INWEC Fashion & Lifestyle Mela 2023 Impresses Bhubaneswar
After the success of the INWEC Women’s Business Mela in May 2022, the Women’s Entrepreneurship Council (INWEC) of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and Evos organized the INWEC Fashion & Lifestyle Mela between January 8 and 12, at Plantronics Ground in Bhubaneswar, where more than 120+ women entrepreneurs from the fashion, handloom, and lifestyle industries had set up stalls and displayed their goods. The event also included talk sessions, cultural events, fashion shows, food festivals, raffles, and seminars and workshops. The event encouraged and promoted regional handcrafters, weavers, grassroots business people, and small enterprises engaged in the state’s rich cultural heritage, handlooms, and handicrafts. Through collaboration with international designers and fashion companies, the event also looked at innovation, technology integration into the traditional weaving sector, new business options, and new markets for local craftspeople. The event has been attended by a number of national manufacturing, distribution, and retail businesses.
The first event of its kind, the INWEC Fashion & Lifestyle Mela, supports Odisha’s fashion and lifestyle businesses. The majority of INWEC business owners operate in this industry. Additionally, handicrafts and looms have a rich cultural and historical background. These must be more broadly appealing to society.
Sukirti Patnaik thanked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for changing the lives of many women entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. She also emphasized on the need for change in handloom lifestyle products. She said that this mela will show the way forward to the designers.
In this Mela, two new brands were introduced. KDF Coffee was established by the Kalinga Desiagro Foundation. Koraput receives its authentic flavor from the abarika coffee grown in Odisha’s southern region. In order to promote the inclusion of agricultural communities, sustainability, and financial sustainability, the coffee is ethically farmed by local communities.
The occasion included 25 fashion presentations featuring Odia designers who displayed a wide variety of creations from all facets of society. Later, fashion shows catered to various demographics, including children, moms, models, senior citizens, LGBTQIA+ people, from Odisha.
Actors Diya Mirza, Zayed Khan, Soni Razdan, former cricketer Irfan Pathan, and many others were the main draws of this mela. Boyanika and Arundhati Jewellers are the mela’s co-title sponsors.
Dia Mirza attended the event as the chief guest on the 3rd day of the mela. The panel discussion for the day’s topic was “Reinvention and Integration of Textiles and Design.” Vaishali Nanda oversaw the stage as Nitisha Mann and Gargi Bhattacharya took part.
An interactive discussion was led by Dia Mirza and Meenu Patnaik, a core member of INWEC. The actor talked about her experiences and travels with the audience while also honoring business owners and traders that promote handloom. I.A.S. and P.R. Poonam Guha, Additional Secretaries for A&DW, and Neesha Mann, Deputy Director for MSME-DFO, were the guests for the evening. Sukirti Patnaik, Co-Chairperson of INWEC, thanked everyone for the overwhelmingly positive reception and the event’s record-breaking attendance. She also expressed her gratitude to the distinguished visitors for attending “The Pride of Odisha,” a celebration of handlooms.
Designer Atuliya supported thousands of small-scale businesses working in handlooms by showcasing their handloom clothing through a fashion show. Designers Selina Dasan of Label AJ Fashion, Tulika Mohanty, and Tamasa Mohapatra of Label Fashionista showed their ready-to-wear collections.
Overwhelmed with the response from the audience, director of the fashion shows in the mela, John Ajay, said, “When this offer came to me to do fashion shows for five days back to back, I was like can this happen here? But with the team effort finally we did it successfully. and I am super proud of all our teammates. We have successfully done 25 fashion shows in this mela.
Similar to them, state tribal sisters marched up the ramp. Adi Rani Foundation was in charge of planning the fashion show. The dancing of Siberan Beriwal was another draw. The spectators and guests were impressed by his dynamic performance.
This is evidence of the high caliber work being done even at the grassroots level. The Pride of Odisha fashion show was the main event of the day. Successful entrepreneurs, business leaders, and achievers from Odisha strutted down the catwalk while clad in Ramuli’s handcrafted creations.
Manish Malhotra, a fashion designer for Bollywood, was the Mela’s main draw. He used materials from Odisha to create clothing for the first time. The INWEC members organised a ramp show while donning those outfits. The crowd applauded the attire and gave Malhotra acclaim for his amazing ensembles.
Malhotra complimented Preeti Pallavi Patnaik and INWEC Convener Sukirti Patnaik for bringing him to Odisha and introducing originality in textiles. He was impressed by the fabric’s quality, the intricate design, and the vivid colours. He expressed his gratitude to the weavers for preserving the art of traditional weaving.
Malhotra made a commitment to produce more textiles from Odisha in the future. During a conversation with Sukirti Patnaik, he discussed his experience with the audience.
Tanaya Patnaik, the INWEC convenor, congratulated the designers, while Atulya Karigari encouraged small business owners to use handlooms to make cutting-edge items.
As the closing ceremony’s primary guest, Governor Prof. Ganeshi Lal stopped by the stalls, spoke with the businesspeople, and expressed his gratitude for their support of Mission Shakti.