"The Indian consumer is rapidly evolving into a highly aware, uncompromising entity when it comes to making an informed choice between brands," says Manjula Tiwari, COO of Esprit.

"They expect international quality standards coupled with Prom Dresses 2012 pricing and are unwilling to settle for anything but the best. That said, the Indian consumer is also not one who is willing to ape global trends blindly, which makes customisation to local tastes essential." Esprit launches a new collection every month to keep pace with global trends.

Brands like Zara have shown the way where the USP of the store is that you Homecoming Dresses find the same merchandise if you visit the store a couple of weeks later -- a sharp contrast to times when stores had racks of same merchandise from summer all the way to winter.

"We have three collections every season," says Ashok Dalal, Short Prom Dresses of Brandhouse Oviesse which runs OVS stores. "Every 45 days, customers comes and ask for something new. The part of fashion that we change every six weeks is called fast fashion. After we sell about 80% of the range, we replace the collection with something new." Brandhouse Oviesse is a joint venture between Brandhouse Retails, the retail arm of S Kumar's and Italian apparel retailer Oviesse.

Kabir Lumba, MD of Lifestyle looks back, almost wistfully, Plus Size Formal Dresses just a few years ago when 75% of their merchandise was core or basic fashion (think regular office wear, basic tees and jeans) and 25% was fashion hot from the ramps. "Today, it is the other way round. The market for fashion is bigger than core or basic and we change our collection at least four times a year," he says. "The time lag between global fashion launches and its availability in the Indian market is disappearing."

Daniel Hechter, a Paris-based premium lifestyle brand, too is tweaking their merchandise. "A year ago, ramp fashion usaed to be only 10% of the entire collection, but today it is almost 30%. But the fashion is customised in a commercial avatar," says Rachna Aggarwal, CEO, Indus-League Clothing, which has an exclusive licensing agreement with Daniel Hechter to retail the brand in India.

And the Indian customer today is unwilling to pay a Junior Graduation Dresses for fashion. Spoilt from trips to Hong Kong and shopping binges at the

Dubai Shopping Festival, the Indian customer sees no reason why he or she should pay a lot more just to keep their wardrobe updated. Besides, frequent updating means frequent shopping, thereby putting pressure on brands to lower their entry barriers.