Lakm‚ Fashion Week (LFW), India's premier fashion trade event and pioneer platform in promoting business of fashion announced 74 designers and 12 sponsors for LFW Winter / Festive 2010 at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. Last season, LFW moved towards customizing the fashion week platform to the Indian market and introduced 'Resort'.

This season the platform continues in this vein by providing an opportunity to showcase Winter/Festive collections. With Winter/Festive 2010, Lakm‚ Fashion Week further continues the strategic shift and increases its focus on the current season requirements, promoting business of fashion in the country. As fashion trade and the customer base is veritably growing big in India, this season promises to showcase exuberant trends specially catering to the discerning festive buyer, while addressing the fashion requirements of the fraternity.

Sharing his views, N Rajaram, Vice President - Lakm‚ said, "As a contemporary beauty expert, Lakm‚ understands the sensibilities of the Indian woman. The brand continuously innovates to create products that are unique, by combining international cosmetic technology with an in-depth understanding of the consumer.

"LFW Grand Finale will see the 'Lakm‚ Gypsy Collection' designed by Malini Ramani, who captures the nomadic influences from around the world, including many journeys of her own, to create this inspired collection, perfectly suited for the Indian woman."

Talking about the talent at LFW, Anil Chopra, CEO - Lakm‚ Lever said, "Lakm‚ Fashion Week stands for quality and high standards of excellence in designer participation which is epitomized by the talent we endorse at Lakm‚ Fashion Week. The strategic shift we initiated last season with introduction of 'Resort wear' in India continues as we now tailor our upcoming season to focus on 'Festive wear'.

The Gen Next program, that completes 5 years, has encouraged debutantes and nurtured some of the leading names in the industry today. The Gen Next 5 year show indicates the variety of talent that has made LFW a force to reckon with and talked about as one of the best fashion forums representing Indian fashion to the world.

Ravi Krishnan, Managing Director - IMG - South Asia said, "In its eleventh year of bringing Indian fashion to the forefront, Lakm‚ Fashion Week continues to be the leader in recognizing creative excellence, providing a platform for new potential, operating on international standards of excellence, and providing the most significant and commercially relevant platform for sponsor association.

"LFW demonstrates its leadership position among fashion industry platforms in delivering value to sponsors and brand associations as exemplified this season with the addition of our new Associate Sponsor - Aircel. Additionally, as pioneers of a premier fashion trade event, we constantly strive to build opportunities for Indian designers, making it possible for them to showcase their talent at an event as celebrated as LFW.

"This season recorded an incredible 70% increase in number of applications across all designer categories - this includes 172 applications in Gen Next and 92 in the Emerging category. LFW remains the industry leading fashion trade event, and we would like to thank all our partners for their, support in our endeavour to continue delivering superior value to all stakeholders."

Commenting on the designer participation this season, Sujal Shah, Vice President and Head of Fashion, IMG-India said, "LFW's contribution to the furthering of new talent in fashion is unmatched in India. We aim to take this a step further by looking for ways to not only discover and launch new talent, but also to provide commercial viability to these designers early in their career."

He also said, "as such, this season will mark the beginning of a strategic plan to provide more relevant commercial and business options for our new talent as well as all LFW designers. By associating with online fashion trade portals such as Fashion and You, we are taking the lead to embrace the future and reality of business in India, which is online, and provide a direct sales channel for all LFW designers. We continue to innovate this season with our first offsite show on September 16, 2010, which will be held at Tote with Nari."