On The Job

Does talent have a chance in fashion where legacies, inheritances and protégés rule?

For our latest careers story in Mint, on How do I get my boss to stop taking credit for my work? I got to speak with textile designer Ritu Kumar. To say she is the prima donna of fashion would be undermining the seriousness of her work, especially her research and chronicling of Indian textiles and the classic way in which she has attired our beauty queens. 

The credit for helping some of these titled Missus (the entire line-up of Miss India, Miss Universe, Miss Asia hopefuls) shed their, sorry to say, tartish outfits, and redressing them in a grander more Indian way, has to go to her. 

But to get to the point of this blog post, her response to my next question on how does a fledgling designer in India ensure that the designer he is attached to or the design company he is working for, does not walk away with the credit for his designs, set me thinking. 

While I completely agreed with the points she made on how fashion internships tend to be for a much longer duration, than say the usual corporate ones or that the creations which emerge during that period have to be joint efforts that cannot be attributed to a single individual or process, I am a bit skeptical about what followed. 

She cited the example of her own company, where her son, Amrish Kumar, launched his own brand in the recent Wills India Fashion Week (WIFW). She added by saying that this was an ideal case scenario where an in-house designer had developed the stature of having his own independent, signature stamp while being part of the design house - a trend that was still nascent in India. 

I have no problem with an inheritance or legacy being passed on from one celebrity icon to a chosen member of the next generation. Surely if Delfina Delettrez Fendi, the fourth generation of the Fendi dynasty and Donatella Versace's 25-year-old niece Francesca can make an entry into the world of fashion, why not Ritu's son Amrish. 

But to laud the new designer on the block, in this case Amrish Kumar, might be a wee bit premature. Let me say it straight – I have not seen his work and even if I do, I am no fashion critic, but simple logic tells me that unless a born prodigy, you have to go through the paces before you gain mastery that can place you on top of the pile. Also being born virtually into the trade definitely gives you a lead which any intern in the company would find hard to match.

   
 
And when we are talking of an industry which has for years tried to professionalize its act and not quite succeeded, the bias or inequity can only be more pronounced.  On a lighter note, inspite of getting CII and Ficci to take up their cause and give them a legit platform, the fashion industry has not been able to stem the in-fighting, gossip mongering and slanging matches that are slowly acquiring the look and feel of a comic strip.

I haven't seen Madhur Bhandarkar's Fashion yet, but there is a scene, I am told, where a leading designer 'sources' his creation from Bangkok and forgets to yank off the label, wanting to pass it off as his own piece of work. What could be a more telling comment on talent that relies on such inspirational forces!

A piece of advice (unsolicited): If the corporate world can have management gurus propound theories on how to run family enterprises, I would think the fashion industry needs it even more so. Their Page 3 grabbing tactics and mudslinging may make for bad copy (and high readership) but certainly not good fashion. The ball as always is in the user’s court. Let the buyers cast their ballot in favour of those who are truly worthy – be they scions of well known designers or powerhouses of talent, in their own right.