Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd led the honorees’ list of outstanding achievers in Indian fashion retailing at the 17th Annual IMAGES Fashion Awards (IFA), India’s biggest honours for fashion companies and professionals, in Mumbai on the evening of April 13, 2017.
With five trophies in as many categories (for Indigo Nation, Central, Brand Factory, Cover Story and Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd), the company dominated the spectacular ceremony, which witnessed United Colors of Benetton (UCB) and womenswear brand W receiving multiple trophies as well.
The IFA 2017 ceremony began with honouring five of South India’s outstanding retailing icons in a special segment. Those felicitated included Dilip Kapur, President, Hidesign; G Rajendran, Founder, GRT Jewellers, Manohar Chatlani, CEO & MD, Favourite Shop and SOCH Studio; S Ramesh Poty, MD, Pothys and Padma Shri Dr. Nalli Kuppuswami Chetti, Chairman, Nalli Group.
The awards evening, which was also the grand finale of the 17th edition of India Fashion Forum (IFF), was attended by over 600 of India’s most prominent organisational, business and category heads from the country’s leading fashion and retail companies. Emceed by popular anchor Neha Sareen and stand-up comedian and actor Ash Chandler, the ceremony recognised the achievements of outstanding fashion brands and retailers across 25 unique categories.
Future Lifestyle Fashions was adjudged as IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Company of the year, while its retail format Cover Story, which was launched in 2016, was conferred with the title of IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: New Launch. Indigo Nation was adjudged as IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Men’s Westernwear, while IMAGES Most Admired Multi-Brand Fashion Retailer of the Year: Marketing & Promotions went to ‘Free Shopping Weekend’ by Brand Factory, and IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Theme Store went to Central in “High Definition”.
UCB walked away with the trophy for IMAGES Most Admired Solo-brand Fashion Retailer of the Year: Marketing & Promotions for its marketing campaigns ‘United by Don’t’, ‘United by Play’ and ‘United by Her’. The fashion retailer was also awarded the trophy for IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Store VM for its outstanding visual merchandising concept Cubes of the “On Canvas”.
W received the trophies for IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Women’s Indianwear and IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Design Concept of the year for its “PantRobes” innovation.
The IFA 2017 ceremony included 17 Business Awards (including 5 Fashion/Design Concept Awards), 5 Shopping Centres’ Choice Awards, 2 IMAGES Excellence Awards and one Special Mention Award for Best Presentation: Mall-Retailer Collaboration. Price Waterhouse and Company was the Process Approver for IFA 2017.
IFA 2017 AWARDEES
Business Awards
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Men’s Westernwear: Indigo Nation
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Women’s Westernwear: ONLY
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Kidswear: 612 League
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Jeans & Casualwear: Tommy Hilfiger
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Men’s Innerwear: Calvin Klein
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: New Launch: Cover Story
- IMAGES Most Admired Affordable Fashion Retailer of the Year: Pantaloons
- IMAGES Most Admired Multi-Brand Fashion Retailer of the Year: Marketing & Promotions: ‘Free Shopping Weekend’ by Brand Factory
- IMAGES Most Admired Solo-brand Fashion Retailer of the Year: Marketing & Promotions: ‘United by Don’t’, ‘United by Play’ and ‘United by Her’ by United Colors of Benetton
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the Year: Customer Experience: Shoppers Stop
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the Year: Large Format Store Chain: Max Fashion
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Company of the year: Future Lifestyle Fashions Ltd
Fashion/Design Concept Awards
- IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Flagship Store (Indian Origin): Wills Lifestyle Flagship Store, Connaught Place, New Delhi, Global Desi Flagship Store, Khar, Linking Road, Mumbai, Raymond Flagship Store, Khar, Linking Road, Mumbai, AND Flagship Store, DLF Mall of India
- IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Flagship Store (Foreign Origin): Pepe Jeans London Flagship Store, Linking Road, Santacruz, Mumbai; Puma Flagship Stores, South Extension & Select Citywalk
- IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Theme Store: Central in “High Definition”
- IMAGES Most Admired Design Concept of the year: Store VM: Cubes of the “On Canvas” by United Colors of Benetton
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Design Concept of the year: “PantRobes” by W
Shopping Centres’ Choice Awards
- IMAGES Most Desirable Fashion Retailer of the Year: H&M
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Retailer of the Year: Pan-India Performance: Lifestyle
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Active Sportswear: adidas
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Women’s Indianwear: W
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Men’s Indianwear: Manyavar
IMAGES Excellence Awards
- IMAGES Most Influential Shoes & Accessories Retail Professional of the Year: Rajesh Kadam, COO, Inc.5 Shoes Pvt Ltd
- IMAGES Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year: Rising Star: Callino and Neeru’s
Special Mention Award
Best Presentation: Mall-Retailer Collaboration: SOCH and Forum Mall, Bengaluru
Nomination, Selection Process & Jury Members
Prospective nominees are required to submit nominations with required fee, details and supporting material. Nomination forms are checked by the IFA audit team for eligibility, completeness and data correctness. Nominees may be asked to rectify mistakes, if found any, and also provide supporting documents wherever required.
IFA team of analysts then make a presentation for 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.
The IFA jury, which comprises distinguished personalities in the field of research and consulting, with vast experience and thorough insights in to the business of fashion, then goes through the presentation and gives scores based on their assessment of the nominees. The results of industry recommendations and jury score ultimately decides the final nominees. Jury and the organisers have the right to decide on the final categories to be awarded, renaming the titles and moving nominations to the most appropriate categories – whenever required.
The Jurors for the IFA 2017 Business Awards were Abheek Singhi, senior partner and director, The Boston Consulting Group; Ankur Shiv Bhandari, MD, Asbicon Group; Bijou Kurien, Board Member, L Catterton Asia; Debashish Mukherjee, Partner, AT Kearney; Harish Bijoor, Founder, Harish Bijoor Consults; Hemant Mehta, Kantar-IMRB; Lara Balsara Vajifdar, ED, Madison World; Piyush Kumar Sinha, IIM Ahmedabad; Ravi Dhar, Yale School of Management and Amitabh Taneja, CMD, IMAGES Group.
Jurors for the Fashion/ Design Concepts included Anupreet Bhui, Senior Editor – Global Street Style, WGSN; Lara Balsara Vajifdar, ED, Madison World; Fashion designers Manoviraj Khosla, Rohit Bal, Ritu Beri; Mitchell Kass Founder & Creative Director Trend Council; Sarada G. Muraleedharan (DG, NIFT); Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design and Sunil Sethi, President, FDCI.
