Reputation a trust business model on its head, the Lakme Fashion Week commencement here Friday has been twisted into a seasonal event with the focus on e-commerce in a bid to get better the business forecast of designers.

“With this move, the buyers will not have to wait for six months to get the collection in their stores. Our period driven approach will help designer to fetch good business and customers to get new trends,” Sujal Shah, head of event organization firm IMG that has tied up with makeup brand Lakme for the March 5-9 show, said.

According to Shah, it was significant to focus on the domestic market and hence a collective choice was taken to present a spring-resort collection in its place of an autumn-winter one.

At fashion shows the world over, and also at the prime minister Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week, an autumn-winter collection is obtainable early in the year and a spring-summer publication in the later part.

“This cyclic move will definitely fetch good commerce for our designers and we have previously seen a 30 per cent rise in the buyers who will be participating in the event. Overall, we are having a baby around 40 per cent increase in the business,” he added, while on the way out to give figures.

Shah also exposed that this time; there will also be focus on the e-commerce business at the LFW, life form held at the Grant Hyatt.

“E-commerce is in a very budding stage in India, but this is the future of business. Despite the fact that online shopping in the West is much more mature, we want Indian designers to get a hold a hang of how this business works,” Shah explained.

Gurgaon-based online fashion gateway fashionandyou.com that sells products from international brand like Hugo Boss, Dunhill, Moschino and DKNY, believe that there is ample breathing space for fashionable clothes in the online market.

“We have had quite a few queries from Indian designers on using our display place to reach out to a discerning group of people of people who buy luxury goods. We are looking at opportunity to work with huge Indian designers,” said Narvekar, director (Brand Sourcing) of fashionandyou.com, which will be participating in the LFW as a buyer.

London-based fashion designer Christopher Kane will also be attending the event. Shah feels that the presence of people like him will give Indian designers increased international exposure and provide them new business perspectives as well.

As fashion weeks and Bollywood go hand-in-hand, Shah didn’t rule out the presence of tinsel town celebrities at LFW.

“There is a link between Bollywood and the fashion designers because a lot of Bollywood celebrities are their clients. We can’t deny the fact that many Indian designers derive business from the industry; hence it is very logical for the stars to be present there (LFW),” Shah explained.

As many as 61 designers some established and some new will display their creativity over the five action-and- glamour-packed days of the LFW.

Among the designers participating are Manish Malhotra, Narendra Kumar, Malini Ramani, Rocky Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Satya Paul, Shantanu and Nikhil, Suneet Varma and Vikram Phadnis.

Anand Bhushan, Anand Kabra, Digvijay Singh, Lecoanet Hemant, Nachiket Barve, Payal Singhal, Pooja Kapoor, Vipin Batra will also feature at LFW.

The brands associated with the LFW include Gitanjali, Samira Habitats, SkodaAuto, Philips, DHL, iNIFD, Grey Goose and Kingfisher.