It’s always the way forward: JJ Valaya

By Puja Gupta New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANSlife) The year 2020 was a period of silence for the Indian fashion industry as everything came to a halt. Then, 2021 started with a big announcement — designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee sold 51 percent of his fashion brand to Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited.
First Anita Dongre, then Raghavendra Rathore and now Sabyasachi, why are Indian fashion houses opting to take the corporate route? Are strategic collaborations the way forward in order to establish Indian brands as global entities? “This was always the way forward” replies industry veteran JJ Valaya who took to Instagram to unveil his latest SS21 collection today. Titled ‘BURSA’, the line is the second chapter of his collection which was launched at the FDCI India Couture Week in September 2021.
“What is now happening in India, was happening in the West several decades ago and popular designer brands like Coco Chanel, Burberry, Versace are the leading example of it,” Valaya tells IANSlife.
“It’s only when the corporate comes in, that there’s stability of the business and the brand goes to another dimension. So, I think this is a fantastic move forward and it’s only going to go better.” Earlier designer Anita Dongre’s company had received a sizable investment from a large US Private Equity Fund in 2013 and was the only Indian designer with a retail presence in New York. Now Sabyasachi has announced he is set to open a 6,000 square foot retail space in the city in early 2022.