[Sep. 19, 2007]

While the "fashion caravan" bounces from one continent to another – last week in London, now in New York, next to come Milan and Paris – Condé Nast, publisher of 127 magazines in 23 markets across 6 continents, announced a new issue to be launched later this month.

Launched in China in 2005, Vogue is ready to be thumbed through also by Indians. The first South/Asian edition is the 17th of Conde Nast glossy fashion bible, but the latest international name launched in a lifestyle magazine market where competitors are Cosmopolitan, Maxim, Hello, Marie Claire and Time Out.

Many Condé Nast magazines have their principal focus in fashion, although the company's publications also include travel, food and wine, architecture, celebrity gossip, and other interests - just to mention: GQ, Vanity Fair, Glamour or Condé Nast Traveller.

With a 400-page issue packed with ads from global advertisers, like Gucci or Louis Vuitton, Vogue is the first magazine in India with 100% foreign direct investment – until 2005 were allowed only 26% ownership in media ventures.

Vogue India will start with 50,000 copies – the magazine will include photo from Indian and Western designers, travel stories and celebrity-authored pieces and ads of internationals brands and Indian names like designers Tarun Tahiliani and JJ Valaya. As Vogue Managing Editor Priya Tanna told Forbes: "We'll bring fashion from runways like Milan and New York to them in a language they relate to."

Indian lifestyle is changing rapidly as wealth increases, becoming – together with China and Russia - world's fastest-growing markets for luxury goods. Oona Dhabhar, Marketing Director Condè Nast India, underlined: "The Indian consumer has high awareness of fashion, beauty and luxury brands in the country and she is evolving […]. We want Vogue to help her evolve and celebrate her personal style."

But it’s not just fashion. The Asia/Pacific magazine market - excluding Japan – slated to grow by 7.2% annually, reaching $20.7 billion by 2010 and advertising is expected to rise by 5% annually, hitting $8.1 billion in 2010 – Forbes reported.

Moreover luxury goods – in particular fashion - is a cross-continents industry with a very long history. The first fashion designer who was not merely a dressmaker was the British-born Charles Frederick Worth who founded, together with his partner Otto Boberg, a fashion house in 1858 in Paris. His success was such that Worth - differently from earlier dressmakers - dictated his customers what they should wear. Besides, Vogue was founded as a fashion society magazine in 1892.

Barbara Pini in her interesting thesis A study of distribution channel strategies in the European High Fashion Market with particular reference to Giorgio Armani, Vivienne Westwood and Sonia Rykiel provides the reader with a basic insight about the current fashion clothing industry in Europe and its evolution occurring since the late 1980s - with particular references to Italy, UK and France. Her research focuses on distribution channels in the fashion sector, stressing moreover on distribution strategy evolution.

The first institution created to co-ordinate, study and defend the economic and commercial interests of fashion industry was the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, founded in 1868. In that period, the wealthiest European and American women started purchasing "their clothing direct from the couture houses and the rest of fashionable society looked to Paris for stylistic guidance."

During World War II - with all its restrictions – French fashion influence was cut-off by the occupation, and other countries – in particular Italy - began to gain a good position and profit from the situation. From that particular moment – according to Pini - Italy became considered "second only to France as a fashion market centre, being especially strong in sportswear, knitwear and accessories-notably shoes."

At the European level there are various Federations, comprising European designers, who aim to protect "their image of high quality brand name and to preserve their products from imitation and falsification." In France there is the Fèdèration Française de la Couture du Prêt-à-Porter des Couturiers et des Crèateurs de Mode, that defines some criteria by which a company can be defined as High Fashion Designer.

In France, "the wording Haute Couture (high fashion) and Couture Creation (fashion creation) are protected, thus they can be used exclusively used by companies recognised by the Commission of the French Industry Ministry" and few companies have the right to the denomination of Haut Couture, with two Italian names: Valentino and Versace.

But fashion is not just fashion, often it mirrors the path society follows in its evolution and transformations. From the great couturier Coco Chanel – her progressive suits popularized sporty and athletic look, setting free women from tight corsets – to Mary Quant, whose fashion revolution – miniskirt – was the symbol of a wider revolution, involving sexual freedom and women emancipation.

As matter of fact, Indian fashion designers are now part of that complex changes holding emerging countries. Early this month Manish Arora had his London fashion show and was invited to join important European designers – like Christian Dior and Jean Paul Gaultier – showcasing his past catwalk collections at London's Victoria & Albert Museum, one of the world's foremost for the decorative arts – Washington Post reports.

Further evidence of international interest on such fast evolving country, Arora and Anamika (another famous Indian designer) will also unveil next month their latest collections in Paris, becoming the first Indians to do so.

Fashion is part of the way people live, reflects changes and transformations, able to shape tastes and consumers choices, its "dictates" may be unquestionable for fashionvictims. Or simply, as the English writer Oscar Wilde put it: "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months".