lecoanet Hemant enter the Indian market with their new label, GENES, a ready-to-wear line. Designer Hemant Sagar tells Devi Singh that it is made by an international company in India for India
lecoanet Hemant, the Indo-French fashion label owned by designer duo Didier lecoanet and Hemant Sagar, stepped into the prêt-à-porter by introducing their new clothing line titled GENES. The collection is inspired from India’s transition into digital age and the impressions it has made on the fashion world. The idea started about three years ago with the concept of setting up a collection for bridging the gap between the international and the Indian culture.
“It’s a recognition that India is changing really fast. It’s strange how people are living behind this façade of internationality. And people were forced to wear the brands which were made outside India which didn't quite go down well with what Indians wanted. Fashion business is all about niches so we created this niche about having a collection that would precisely be helpful in bridging this gap,” says Sagar.
The designer duo has tied up with e-commerce giant, Amazon for its September debut. “Somehow Amazon appealed to me as they always seemed to have the right positioning and the approach of making Indian fashion into real product. They want to unite things and bring them together into a single fashion platform which is very different from others. Other e-retailers talked about discounts, making things more accessible and cheap, it wasn’t about the culture of fashion,” he shares.
The transition between couture to prêt has been the most exciting for the duo. Sagar tells us, “A single hand woven piece would never make a fashion statement but only a style statement. And majority of Indian fashion is about making style statements. We have hyper defined ideas of what to wear on what occasion. The idea is to change that and to do something with clothes for daily wear. The concept is to come up with what India has to offer. We want to create trends inside India with Indian roots. We have enough roots but we don't have enough stems or leaves.”
The products have been divided into categories like, Play, Work and leisure. The color palette for the collection consists of indigo and blues with dash of bright colors like orange. The shirts are long and they look a bit like kurtas which have been revamped so that you can wear them to office or a party. “A trainer which is very bright and could probably be worn for a casual evening with friends. It’s geometric and it has proportions which covers you up.”
What sets GENES apart from the rest of the daily wear brands in India is that it’s not imported. “It’s made by an international company in India for India and it is the only one doing that. It’s a contribution entirely based on real research for the country and not just a financial gain,” adds Sagar.
He feels his brand will definitely take off as there’s nothing to feel embarrassed or persecuted about by wearing these styles. They are easy to wear with comfortable cuts which would appeal to the Indian fashion appetite. “It’s about getting into the market and not over doing or over shouting. We want to make people aware about a new proposition and learn from their experience, how it turned out. There would be a lot of things that we will learn from the online data and from the reactions of people. So far the reactions have been extremely good.”
The patterns and silhouettes for the collection have been drafted to international standards. The price range has also been kept modest between Rs2,500 to Rs25,000 as the products are produced indigenously at their state of the art atelier in Gurgaon. “There’s no margin in between. It has to attract the customers as we are talking about daily wear. It’s not dirt cheap, it’s just intelligently priced. It could become exceptional wear for lower middle class but it could also become daily wear for the high class. It should be available for everyone. We are catering to people who think and live in today's society and what would be appropriate for their aspirations and their daily life,” he signs off.
photo Sanjeev Kumar