A Study on Indian Ethnic Wear Brands

A Study on Indian Ethnic Wear Brands The emergence of new jobs, new avenues, new ways of earning and spending, and increased awareness has lead to dramatic and unmapped changes to women’s wear industry in India. According to Technopak (as published in Images’ India Business of Fashion Report) in the year 2016, the women’s wear market of India contributes 42 per cent to the total apparel market of the country. Although this segment of the market is still largely dominated by unorganized players, in the recent times, many modern players of national and international repute have started entering into the market. As of 2016, Rs 1,02,358 crore (US $17,059 million) women’s wear market is expected to grow at a CAGR slightly higher than 10 per cent to reach Rs 2,89,518 crore (US $48,253 million) in 2025. Below are the Comparisons of some well-known Brands:

1.BIBA

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Biba, a Punjabi endearment for a young and pretty girl, is a homegrown ethnic wear brand, started by Meena Bindra in 1986 from her home in Mumbai. Soon, the brand started spreading its wings in and around the city as the product’s styling and beautiful hand block prints started getting fantastic response from the local communities, including many film stars as well. The retail revolution in the country gave the brand the desired recognition and an opportunity to grow across the country. Symbolising the strength and the spirit of today’s woman, Biba today is the most loved ethnic wear brand in the country. With a prime objective of providing trend setting and fashionable Indian attire, Biba products are available in all three categories of SKD (Salwar Kameez Dupatta), M&M (Mix & Match) and unstitched fabric. What began as a fashionable and affordable line remains the brand’s ethos today: fashion at affordable price. Milestones and Successes: Biba pioneered Bollywood merchandising with the film, Na Tum Jano Na Hum, in 2004 and covered ten more projects, including blockbusters such as Devdas, Hulchul, and Baghban. The brand was also the first to introduce I-shop concept with Shoppers Stop. Images Group has awarded Biba as the ‘Most Admired Women’s Indian Brand’ on several occasions and the brand has also received ‘The Best Indian Wear Brand’ from Shoppers Stop, Myntra, Youth Marketing awards to name a few. Meena Bindra, its founder and chairperson has been awarded ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by CMAI and Franchise India for her contribution to the apparel industry. Target Consumer: Biba’s wide range of collection caters to all age groups starting from 18 to 45 years. The popular demand from its avid patrons has led the company to introduce Biba Girls, a dedicated range for kids between 2 to 12 years. Product Basket: The current product portfolio includes SKD (Salwar Kameez Dupatta), ethnic mix-and-match, kurtas, palazzos, leggings, skirts, unstitched pieces, etc. Its SKD and mix-andmatch are the highest contributors to the overall sales. Retail Mapping: Biba currently has 225 stores across 105 cities and is growing at a rapid pace. While the metros do very well, it has presence in tier -II cities as well and are responding. It has its e-commerce site www.biba.in and has presence on Jabong, Myntra, Abof, Amazon and Flipkart to name a few. 2|Page

Domestic Retail Expansion Plans: It hopes to add 200 more stores in over the next three years and will make Biba a 1000 crore brand by 2018. It also aims to capture three percent of the womens ethnic wear market by 2020. International Markets: It plans to offer online delivery to a few international markets. Omnichannel Presence: It has started Biba home delivery from its stores. This is an initiative taken to avoid any sale loss. Customers have the option of booking garments that they don’t find their size in or any particular style online from the store. These garments will be delivered to their doorstep in 48 hours. This is a great initiative and it will enhance the brand’s omni channel presence. 2.Desi Belle

Desi Belle was launched in 2010 by Re-Source World Exim to fulfill the need of ladies fusion wear. The brand was conceptualized with the idea of evolving the way women dress in India. The romance created using western/euro silhouettes, fashion right prints and themes paired with reinvented Indian styles makes it the most desirable brand globally. The mantra is to create affordable fashion for the ageless and self-confident women.

