The rugged fabric is desperately seeking female attention. With women constituting only 8% of the `4,700-crore Indian denim market, the fabric is keen to drape the fairer sex. Denim makers say men led the 10- fold jump in consumption over the last 15 years and now, it is over to women to lead the next growth phase. At present, for each 100 men who own a pair of jeans, there are 15 women. This ratio will change to 100:30 by 2015, predict garmenters, even as designers work on newer trends that would appeal to womenAshish Dhir, head, Fashion Practice at Technopak, says women's denim category would grow 23% much faster than men's 15% annually. The market share of women's denim too would grow from 8% t0 25% by 2014.
So, be it a pair of jeggings (skin-fit style), a coloured jeans for a flashy teenager or a denim trousers for a working woman, retailers expect women to end saturation in the market.
The Indian consumers are still far away from their American counterpart, but are fast catching up. Denim exponent Sandeep Agarwal of b2b portal denimandjeans.com says: "While an American purchases 1.9 pair of jeans per annum, Indians buy 0.3 units currently, a ten-fold jump over 1995 levels. Further, with Indian women yet to accept jeans, there is ample opportunity for the category to grow. While in case of men, the urban-rural ratio of denim consumption is 70:30, in case of women it is 100% urban. In cities, women in the age group of 15-45 purchase around 1.7 jeans per year, against 1.9 jeans bought by men annually, adds Dhir.