CHENNAI: Studio Trioss recently conducted an exhibition that featured everything from clothes, accessories, footwear, handbags, jewellery, home linen and kids wear from designers across the country. CE spoke to Sheetal Modi, the founder of Studio Trioss, to find out what makes her tick, and to get an insight into the challenging and constantly evolving world of fashion.

What inspired you to start Studio Trioss? 
I had started organising exhibitions and events for fundraising. Being from a family of businessmen, business is in my blood and I realised that I was good at organising and executing the events, and found it enjoyable too. The main motive to start Studio Trioss 12 years ago, was to bring fashion to Chennai. 

Over the years, how has 
the fashion scene evolved in Chennai?
When we started out, there were very few exhibitions in Chennai. Today, there is one every other day! All the biggest names in the fashion world come to the city now to sell their products. When we started out, we had just a handful designers who came for our exhibition. For the latest exhibition, we displayed works of 45 designers where only about seven designers were from Chennai. 

In an age where there are so many exhibitions, how do you ensure your exhibitions stand out? 
For starters, we do not exhibit multiple times. We have an exhibition only three to four times a year. All exhibitions are carefully curated and we ensure that we do not repeat designers from previous exhibitions. It is also very important to understand the customer base that one is dealing with, and since we have been doing this for so many years, we know the pulse of customers in the city. 
What do customers in 
Chennai want? 
There is a misconception that people in Chennai do not spend. There is vast spending power in Chennai and people are willing to spend if they find something worth their money. Niche cotton or silk wear that is classy and subtle is always a hit. A Chennai customer is on the look out for something that will make a statement without being loud and flashy. And that is what we keep in mind even while picking designers for exhibitions. Value for money is another aspect that we look into while curating exhibitions. 

What sort of a role has 
social media played in the exhibition business?
Social media has played a vast role. People have become far more aware of trends and are very fashion conscious now. In the future, I see that the number of exhibitions will come down slowly because social media and online shopping provides access to so many designers at the click of a button. Organising these exhibitions also takes a lot of money, time and energy so while the number of exhibitions will decrease, I do not see this business dying. Now, all the top designers are also looking at 
exhibitions as a way to market 
their work and be accessible to the general public.