Boom Town

Unnoticed by most, Hyderabad has become a flourishing fashion market, rife with talented designers and discerning customers. The city’s style makers catch up with Nishat Fatima at Ogaan's first local outpost

You’d think that in the world of constant change that is fashion, few things would catch us off guard, least of all the emergence of a new city as a major market. Yet, here is Hyderabad, suddenly centre stage, without ever really having given luxury insiders a word of its arrival.

There has always been chatter about Hyderabad’s potential as a big luxury market, but it grew so quietly, that no one even noticed. Burberry arrived in 2010, so did Zegna, but things paused there for the next few years. Then came a slow dribble of Indian couturiers: Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi, Shantanu & Nikhil, Raghavendra Rathore. Local designers started to flourish as well: Anand Kabra, Suhani Pittie, Gaurang Shah, Asmita Marwa, Archana Rao, Anushree Reddy, Jayanti Reddy, Shriya Bhupal—Lakmé Fashion Week was awash with Hyderabadis. This March, Ogaan, one of India’s best-known multi designer fashion destinations, opened in the city.

The Hyderabad story, then, had been in the works for almost a decade, and it took Ogaan a broad sweep of its new market, observing both younger and legacy labels fly off the shelves, to alert the industry to it. Hyderabad had come of age as a fashion market and deserved our attention.