FASHION FINANCE
Indian fashion nets Rs 70 cr

while the india fashion week attracted all the attention, hard core business deals in fashion were taking place at a garment fair at nse ground,goregaon, between august 9 and 11. about 150-odd participants from major fashion brands and export firms did roaring business at the 41st cmai garment fair. "we had more than 4000 participants coming on each day at our fair.5000 retailers have turned up for this year's fair," says dinesh singhal, treasurer of the clothes manufacturers association of india. no, there were no media people, no hot celebrities and no pr agents! but you could see the hall packed with sellers and buyers, doing some serious business. "each of our participants easily did business worth rs 25 lakhs. also, this was the first time that we had brands like raymond's, tamarind, bombay dyeing and other big brands," adds singhal. cmai is the oldest and most representative association of garment manufacturers, exporters and retailers in india, with a membership of over 2,500. cmai was primarily responsible for the setting up of the apparel export promotion council (aepc) in mumbai, delhi, chennai, bangalore and kolkata, way back in 1978, for regulating the promotion of exports of readymade garments from india to various countries in the world. there were even fashion shows held at the fair. this year designers manish malhotra, araiya and payal singhal displayed their collections, modelled by aseem merchant, aryan vaid, craig scott, and others." i was hogged by buyers the minute the fashion shows were over especially the childrens show" says elric d'souza the choreogrpaher and incharge of the fashion shows.