Prepping up for Holi: How fashion/apparel manufacturers decide what you’ll like

Festive shopping is probably one of the most favourite things to do for Indians. Whether it's the auspicious occasion of Diwali, the dawn of the New Year, or the colourful celebrations of Holi, decking up in new attires is a tradition that we as a country love to follow. Just ahead of Holi, many of us must have already been on a shopping spree while some might still be banking on the last-minute deals. Ever wondered how some fashion and apparel brands bring just the right outfits for a specific occasion? While at times the biggest of the brands falter to tap the pulse of the consumers. Hence, we decided to delve deeper into what goes behind conceiving a certain clothing or apparel range for specific occasions, especially with respect to a festival like Holi.

Anuradha Chandrashekar, the Co-Founder & Chief Creator at ICH Next, which is India's first Indianwear fashion forecaster, explained that fashion forecasting is a key differentiator for brands in this respect. “While the popular notion is that Holi fashion is all about whites, made popular mostly by cinematic marvels, the fashion for this festival is truly vibrant. Unfortunately, most manufacturers too remain under the same notion and fail to experiment with their Holi collections in the absence of trend insights and fashion forecasting.”

Explaining further about the Holi fashion trend in context of the Spring Summer 2024, Anuradha said that the Holi fashion for 2024 is a meticulous conflux of vibrant and cooling colours, which have widely emerged as a preferred choice for many. Citrus lime and Menthol blue, two truly vibrant yet calming colours, too are flying off the rack this Holi, as they are different and innovative while gelling with the season. Brewing optimistic harmony, they represent ancient traditions that find a new meaning in present day life. The Indo-European influences seeped in pastel are in this season, which we had already forecasted in our Spring Summer 2024 report published last year. Fluid fabrics in other combinations like colours like herbal pink and tea, marble blue with grey, salt lake peach and mint are also the preferred choice this month. Manufacturers focusing on this colour palette are seeing their inventories getting sold out sooner.

Her partner as co-founder of ICH Creative Consultancy and a fashion brand specialist, Kanika Vohra, added that it is not possible for fashion and apparel manufacturers to ensure a research thorough enough to tap the future trends. “Consumer preferences are always a result of subliminal and obvious influences. Even as celebrity trends, movies, OTT content, runway, food and travel trends and other sources impact their fashion choices, ultimately when they find their desired item at the retail outlet is when they make the buying decision. For brands and manufacturers, it then becomes imperative to anticipate these latent wants and present exactly what the customer might need at the right time. Hence manufacturers need to be ahead of the trend by at least 6-8 months to ensure that their new range is in accordance with the expected trends,” she said.

Recommending a solution, Kanika added, “This requires intensive research or reference of a fashion Forecast. While some might argue that it has primarily been available with global outlook, India now has its own sole Indian wear fashion forecast in the form of ICH NEXT. Adopting fashion forecasting will help the manufacturers to prepare an inventory that gets sold out. It has been seen that revenues for such brands can increase up to 6 times the normal and all it takes is to present the consumer with the right product at the right time.”