Fashion week ushers in good news for designers

The Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week started on an encouraging note for the fashion fraternity with the announcement of a fashion district in Dwarka, and concluded with some more good news as textile company orient craft announced Rs 2,000 crore investment to set up a fashion village near Manesar. Orient craft is in talks with the Fashion Design Council of India to work on a blueprint for the fashion village, that would be spread across 600 acres. "We want to set up a fashion village that would serve as an enclave, encompassing a design school, textile museum, residences, manufacturing units and showrooms, to enable the fashion and textile sectors to work at a single platform," Orient Craft Chairman and Managing Director Sudhir Dhingra told a news agency today. The first phase would see construction of about 300 acres, for which formal notification is awaited. The company envisages an initial investment of about Rs 500 crore. However, once the project is complete the total investment, including that by promoters and co-promoters, would be about Rs 2,000 crore, Dhingra said. Initially, Orient Craft Infrastructure Ltd, a standalone company, would be the strategic investor and promoter, but Dhingra said the company is inviting interested co-promoters for the project. Dhingra said he expects the entire project to be operational within a period of two years. Urban infrastructure would be in place in the next 60 days, while spaces at the complex would be offered in the next six months. "We would then be able to demarcate where would facilities like design studios and manufacturing units come up," he added. The company is talking to the FDCI and chalking out plans for the project in detail. Bureau Report