FORGET international acceptance. They have that already. Indian designers are now ready to go hem-to-hem with the big fashion players like Dolce and Gabbana, Versace and Karl Lagerfeld.

The fashionistas who attended the three recent trade fashion shows in Delhi and Mumbai – the Wills Indian Fashion Week, Delhi Fashion Week and the Lakme Fashion Week – seem to think so. So do some of the Indians in the fashion industry in Singapore.

Among those who attended the shows are respected fashion journalists like International Herald Tribune’s fashion editor Suzy Menkes and buyers from Anthropologie and Barneys New York.

They are convinced that Indian designers like Rohit Bal and Manish Arora have their sights set on overseas markets. A point of view that is endorsed by Arora, whose clothes are sold in 84 stores worldwide even as he works with Reebok India on its Fish Fry line.

He told The New York Times that he was one of the few designers looking outside India.

Claiming that most Indian designers are happy serving the domestic market, he added: “They’re happy with the amounts of money they are making, scary amounts of money, really.

I decided to go the other way to satisfy myself creatively.”

Singaporean Indian designer Kavita Thulasidas said that the avant-garde couture lines that Arora and Bal showed on the ramps were simply a branding and marketing exercise.

“These are not clothes meant to be worn by regular people.

These are clothes that are meant to get the buyers and the media talking... and they have obviously been successful,” she said.

Ms Thulasidas, who runs Stylemart in Selegie Road and has a her own fusion line called Asian Woman, thinks Indian designers are recrafting their ethnicity by using their traditional crafts and Western training.

“Indian designs have always been considered too ethnic, too opulent, too grand. These designers are sending a message to international buyers – ‘we don’t just do traditional, we can do couture as well’,” she said.

Mr Samir Agarwal, who runs the East Asian operations of his family’s Mumbai-based fashion business Vaishali Sarees, agreed that these designs are meant to create awareness.

“It is to show that we have the skill to create something like this,” he said.

Ms Bubbly Jagpal, who runs Looks salon in Selegie Road, said that Arora’s kitschy couture on the ramps clearly shows Indian designers’ increasing confidence and ability to play in the bigger fashion playground. “Basically they are saying I can do what you do and can also have a big impact,” she said.

Designer Le Gill, who runs Anaarkali And Kuchh boutique in Selegie Center, told tabla! that Indian designers want to re-establish their position as an influential fashion power.

“India has influenced fashion since the colonial times. Let’s not forget who contributed colour and paisley to the world,” he said. And fortunately, he added, India has heaps of talent to change the country’s image as a manufacturer of cheap export garments.

Designer Rajesh Pratap Singh told The New York Times that Indian fashion is where Japan was at one time... where designers are getting their names out there on the international circuit.

“Not everybody was an Issey Miyake or a Yohji Yamamoto, of course. The interest is there, though,” said Mr Singh.

So much interest that another fashion trade show is taking place in Kolkata.

The four-day Kolkata Fashion Week made its debut on April 2 and has cricket star M.S. Dhoni as the brand ambassador.

Dhoni’s agent Yudhajit Dutta, who is organising this inaugural fashion event, says it will feature works from Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna of Cue, Wendell Rodricks, Shane and Falguni Peacock as well as Kolkata-based designers like Abhishek Dutta and Sharbari Dutta.

Displaying no concern about the comparisons with the more established events in Delhi and Mumbai, he told Delhi Newsline: “There are so many talented designers from Bengal who are prominent names in the Indian fashion business. But despite that, Kolkata has never had a proper showcase till now.”

But can all this translate into business for Indian fashion?

IHT’s fashion editor Menkes thinks so. She wrote in her commentary: “Although the Wills week and its competing Indian fashion events may not yet have made a global impact, designers in this 21st century should be able to thrive on craft and creativity, which are increasingly prized in a fashion world saturated with cookie-cutter brands.”

Even if it doesn’t translate to more sales, it will signal the next phase of Indian fashion. No wonder Mr Sunil Sethi, president of the Fashion Design Council of India, said “it’s taken some time, but we’re ready”.