Fashion in Vizag yet to pick up

Visakhapatnam: While Vizag has got all the natural lure a city can ask for along with a metropolitan culture, fashion still remains at a primitive stage in the city.  While Vizag has great potential to score well in the field of fashion in the coming future, a lot is left desired from the government for its development. In the past few years a couple of fashion institute have sprung up in the city and one among them is the well known JD Institute of Fashion Technology.

Director of the institute in Vizag, K. Pradeep says, “Every state with a thriving fashion industry has textile manufacturing units which make it easier for fashion technology students to get jobs as well as hands on experience while studying. The AP government should work towards attracting apparel manufacturing companies to set up plants in and around Vizag so that the fashion technology students do not move out of state after their education.”

The apparel park by APIIC started at Gajuwaka in 2007 which was supposed to generate '130 crore worth goods after full occupancy has to still lift off the ground as only five  of the 70 plots have been allotted yet. The textile pa-rk promised at Srikakulam still remains a non-starter.

Another issue is lack of convention centres. “Fash-ion shows are an important part of learning. We were hoping we could use the VUDA Children The-tare but it has been under construction centre since a long time,” says Pradeep.

Meanwhile, Vizag was finally chosen in 2013 for hosting its first fashion week. But it came to an abrupt end due to protests by locals. Earlier a beauty pageant was disrupted by locals in the city. 

Fashion designers feel that an understanding must be developed among the city folks that fashion is not about exposure of skin but it is a profession as well as an art.