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Milestones & Successes: The brand has witnessed rapid growth. Within a short span, it has become a pan India brand. Soon, it will launch its western wear brand, Miss Desi Belle. Target Consumer: The brand targets ladies who are fashion inclined. Product Basket: The product range comprises both western and Indo-western styles. It offers tops, tunics, kurtas, maxidresses, palazzos, pants, leggings, skirts, culottes, etc. Retail Mapping: Desi Belle has a pan India network reaching every market through exclusive stores, multi-brand outlets, various retailers such as Central, Brand Factory, etc., and online partners like Amazon, Flipkart, Jabong, Tata Cliq, Voonik, Gofynd, Limeroad, Shopclues, Paytm and the company’s website www. desibelle.com Domestic Retail Expansion Plans: The brand aims to increase its sales turnover by 25-30 percent and total retail space by 15-20 percent. Omnichannel Presence: Desi Belle is available across all types of retail formats such as exclusive stores, multi-brand stores, large format stores, e-commerce portals as well as distribution network. According to the brand, every business channel have its contribution to the business. 3.Indian Ink

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The ethnic wear brand, Indian Ink was launched in 2015 by Suditi Industries to capture the growing women’s retail sector in India. Founded in 1991 as a processing plant, Suditi Industries, over the years has grown in both size and scale. Today, this industry boasts of a complete garment set-up with knitting, dyeing, printing, finishing and garment departments. This also allows them to control all the processes in the value chain, thus increasing its ability to provide standardised good quality products. Similarly, certificates like the ISO 9001: 2000, GOTS and OEKO TEX S-100 strengthen its reputation in the textile industry and reiterate the mantra for professionalism and high standards. Target Consumer: Indian Ink’s core target customers are women between the age group of 18 to 35 years. They can be students, homemakers, working women, etc. Product Basket: The brand offers churidar-kurta-dupatta (CKD), salwar-kurta-dupatta (SKD), kurtis, tunics, tops, shirts, dresses, pants, palazzos, leggings, dupattas, etc. Its top selling product is mix-and-match combo (kurti and leggings). Retail Mapping: At present, the brand’s products are available across India through exclusive brand stores, large format stores, shop-in-shop formats, distributorship and e-commerce. The brand has strong presence in north India, especially in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi. Moreover, tier -I and -II market is growing very fast and the brand is generating 60 percent of its revenue from these cities. Domestic Retail Expansion Plans: Indian Ink has plans to expand its exclusive retail outlets to 14 stores by the end of this year. Similarly, it will reach 25 stores by December 2017 and to a total of 40 stores in the end of 2018. International Markets: It has plans to tap overseas market after two years. As of now, it is looking only at domestic market for brand expansion. Omnichannel Presence: The brand believes in being omnipresent and be available at all the channels where its customers expect it to be. Furthermore, distribution, e-commerce and multibrand outlets are helping Indian Ink in multiplying the brand’s turnover. 4.Mohey

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Mohey, a range of celebration wear for women was launched in 2015) by Vedant Fashions Pvt. Ltd., which also owns the brand, Manyavar. The label is backed by years of collective experience, values and passion. Founded with the core Manyavar values, each piece of lehenga, saree, suit and gown is handpicked for its unmatched signature. The brand is available at 40 exclusive Mohey stores. It has plans to reach 5,00,000 sq.ft Of retail space across India and abroad by 2020. Milestones & Successes: 2015: Mohey was launched with a store in Karol Bagh, New Delhi. 2016: First exclusive flagship store was opened in Lucknow (Hazratganj). 2016: New Jersey store was launched for both Manyavar and Mohey. 2016: Signed Bollywood actress Aditi Rao Hydari as the brand ambassador for Mohey. Target Consumer: The core customers are women. The brand focuses on celebration wear for women including teenage girls and middle-aged ladies. Product Basket: The brand offers a wide array of lehengas, sarees, suits and gowns. Retail Mapping: At present, the brand is focusing on tier-I cities.

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Domestic Retail Expansion Plans: It aims to reach 5,00,000 sq.ft. of retail space across India and abroad by 2020. International Markets: The brand has stores in Dubai and Sharjah (UAE), Dhanmondi (Bangladesh) and New Jersey (USA). 5. Vamas

Vamas is a pioneer and one of the country’s leading manufacturer of ready-towear designer blouse segment. The brand’s journey started in 1960s with a matching store and has since, evolved. With a vision to provide customers with ready-to-wear designer blouses, Vamas came into existence in October 2009. From the age of ‘first saree and then blouse’ to ‘first blouse and then saree’, Vamas has been a trendsetter. Target Consumer: Its core target consumers constitute of women, who are more than 15 years of age and belong to middle to higher income class. Product Basket: The brand’s product range consists of saree blouses, cholis, crop tops and jackets. 7|Page

Retail Mapping: Vamas is present all over India, South being its strongest market. It has its own website www.vamas.in and is also present through leading portals like Flipkart, Amazon, Snapdeal and many more. International Markets: Its international business comprises distribution to leading saree stores in USA, Canada, UK and others.

