Flaunting luxury fashion brands is every woman’s dreams but not something that everyone can afford. Rent n Flaunt eliminates the need to purchase these products and accessories. Working on a subscription-based model, the luxury fashion rental portal makes higher-end brands available to all in a sustainable way. Based on subscription plan chosen by the customer, they can rent 3-5 products a month and come back next month for more. They also have one-time rental plans where the customers can rent accessories for a lesser number of days.

Observing the trend that most people desire to rent accessories for weddings, important meetings, parties or functions; Rent n Flaunt, decided to come up with the one-time rental plan which allows customers to hold on to the products for 4 or 8 days. The portal also provides free shipping both ways giving members one less thing to worry about.

Founded in September 2020, Rent n Flaunt is the brainchild of Sakshi Goel. Within three month since its start, Rent n Flaunt helped many women live the lavish lifestyle while also easing their budgets.

Bewakoof, the online apparel retailer is planning to raise Rs 100 crore funds in order to expand its retail presence and diversify product basket. On the cards are investments in technology, new products additions like ethnic wear, streetwear, and branding. Bewakoof is looking to boost sales and targets around Rs 150 crore in sales for the current financial year.

As per Prabhkiran Singh, Co-founder of Bewakoof, the company targets a turnover of Rs 140-150 crore, a decrease of 30-33 per cent over last fiscal’s Rs 210 crore. It lost nearly four months of business, due to the lockdown.

Bewakoof had received funding worth Rs 80 crore from Bahrain’s alternative asset manager, Investcorp, Snapdeal founders (Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal), and Sixth Sense Ventures (Nikhil Vora). The company expects normalcy to return and be profitable riding on booming e-commerce in the country post the Covid-19 disruptions.

Fashion and lifestyle exhibition The Haat will bring a range of brands to Kolkata’s Ice Skating Rink for a four-day business-to-customer showcase in February. According the event’s Facebook page, the upcoming shopping fair will feature products including traditional wear, western wear, handlooms, jewellery, accessories, home ware, footwear, children’s wear, bags, and lifestyle products. The fair will take place with social distancing measures in place, including mask wearing.

The event will also hold a second fair in Kolkata in March at the same venue. The March edition will feature similar brand selection as February, as well as spring collections for warmer weather.

The Haat multi-brand shopping fair is organised by The Haat India, run by events management business Faircare Exhibitions. It takes place in a number of cities including Raipur and Hyderabad. Following a hiatus due to the pandemic and lockdowns, the event restarted its schedule at the end of last year and held a fair in Kolkata in December, featuring brands like Adya Heritage, among others.

Women’s wear brand Rose Room after rebranding from ‘Rose Room Couture’ to ‘Rose Room’, is expanding both its retail footprint and product selection. The brand’s new bright, gold and white store houses Rose Room’s latest collection of party dresses, floaty gowns, embellished denim, and leather jackets. With spacious interior and wooden floors, the store’s design focuses on the garments and creates a tranquil environment. It also launched ‘Rose Room Jewels’ a jewellery line at its first flagship store in New Delhi. The brand will offer complimentary jewellery to add to the brand’s selection of feminine, yet edgy attire.

The brand has also partnered Rezon Luxury Silverware by Kalyani Chawla to offer a range of gift items in-store. Other recent launches include a trousseau line and collection of pant suits.

The new branding takes inspiration from Bhagwat Gita’s teaching and circle of life. The recently launched first flagship store in New Delhi will be a one-stop-shop to celebrate an occasion.

Amazon will commence its ‘Great Republic Day Sale’, from January 20, 2021. The four-day sale event ends on January 23. The company says that the Great Republic Day Sale will have deals on smartphones, electronics, fashion and beauty essentials, home and kitchen, large appliances, TVs, daily essentials and more.

The list of brands on discounts during include OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, LG, Bosch, HP, Lenovo, JBL, and boAt Sony among others. While Amazon hasn't revealed the exact deals of different products, as of now, and one can expect it to tease new deals as the sale date approaches. Some of the deals claimed by Amazon include up to 40 per cent off on mobiles and accessories, up to 60 per cent off on electronics, up to 50 per cent off on large appliances and TV, and up to 40 per cent off on Amazon Echo, Fire TV, and Kindle devices. Amazon has also teased that it will have a particular category for top 10 products across smartphones, laptops, tablets, kitchen appliances, apparel, electronics, home entertainment, and more segment that have received 4-star or above rating on the e-commerce platform.

Fashion clothing brand Alaya by Stage 3 and menswear designer Kunal Anil Tanna collaborate to create an affordable men’s clothing line. The capsule collection consists of traditional Indian menswear like achkans, bandhgalas, kurtas, aligarhis, and straight pants.

