swaroop Khan. Show emcees – Tunvey Gogia and singer and actor Manasi Scott, who also rocked the show with her rendition of ‘Skyfall’ – were ably complemented by Fictitious Group, which raised the evening’s entertainment pitch with a high-energy dance performance featuring the dynamic Skechers brand.
Awardees at the 14th ANNUAL IMAGES FASHION AWARDS:
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Menswear – United Colors of Benetton
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Womens Westernwear – Vero Moda
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Kidswear – United Colors of Benetton
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Jeans & Casualwear – Tommy Hilfiger
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Active Sportswear – Puma
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: Women’s Indianwear – BIBA
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the year: New Launch – Sin
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the year: Private Label – Reliance Trends
IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the year: National Large Format Chain – Lifestyle & Reliance Trends
The biggest excitement at IFA this year was the announcement of awards for ‘Most Admired Design Concepts’ as a salute to the design, innovation and product development teams who work behind the scenes at India’s fashion companies to produce truly cutting-edge fashion for consumers. NINE trophies under this category were presented to the talented teams responsible for developing unique concepts with an effective communication and retail strategy.
1) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Outstanding Concepts across all categories
UCB – 100% Benetton – for Consistency in Concept Execution & Delivering Exceptional Business Results
2) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Jeanswear Women
Levi’s – Revel – for Blending Technology & Styling to Deliver Exceptional Fashion, Comfort & Fit for Women
3) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Jeanswear Men
Peter England – Oxygeans – for Water Saving, Stain Resistant & Easy Wash Jeans
4) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Menswear
Park Avenue – Zero Gravity – for Blending Technology & Styling to Deliver Exceptional Fashion, Comfort & Fit for Men
5) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Menswear
Indigo Nation – Subject to Change – for Attitude Concept Implementation across four genres – Work, Casual, Club & Street.
6) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Womenswear Indian
Shoppers Stop – Haute Carry – for A sassy fusion look for a brazen diva!
7) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Womenswear Western
Rig Ladies – Blooming Backwoods – for Oriental fashion inspired from different shades of nature to create a softer and sophisticated adventure clothing
8) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Kidswear
Pink & Blue – Red, Blue, White – for Concept Execution & Delivering Exceptional Business Results
9) Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Wonderwear
Arrow – Superluxe – for The Stitch less Shirt
Another path-breaking initiative announced at IFA this year was The Fashion Forward League. The league, which will eventually have 100 of India’s most dynamic and progressive fashion retailers, franchisees & distributors across four regions saw 23 inductions on this night. They were:
All That Jazz, Bhubaneswar
Basics, Delhi
Big G, Goa
Biglife RW, Delhi
Blue Club, Rajkot
Deepam Silk Retail, Bengaluru
Ethix Clothing, Pune
Jade Blue, Ahmedabad
Kalamandir, Hyderabad
Kapsons, Chandigarh
Kohli Brothers, Lucknow
MD Retail LLP, Bengaluru
My Kingdom, Cochin
Neerus, Hyderabad
No Exit, Amritsar
Options, Mumbai
Pakiza, Indore, and
PN Rao, Bengaluru
Samarth Lifestyle, Jaipur
Shree Shivam, Raipur
Snowhite, Delhi
Sohum Shoppe, Guwahati
SSIPL, Delhi
The 14th IFA also saw two of India’s top fashion companies – Reliance Trends and Birla Cellulose – honouring excellence in partnership for delivering value to customers.
Seven Reliance Trends Performance Awards were presented by Akhilesh Prasad, CEO, Reliance Trends, Vineet Nair CMO, Deepak Sonthala, Business Head, and Team. The awardees were:
Best Performing Partner – Menswear: Oxemberg
Best Performing Partner – Womenswear: Deal
Best Performing Partner – Kidswear: 612 Ivy League
Best Performing Partner – Operational Excellence: 109F
Best Performing Partner – Strategic Partnership: Future LifeStyle Fashions Ltd.
Best Performing Partner – Emerging Brand: Crimsoune Club
Best Performing Partner – Emerging Brand (Non-Apparel): Portico
The Birla Cellulose Excellence Awards were presented to five enterprises who symbolize optimal value creation in the yarn to fashion creation business, by Manohar Samuel, President, Birla Cellulose and his team. The winners and categories were Suditi for VSF Knitting (domestic), Mercury for VSF Knitting (international), – Siyarams for Suiting Fabric Manufacturer, Global Desi for Fashion Retailing, and BRFL for Women’s Fabric Manufacturer.
The IMAGES Fashion Awards (IFA) are India’s highest honour for recognizing excellence the business of fashion. Now in their 14th year, the IFAs recognize most admired fashion brands, retailers and concepts. The IFAs are presented at the grand finale ceremony of the two day India Fashion Forum, the largest gathering of the brightest minds, products and concepts in fashion. This annual gathering of the fashion industry is the place where fashion leaders congregate to drive the future of Fashion in India. Every year at the IFF new ideas, concepts, and equations are created; and old relationships are renewed.
The IMAGES Fashion Awards Process
The IFA nomination categories and entry details are announced through the IFF & Infashion website, Magazine ads, a personalized electronic campaign and tele-calling to prospective nominees in all proposed categories. A prelim jury identifies the best performers among brands & retailers. The jury includes top malls, and top multi brand fashion retailers and department stores which are invited to recommend best performing brands. Besides these top fashion brands are invited to recommend best performing fashion retailers and department stores.
Nomination forms are then checked for eligibility, completeness and data correctness. The IFA team of analysts then makes a presentation to the IFA jury – with analysis of performance metrics such as growth in top line sales and retail presence, sales per square foot, average transaction values and profitability. A special note is prepared on innovativeness, marketing effectiveness, supplier relations and employee practices. Then the IFA jury – comprising of distinguished personalities in the field of research and consulting with thorough insights in to the business of fashion – goes through the presentation and gives scores based on their own understanding of the nominees.
The IMAGES Fashion Awards Jury
The jury comprised some prominent names from the retail academics, support and market research companies in India. Jury Members included: Professor Ravi Dhar of Yale University, Anuj Puri, Chairman and country head, Jones Lang LaSalle, Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & managing director, CB Richard Ellis, Abhishek Malhotra, Partner, Booz & Company, and Amitabh Taneja, Chief Convenor, Images Fashion awards.
IFA Design Concept Awards
The High Profile Jury for the IFA Design Concept Awards included India’s two premier design institutes, National Institute of Design (NID) and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and the world’s top trends authorities – WGSN, Nelly Rodi and Carlin.
IFA Fashion Forward League
Together with India’s top 20 fashion companies, including Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, Arvind Brands, Raymond Apparel and 30 leading brands, IMAGES shortlisted India’s most progressive retailers, franchisees & distributors for induction to IFA Fashion Forward League at IFF 2014.
