Adgully Exclusive | Fashion, now, has become a very serious business: Designer, Krishna Mehta

Krishna Mehta, is one designer who merges Indian feeling with international understanding in her collection. Alongside this one shall see that she uses haze of her heritage and customs along with modern values. The creative director of the brand and label "Krishna Mehta" has been in the industry since long and also has been an active visiting faculty in many fashion institutions. "Krishna Mehta" is one of the fastest growing designer brands in India with over 30 stores all over India, a vibrant organization and fully integrated state-of-the-art manufacturing facility.

In a conversation with Adgully at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2011, Krishna Mehta spoke about her brand and brand associations with LFW and much more.

With 29 years of experience and a successful journey in terms of both, brand life and brand association, Krishna is very satisfied and happy with her association with Lakme Fashion week. She says, "I suppose this is the only democratic body and have always been doing their best. They have always given chances to new and aspiring designers. It is a body which is very fair and just and also a body which gives a platform for talent to perform"

With a strong start with men's wear and Batik shirts, the brand has geared up really fast with her designs and talent. She says, "It has gone a long way from there to modernized garments for women and special garments and then into exports and much more and as you can see now we are well established and well known."

Speaking about the strategies in terms of growth and marketing, she said, "it wasn't a big strategizing thing till five years ago but now it has become a very serious business. You need to put lots of strategies in it and you need to have a strong business plan. We need to know where and how we have to reach." Further elaborating her point, she said, "Now it is really important to seep into B+ and C+ cities because your presence is already there in A and A+ cities. Because of media and exposure, there are a lot of aspirations in those cities with lots of buying power as well; but due to some reasons it is not easy for them to access us." With this plan and map, she plans to take a step forward towards reaching those cities so as they can access their brand.

More and more brand association is not a part of their strategy. She adds, "We first want to strengthen ourselves before we seep into with other brand associations because then we have to change a lot of things that we are and we are not ready for this at this stage."

Expecting 'better than the best' from this season of Lakme fashion Week, she signed off giving a wonderful piece of advice to the new entrants. She says, "Do not give up as it is not going to be a piece of cake. But so what? Who said that is going to be easy to digest a cake but once you know how it tastes it is wonderful."

Krishna Mehta is also a member of the advisory board of Lakme Fashion Week and has been a recipient of many awards including, Fabled Peacock award in 2001 from the Government of Gujarat, the CMAI award in 2004 for The Best Designer in Menswear category, The times Of India Award in 2005 in recognition of usage of natural and khadi fabrics. She was awarded the BEYU, a German cosmetic company Fashion Award in 2009 in recognition of outstanding contribution to Fashion. Contributing beautifully towards social service she has even started a block printing unit, PALAK, known as Palanpur Hastakala Pvt. Ltd, in Gujarat in November 2008 for the differently abled men and women and also to train the physically challenged individuals with specific skills related to hand printing, dyeing, embroidery, etc so as to provide them with the means of employment and that to closer to their homes. | By Aanchal Kohli [aanchal(at)adgully.com]