Launched in 2002 by TCNS Clothing with an aim to provide fashion in a modern retail environment to the Indian woman, W opened its first store in Delhi. W appropriates the mental mindscape of the contemporary urban Indian woman – a sensible confluence of Indian and western sensibilities. W is also the pioneer in introducing the concept of ‘mix-and-match’ in retail. The brand succeeded in transforming a traditional ethnic wear segment into Indo-fusion wear. In 2015, it opened around 40 new stores, reaching a total of 230+ stores, the highest for any women’s wear organisation in the country. Milestones & Successes: While W has been a much celebrated brand since inception, recently it received the ‘Images Most Admired Fashion Brand of the Year’ award in 2016 and 2015; ‘Images Most Admired Retailer’ for digital marketing campaign; ‘Images Most Admired Retailer’ for turnaround story; ‘Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year’ for unlikeboring campaign; ‘Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year’ for unusuals campaign; and ‘Best E-retailer of the Year’. It also received ‘Best Women’s Ethnic Wear Brand’ by Myntra in 2015; Shoppers Stop Pinnacle Awards 2015, Reliance Trends Best Performing Partner 2015 and Asia Retail Summit Retail Marketing Campaign of the Year 2015. Target Consumer: Its core audience lies in the age group of 25 to 35 years. It’s customers belongs to SEC A and B segments. According to the brand, W woman is bold, trendy and unafraid of being different and standing out. She is quintessentially Indian, but with a global outlook. She respects traditions, but is not ritualistic. She is independent – a working woman, basically financially independent who makes her own decisions and does not seek approvals.

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Product Basket: The brand provides its customers a full wardrobe solution with different product ranges in the market. It offers diverse merchandise like kurtas, kurtis, palazzos, pants, culottes, churidars, skirts, jackets, gilets, tops, office wear and drapes. These products can be used as day-or-work wear, festive wear, occasion wear, fusion wear, etc. Retail Mapping: The brand is retailed through more than 230 exclusive brand stores across metropolitans and key tier -I and -II cities. It also has a presence in over 900 multi-brand outlets with over 550 key accounts pan India. Its channel partners include Shoppers Stop, Lifestyle, Central, Reliance, Max, Pantaloons, etc. It is also available on Jabong, Amazon, Snapdeal, Abof, Flipkart and Myntra. Domestic Retail Expansion Plans: The brand has plans to expand to new markets and untapped geographies and deeper penetration into tier -II and -III cities. Apart from this, it will also focus on opening strategic stores in key markets in existing cities. International Markets: This year, it expanded its offerings to international clientele through stores in Sri Lanka and Mauritius. Witnessing tremendous response in Mauritius and Sri Lanka, the brand has plans to add more stores in near future. Omnichannel Presence: W Genie is a simple and sleek sales executive app Omnichannel solution which enables sales executives to access central warehouse in real time and book orders according to customer requirements. It is a cross device solution which works seamlessly on desktop, mobile, tablets etc., with multiple users. It also resolves loss of sale issue due to size unavailability of required products through an online mode. The order can be placed within three clicks. The app is present across all stores and is equally impacting sales and customer experience. Other Well Known Brands

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7. Glam & Luxe –

It is counted among one of the glamorous and fashionable brand offering an exclusive variety of line of clothing for women of this generation. Along with offering kurtis and many other products, it has been providing a large and distinguished variety of premier quality fashion accessories and items. Being a respectable, esteemed and popular fashion hub of the country, it has been providing its exceptional and world class services all around the globe with unique and fresh styles, designs and patterns at extremely amazing prices. Also, the brand is known for manufacturing each of its pieces with utmost intricacy and top class machinery. Backed with a highly experienced and skilled team of experts, it is acknowledged to have great infrastructure. Providing an exclusive range of beautiful and simply unique kurtis and kurtas, it has its head office in Patparganj Industrial Area Delhi. Along with this, you can even get gift vouchers, size and fit guide and much more interesting stuff over its shopping website that could be helpful in saving your penny as well as get something glamorous and different. Even, specials and new arrivals are also available over the platform and if you sign up with them, you will get notified of the new collection and variety coming.

