India’s top brands & retail stalwarts honoured at  7th Annual Lycra® Images Fashion Awards 2007. Hit Pakistani group, Strings, performed some of their biggest chartbusters and had the audience grooving to their tunes.  Biyani wins Images Fashion Retail Icon of the Year amidst Glitz, Glamour & Dazzle at the Finale of - The Lycra® Images Fashion Forum 2007

Renowned retail guru, Kishore Biyani – CEO, The Future Group and Co Chairman, Fashion Alliance, was awarded the Images Fashion Retail Icon of the Year at the scintillating finale of The LYCRA® Images Fashion Forum 2007 at the Renaissance, Powai, Mumbai, India.

Amongst much glitz and glamour, captains of the Indian fashion and retail industry were honoured for their contribution to the Business of Fashion.

Madura Garments, winner of the Most Admired Fashion Company of the Year had earlier in the evening, walked off with the trophy for Van Heusen – Shirts, Allen Solly – Women’s Wear and Louis Philippe – Formal Wear.

Shoppers’ Stop once again was the Fashion Retailer of the Year while Sanjiv Mohanty of Benetton India was Fashion Brand Professional of the Year.

Most Innovative LYCRA Brand of the Year was Park Avenue for excellence in product innovation, brand communication and retail expansion in the year 2006.

On a dazzling stage that recreated the ambience of the Moulin Rouge in Paris – one of the world’s fashion capitals – international star Rahul Khanna and popular TV star and anchor, Rakshanda Khan, kept the crowd entertained with their rapid fire one-liners.

Hit Pakistani group, Strings, performed some of their biggest chartbusters and had the audience grooving to their tunes.

Terence Lewis and his troupe performed along with Bigg Boss TV star Anupama Varma to the tune of Bollywood’s hits while MTV VJ, Cyrus Sahukar, as Semi Girebaal, had the audience in splits in his hilarious inimitable style. 

A high-powered list of Indian celebrities were invited to present the awards including Pooja Bhatt, Irfan Khan, Kitu Gidwani, quiz ace Derek O’Brien. Among the international invitees were Jeffrey Doltis, MD, The Savile Row Company, Carol Williams, President, May Company International, Meg Lustman, Group Strategy and Development Director, Mosaic Fashions, Catherine Dixon, Senior Analyst, GDR Creative Intelligence, Bill D’Arienzo, CEO, WDA BrandMarketing Solutions, Jon Penrice, EVP, Apparel Global Marketing Invista.

The LYCRA Images Fashion Awards were meticulously judged by an esteemed jury comprising Dr. Darlie O’Koshy, ED, National Institute of Design, Aloke Shanker, MD, Synovate India and N. V. Sivakumar from PWC.

The LIFA celebrated achievements of fashion and lifestyle brands, retailers and professionals who have done exceptionally well in the year just gone by on all deliverables- constantly reinventing themselves to keep pace with the dynamics of the fashion industry, to remain forerunners in shaping the future of fashion in India.

“LIFA recognises the true worth of brands and retailers among consumers as they are based on the verdict of thousands of brand conscious consumers who have voted for their most favoured brands,” Amitabh Taneja, Chief Convenor of LIFA said.

IFF Spokesperson, Meher Castelino said, “IFF’07 culminated with a grand Finale – The LYCRA Images Fashion Awards 2007 – which honoured the best of the Indian retail and fashion industry. From the time of its inception, IFF has grown in scale and stature to attract experts from global and Indian companies to gather on a single platform.”
Over 2,000 leading global and Indian names from the world of fashion branding, retailing, merchandising and the entire gamut of fashion retail support organizations are attending IFF 07 at The Renaissance at Powai in Mumbai. He said the industry was witnessing a revolutionary change in the Indian consumer, an amazing retail explosion and intense competition in the fashion industry.

Conceptualised seven years ago as a platform to prepare the fashion and retail industry to meet the needs of the emerging Global Indian seeking a global shopping experience at home, IFF ’07 has added interest this year with the current focus in India on organised retail and the current retail boom, the explosion of malls and entry of global fashion houses and retailers. IFF ’07 has brought together leading brands in clothing, footwear, watches, jewellery, beauty, home fashion & lifestyle that make up a huge Rs. 3,00,000 crore market.

For the first time in the history of branded fashion industry in India, Images sees the launch of the Future Fashion House ‘THE INDIA BRAND SHOW’ – showcasing fashion and style trends of 2007 by some of the most powerful brands – live on the ramp. Highlight of the IBS will be the Triumph show live.

Images has been hosting the prestigious IMAGES FASHION AWARDS (IFA) for the last seven years and the endeavour has always been to reward Top performers in the Business of Fashion, professionals as well as organisations. In order to ensure the credibility of the Awards, IMAGES has always endeavored to involve the best of professionals and organisations as its esteemed Jury, knowledge partners and process auditors.

 For the past several years Images has been conducting the consumer poll in association with some of the world’s top market research agencies, the last year being our association with AC Nielsen. This year it was decided to do the job in a rather unconventional manner, and an innovative one too: Through our publications and wide ranging connections with the country’s leading Management and Fashion & Retail Institutes, we decided to conduct a mega poll of consumers from across the length and breadth of the country. And the response was simply fantastic.

 This IFA 2007 Study received more than 1.1 million responses from 177 cities in India and four cities abroad – Vancouver, Dubai, Karachi and Bangkok.

 This makes it probably one of the world’s largest consumer survey dedicated to the fashion & lifestyle sector in India. Knowledge partner to Study and Award was Technopak Associate while Ernst & Young audited the entire process of selection of Top performers. Due to time constraint only 67,251 of the 1.1 million responses could be utilized for the IFA 2007 Awards.