Journey with fashion: Kamini Saraf

Hyderabad-based fashion entrepreneur Kamini Saraf started an exclusive fashion expo ‘Fashion Yatra’ in 2006. “I used to do trunk shows and I finally thought of bringing several designers under one roof and that’s how ‘Fashion Yatra’ was born. I did another show in Hyderabad with some big designers, and called it ‘Fashion Files’ (2005); but later it changed to ‘Fashion Yatra’. 

We started with Hyderabad, then we added Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Jaipur, we have travelled all cities.  For Yatra, I got designers from all over India but a lot of them were local too. It was a huge success and today we compete our 13 years,” says Kamini.

“I used to do many pop-up show and trunk shows with my friends in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Then I thought instead of calling my friends to each of these shows, I can  get all the designers and stalls on the same platform, and this inpired me to start with  40-50 stalls.” 

When she started, she feels that Hyderabad was becoming fashionable city and it was easy to start such a fashion show. “Nothing like this happened in Hyderabad until then and I was the only person in Hyderabad who was conducting a fashion showcase like this till five years.  

But now it has become a challenge for me because there are many shows happening in the city. And you always have to think of different marketing strategies, a new look to the show each time and we also have to look at affordability and the newness factor,” shares Kamini. Fashion has always been key to how women have presented themselves and Fashion Yatra will go hand in hand, she says. 

Hyderabad fashion is most buzzing and evolving fashion.  We are the right mix of the traditional ethnic. Any brand or designer when they think of any other city apart from Delhi, Mumbai, it will be Hyderabad. This is the third city that will come to a person’s mind. 

About her dream she says, “All the fashion labels of the world should work with the handlooms and I believe that this will come true some day.”