Tanna noted the importance of catering to the aspirational needs of fashion consumers, especially in current times. Since its inception, the association with Alaya was meant to be in sync, because of the mutual intention to make couture accessible and affordable to everyone. Sabena Puri, Sanchit Baweja, and Rina Dhaka founded Stage 3 in Delhi as a fashion rental service in 2016. Alaya by Stage 3 acts as the business’ commerce model.

Fashion designer Manish Malhotra has launched a virtual store in partnership with Gmetri. The virtual store allows customers to virtually visit the Delhi flagship spanning over 15,000 sq ft. The virtual store can be browsed on desktop, laptop, and mobile.

The decision to launch a virtual store was long overdue but intensified due to the pandemic. While the brand’s customers have been able to shop via e-commerce site, the brand wanted to offer a seamless experience to the brand, even though customers can't make the stores in the lockdown.

With this new virtual experience facility, the brand hopes to bridge the serendipitous joy of shopping at its exclusive physical outlets. The store offers a broad line-up of couture pieces, along with other brand portfolios, including Manish Malhotra Jewellery, Manish Malhotra Beauty, and Manish Malhotra Home.

The brand plans to enhance customer experience by launching chat support over the next two months to help with product or purchase queries, e-consults, and personalised guidance.

The Clothing Manufacturers Association of India, (CMAI) has written an open letter to Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance outlining pre-Budget recommendations. The association has urged the government to consider key financial aid that can help the industry recover from the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Government support for MSME sector

The letter states how the Indian garment industry, whose manufacturing is solely dependent on retail, is the worst affected, in view of the stringent lockdowns, partial lockdowns, and an on off approach to markets being allowed to operate.

What compounds the problem is the fact that more than 80 per cent of the garment industry is within the MSME sector, with its own constraints of finance and sustaining power.

Rajesh Masand, President, CMAI, explains it is therefore, essential that the garment manufacturing sector, which is the highest employer in the country after agriculture, gets strong support from the government if it has to survive and recover in coming years.

The upcoming Budget for 2021-22 is an ideal opportunity for the government to extend this support to the MSME sector in this crucial industry. Support to this industry will also add tremendous fillip to the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ philosophy of the government.

CMAI, also states how in the financial year 20-21, many companies will face a drastic drop in revenue and profits and it would impact them financially. This would create a situation where banks might drastically curtail or withdraw credit facilities.

Hence, CMAI recommends banks should continue giving Drawing Power (DP) based on 2019-20 performance, and not give weightage to the 2020-21 numbers. Furthermore, companies showing any ‘Loss’ return in Income Tax should be not an automatic candidate for scrutiny, as this year it is possible that many companies might incur heavy losses .

GST at 5%, better interest rates

Although retail sales have shown some signs of pick up, it is still struggling at around 60 to 65 per cent of last years’ sales. Consumers are yet to build sufficient confidence to resume normal shopping – especially when it comes to discretionary spending. Hence, the association has strongly recommended the current distinction in GST rates below and above Rs 1,000 is removed, and a uniform rate of 5 per cent GST is applied.

The association also recommended at least for a period of one year, domestic manufacturers are offered working capital interest rates at the same rate as exporters to provide a huge relief to the manufacturers.

The government is contemplating an outstanding PLI Scheme, which for the textile sector been converted to a FPLI Scheme. One of the qualifying criteria for this scheme is a current base turnover of Rs 100 crores.

For the garment sector, and especially the domestic sector, there are only a miniscule number of manufacturers who would qualify for this criterion. To really give a massive push to the avowed objective of pushing MMF sector, the association strongly believes the minimum turnover criterion be reduced to Rs 50 crores, for this scheme to be effective.

As per the All India Consumer Products Distributors over 500 distributors have dues over Rs 700 crore pending from the Future Group since March 2020. As Future Group awaits markets regulator SEBI’s approval for the deal to sell its retail, wholesale and logistics business to Reliance Retail, the All India Consumer Products Distributors Federation (AICPDF) has also written to SEBI urging it take a decision at the earliest on this transaction.

The federation states these distributors, were hoping the Reliance deal would mean their dues would be cleared. Pending dues, along with a decrease in business are causing financial strain on of distributors, forcing many to sell or mortgage family assets like house and jewelry to tide over the crisis.

However, with Future Group now embroiled in a legal battle with Amazon over the deal, regulatory approval is taking longer than expected, and post SEBI’s clearance too, distributors believe it would take three to four months more for the deal to be closed and dues paid back.

These distributors had also written to Future Group Chairman Kishore Biyani days after the Reliance deal was announced to clear outstanding dues. Responding to the letter written post the Reliance deal, Biyani wrote to all suppliers and creditors assuring them that they would be paid their dues in full and the transaction with Reliance Retail includes a specific amount that has been set aside to pay dues owed to suppliers and creditors.