Upping the creative quotient at Bangalore Fashion Week

It is the first time in India that a fashion week’s introduced exclusive theme tunes,” says Feroz Khan, creative director of Dream Merchants, explaining BFW Tunes, a new yet exciting feature added to the grand fashion event. “The idea is to offer the designers and the audiences a wholesome experience,” he elaborates. The theme tunes that have been created by popular DJs like Clitus, Tanmay and Anoop Absolute are offered to participating designers who might want signature music for their show. Not surprisingly, the tunes have found takers among the designers. “Quite a few of them have already listened to the music and have approved it,” admits Feroz. The idea for creating theme tunes came about from international fashion weeks. “In Paris and Milan, designers rarely ever use commercial tunes. They have tunes created especially for the shows,” says Feroz. And designers who love their Bollywood tunes “can choose their tunes from our music bank,” he adds.

Composing exclusive theme tunes for fashion shows is not virgin territory for DJ Anoop Absolute. “I have been doing it for many years now,” he says but familiarity aside, he feels the trend of composing music for fashion “is an exciting one. Most bands and musicians don’t look at fashion as a platform for making music. If BFW tunes sets a successful precedent, fashion music might be a new genre that musicians can look at,” he forecasts.

In this edition of BFW, Anoop has composed the music for designer Ramesh Dembla’s show. “Creating music for the s how is almost like composing score for a film!” he quips, elaborating, “The designer gives you the theme of the show, describes the plot, the mood et al,” he adds.

While DJ Anoop Absolute is a veteran, creating theme music is completely new territory for DJ Tanmay. “I put together samples of music like drum beats and bass along with Indian elements like sitar to create a score that is ideal for fashion shows. I am working on four to five tunes for the event,” he reveals. And while he might have created tunes at short notice, the experience for him, “was an opportunity to create something original.” “DJs are generally known to take samples off the net and remix them. Concepts like BFW Tunes give us a chance to create something original,” he says.

The other interesting aspect of the fashion week is the participation of international designers. An idea that was introduced last year, the names this year include the Polish, UK-based designer Bozena Carter, Mustafa Hassanali from Tanzania, Pamela and Archana from UK and Daniel Hechter — Paris. Commenting on BFW Labels, an e-commerce portal that was set up to facilitate interaction between the designers and buyers, Feroz says, “We introduced BFW Label two years back to encourage upcoming designers. The portal serves as an extension for the designers to help them get in touch with international buyers who might have missed their shows. We have done around `70 to `80 lakh worth business till date.” Getting more than 60 designers to participate at this fashion week is no easy work. “We have been in talks with Ritu Beri for the last one year and managed to finalise her dates only three months back,” says Feroz.