To pay homage to the lives lost in the Paris attack, Sunil Sethi, the president of Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI), went to the French Embassy along with many fashion designers. Sethi told us that the ambassador was touched to see a lot of people from the fraternity. By Arjita Mishra
It has not even been a week since the terror attacks in Paris. People are still recovering from the shock while simultaneously trying to put their lives back together.
Paris, the fashion capital of France, is visited every year by countless number of fashion enthusiasts, experts and students in the hope of contributing and getting a hang of the industry.
Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India, thinks that at this point of time, it is important for everyone to stand with Paris and lend their support in every way possible. According to Sethi, “We are doing business in the country and as there is a close connection between fashion and Paris, it is imperative that we stand by them.”
Sethi agreed that they cannot do much for France but the fashion fraternity will not stop lending their support to the country. He added, “We had a fashion show at the Embassy to spread the word that everything is normal and we are coming back with the same spirit as usual. So, the ambassador will be very happy to offer us space, if we need to do something there. But, it is more important to show or offer our condolence. We went in a group of 10 people who all are doing lot of business there.”
Talking more about the situation in Paris, and whether it would affect business in the country, he commented, “There is definitely a temporary setback and people are quite frightened at the moment. The residents of Paris are very strong. We all saw how quickly they went to arrest the people and how quickly they had a move. So, I don’t think it will be a problem at all and the business is going to go back to normal. The ambassador has also comforted the designers so it is only a temporary phase.”
The designers associated with the cause are Manish Arora, Namrata Joshipura, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rohit Gandhi, Rahul Khanna, Renu Tandon, Hemant-Nandita, Amit Aggarwal, Anupamaa Dayal, Gaurav Gupta, Anju Modi and all the board members of FDCI.