MUMBAI: There may be one too many fashion weeks at the moment but ask those who started it all ten years ago and this is a great time for Indian fashion. At the Lakme fashion week, 20 designers got together to celebrate ten glorious years of the Indian fashion week.

The veteran fashion designers have literally charted the destiny of Indian fashion since its nascent stages. What started with just a handful of sponsors now boasts of over 40 per fashion show. And for fashion designers too the business opportunity is now immense.

According to designer Suneet Varma, "Over all these ten years, there has been such a sea change in fashion in terms of design, technique and also business… Now there are umpteen retails, stores, various multinational brands associate themselves with designers, and designer labels are becoming affordable more for the masses. Now there's a market for everything; business had certainly grown manifold."

Business has grown and so has the presence of Indian fashion on the global stage with many Indian designers becoming part of international fashion weeks. The biggest speed breaker for the Indian fashion's racy drive has been the infighting in the fashion industry, which led to a split wide open…

"The split was nonsensical and didn't mean any boom for Indian fashion... one should aim at increasing the value of Indian fashion than resort to such things like splitting," said designer Narendra Kumar.

At present too, the multiple fashion weeks are a concern.

According to designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee, "Yes, business suffers, because buyers were divided, hardly one would come to both the weeks, and it wasn't the best representation of the best of Indian fashion and talent."

Business has certainly grown in the past ten years. But at the moment it seems to have hit a plateau for the fashion fraternity. The hope is that the catwalk will soon cease to be a catfight. Only then does the fashion industry have a chance to stitch together a profitable design.