Fashion's Next Frontier: The Destination Show

With a rise in corporate funding and focus on creating an experience, will more brands take the destination show route to shine brighter?

- SUJATA ASSOMULL

As a 21-year-old aspiring business journalist in India on a gap year, I found myself in Goa to attend a fashion show. It was the mid 1990s. About 200 top clients of multi-designer store Ensemble were flown in for a sit-down dinner, with a beachside fashion show unfolding on the side. The presentation opened with Monisha Jaising and included the likes of Rohit Bal, and Meera and Muzaffar Ali. It might sound like a cliché but that evening changed my life forever.

Ensemble Mumbai was, at the time, a store every up and coming Indian designer aspired to retail from, and where the rich and fashion-conscious went to shop.

On track to finish my master’s degree in international journalism, the beachside weekend was a much-needed escape. It was also my first trip to Goa. After two days, I returned to London, then my home city. In my heart, though, I wanted to come back to India and figure out a way to become a part of the emerging contemporary fashion scene.

Such is the power of a destination fashion event. It is experiential marketing at its best, creating a moment that stays in your memory and showcases the power of the brand. The fusion of travel and fashion is magical. For years, mega brands, like Dior, Chanel and Louis Vuitton, have been presenting their resort or pre-fall collections in exotic locations across the world. Dior, for instance, chose Mumbai for its pre-fall collection earlier this year. It gave the French luxury house a chance to talk about its relationship with Indian craftsmanship.