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8. Chabra 555

Chabra 555 is a well known and trusted brand of Indian bridal and ethnic wear in Delhi. They offer widest range of stitched and unstitched party wear Kurtis. They also offer cotton Kurtis but are known for their party and bridal wear. They have recently launched their exclusive website that ships their products to all over India. It is another one of the favourites of people in terms of kurtis, wedding sarees, and much more preferred on a large scale all across the country. The inception of the brand is been done way back around in year 1954 and just from a small saree shop, over the years it has grown and expanded into one of the top notch and acknowledged wholesalers and retailers of Indian ethnic wear. The vast clothing product range of the brand covers everything from lehengas, sarees, suits, dupattas, fabrics, stitched materials and much more. The brand actually follows the tradition of offering unique and distinctive patterns of apparel and clothing at extremely nominal 11 | P a g e

prices by maintaining its presence and retail showrooms all around the nation. Always believing and maintaining relationships with its clients spanning generations, it has exclusive collection meeting diverse requirements and preferences of people, perfect to wear at any occasion or event. The vision of the company is to cater superior quality fashionable and distinct garments and apparels at the most cost efficient prices to user's at large scale. The focus and emphasis of people is on helping out villagers and making use of their resources in the best possible way striving dedicatedly to cater all the help and aid no matter whether it is financial or moral. In fact, it has been striving hard to make an international foray and intend to create a strong and dedicated dealership network across selected nations. Apart from Indian ethnic wear, the brand is been forayed across new verticals and is been planning to expand and proffer a vast variety in jewellery to handbags. The vision of the company is to become an ambassador of the Indian wear offering exclusive variety to women situated at every nook and corner of the globe. The values of the brand cover transparency drive for efficiency, capability, adaptability and more. In kurtis, it is been offering unstitched as well as readymade kurtis at extremely decent prices.

9. Soch

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Soch is a brand of contemporary Indian women. They offer Sarees, Kurtas, Kurtis, Unstitched Suits and Ready Made Blouses. Their garments and fabrics are handpicked from Mumbai, Delhi, Calcutta, Banaras, Jaipur, Mysore and Kancheepuram. They blend traditional fabrics of country such as Cotton, Silk, Khadi etc with modern designs and create fashion clothing for today’s women. They have 53 exclusive retail showrooms in Tier1 and Tier 2 cities in country. It is counted as one of the acknowledged and widely preferred kurti brands bought at a wide scale all across the country. Being one of the favourites of women and youth in India, the brand focuses on designing and fabricating clothing line that could complement he modern and urban woman of today's world and that could praise her achievements and accomplishments at home, work, and the leisure. Fashioned and made up from a vast array of simply magnificent and exquisite handpicked long lasting fabrics and material including chiffons, cottons, silks, crepes, brocades, voiles or blends sourced from different locations from all around the country covering Delhi, Mumbai, Mysore, Calcutta, Jaipur, Kancheepuram, Banaras, and more, the brand proffers an exclusive and amazing collection of Indian wear ideal to be worn at almost every occasion. Highly dedicated and passionate to make stylish and unique designer wear for women of all age groups, all the clothing and apparel offered by the brand adheres to the top notch and superior quality standards and meticulous and intricate attention to detail. Proffering an exclusive range of stitched suits, kurtis, sarees, leggings, bottoms, readymade blouses and unstitched suits, the brand is reckoned to add fresh and new arrivals every week with new designs bringing trends and style to the people as they happen from all over the nation to SOCH consumers at affordable pricing. Helping users and facilitating ease of selection, each store has the latest and recent catalogues featuring new and trendy collections. Offering every size from small to 4 times XL sizes, it has a wide range and abundance of sizes and cuts ideal for the Indian body. At present, the brand has about 53 stores present all around the nation covering metropolitan cities and others. To name a few, the cities cover Mumbai, Mysore, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Mangalore, Pune, Indore, Coimbatore, Cochin etc.

10. Eternal

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It is one of the acknowledged and famous clothing brands preferred on a large scale by people all across the nation. Offering a large variety of kurtis of top notch and high quality, they are available in several fabrics and materials like Viscose, Georgette, Cambric cotton and more. Perfect to wear as casual wear or party wear or anything for a special occasion or event, the brand also provides customized stitching and facilities, as per the convenience and preference and demand of customers. Adding to this, the brand offers shipping facility and services all around the globe. Along with kurtis, it is a renowned and well known manufacturer and exporter of many other clothing items including sarees, lehengas and salwar suits. Moreover, it has been providing all sizes and category in clothing line that could be possible and that too in lovely, wonderful and dynamic prints and designs. No matter, whether you have been looking for printed design or a simple pattern or something gaudy for a special event, the brand is a preferable and recommended option to go for. Undoubtedly, it is a pioneer as a kurti exporter and the best part is the availability of them in such discounted and catchy prices.

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