Fashion Goes Phygital At India Fashion Forum 2022 At The Leela Ambience, Gurugram

* Big Ideas & Bigger Fashion Plans Highlighted at India Fashion Forum 2022

Following an engaging, interactive, and cognitively charged session on Day 1 of the 21st edition of India Fashion Forum, the forum took forward another spectacular line-up of guest speakers from the fashion industry on Day 2 on 24th March 2022 at The Leela Ambience, Gurugram

The second day began with a prelude by Puneet Dudeja, Director-Business Development, South Asia, WGSN, who presented the audience with insights on big ideas for fashion through a futuristic lens. “The phygital world is here to stay and the time to get on it is now,” he stated and proceeded to provide a four-action plan on how to prepare for the future of fashion and stay ahead of the game.

The first panel discussion of Day 2 was centred around building a profitable fashion retail business, with greater emphasis on customer experience. This highly knowledgeable and interactive discussion was moderated by Ayushmaan Kapoor, Co-Founder, Xeno, and attended by panelists Akhil Srivastava, Managing Director, Parafait India; Jaimin Gupta, Managing Director, Stitched Textiles Pvt. Ltd. (Barcelona Brand); Rohiet Singh, COO, PVH Arvind Fashion Pvt. Ltd.; Shishir Gupta, Director and Founder, Kalki/Kalkifashion.com; and Sorav Arora, Business Head- B&M, Ecom & LFR, Pepe Jeans. The discussion touched upon topics such as lifting the taboo around the lingerie segment, a wish list to follow Nike’s footsteps, reliance on the word of mouth, and more. Focussing on the importance of customisation, Sorav Arora, said, “There is no quick fix to customisation. Data is BIG and one must read up on it and know their customers to do it justice.”

The second panel discussion for the day was moderated by Ranjan Sharma, CIO, Head of SCM, Captive E-commerce business and QA, Bestseller India, and had insights from Anil Menon, Head of IT, LuLu Group India; Anuj George, Head of Business, Zilingo Factory; Sanchit Govil, Co-Founder, Lal10; Pankaj Sachdeva, E-commerce Head & Marketplace, Crocs; Simarjit Singh Suri, Head New Products Development, Reliance Retail limited; and Jay Prakash Shukla, CEO, 1indiafamilymart. An open and informative dialogue followed throwing light on building a future-ready brand through digital transformation across the supply chain, with Simarjit Singh Suri reminding all to be mindful of the impact that their decisions can have on the supply-demand chain.

The topic of discussion for the next panel was: how creating a profitable online-offline business through store-based omnichannel retail can be a hard balance to crack. The discussion was moderated by Swarndeep Singh, MD, LOGIC ERP, and attended by Apoorv Sen, Chief Brand & Marketing Officer, Iconic Fashion; Kuntal Malia, Co-Founder, StyleNook; Lavanya Nalli, Vice Chairman, Nalli Group; Lokesh Chopra, Head Sales & BD, Alcis Sports Pvt Ltd.; Manish Vig, Retail Head, VIP Industries Ltd.; Suman Chowdhury, Co-Founder & COO, Clovia; Queenie Singh, CEO, Jewels by Queenie; and Rohit Dogra, Business Head, V-Bazaar Retail Pvt. Ltd.

Following a foresight-filled session, the first half of the day was wrapped up with a mind-boggling keynote speech by Ganesh Subramanian, Founder & CEO, Stylumia. His words touched upon the looming environmental crisis and the significant role played by the fashion industry. Inspired by his wife, who has been leading a wasteless lifestyle for some years now, Subramanian highlighted the impact of fashion industry on the climate and the green and sustainable measures to be taken to reduce the damage. The session definitely left the audience with thought-provoking suggestions and action plans for the future.

About India Fashion Forum: Launched in the year 2000, India Fashion Forum (IFF) is India’s largest fashion retail intelligence event. Every year, a powerful blend of conference sessions, workshops and master classes, zoned exhibitions and industry awards mark IFF’s confluence of the biggest consumer trends, market intelligence and retail innovation in the business of fashion in India. This edition of IFF Conference will offer unparalleled insights from international and Indian industry experts, academics, global fashion research majors and analysts through a world-class mix of keynote addresses, panel discussions, CEOs Roundtables, presentations, knowledge series sessions and workshops. Four themed exhibition platforms — Fashion Sourcing, L Cube, Asia Shop, India Brand Show — will highlight the most market-ahead fashion ingredients, design innovation, technology, retail strategies and solutions to a mega congregation of leaders from the business of fashion in India and elsewhere.