New Delhi-based women’s wear brand Weaving Cult aims to employ more women as it believes their talent often goes unrecognized due to social responsibility.

Over the past three years, the brand has grown 50 per cent and expanded its workforce with the aim of driving continued growth.

Founder Aayushi Jain Mehta launched Weaving Cult in 2019 with only two employees and expanded her workforce to 20 employees. Today, 80 per cent of her workforce of comprise women.

Starting with an investment of less than Rs 5 lakh, Weaving Cult offers contemporary fashion including dresses and separates in customized sizes and colors.

It offers prêt and affordable occasion wear that helps transform its customers’ wardrobe and transcend their style from day to night with simple hacks and creative styling tricks.

Join our community on Linkedin 

CREDITS: Fashion Network.

Entrepreneur Rosie Gulati has launched womens wear brand Dress Bio with its maiden collection ‘Wild Beauty’ and a dedicated e-commerce store.

As per Fashion Network, Gulati believes in keeping the contemporary style trending, and passionately designs customizable collections for the empowered consumer base of women. The designer has been working tirelessly on every detail, every design and every idea of every single aspect to meet the luxury standards and keep up with the expectation of her potential customers.

The brand’s maiden collection takes its inspiration from the grounded-beauty and divine connotation of the lotus flower and mixes contemporary silhouettes with traditional influences. Garments include wrap dresses, jacket dresses, kaftans, and belted dresses among others with a diverse color palette featuring both bold hues and neutrals.

Madison Media Omega, a unit of Madison World has been appointed as the Media AOR by the Landmark Group for their brands Lifestyle and Spar. The agency will handle the entire media mandate, which includes print, television, radio, outdoor and digital.

India’s leading fashion destination, Lifestyle brings multiple categories including men, women and kids’ apparel, footwear, handbags, fashion accessories and beauty under a single roof. The retailer offers leading national and international brands and has a network of 80 stores, across 42 cities enjoying highest top-of-mind recall.

A multinational conglomerate, Spar Hypermarket retails apparels, footwear, consumer electronics, cosmetics and beauty products, home improvement and baby products. The hypermarket operates over one million square feet area across 24 stores in nine cities, including Bengaluru, Mangalore, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, and Chennai.

Beginning Monday, Delhi has announced a six-day lockdown has now allowed only essential retail and e-commerce deliveries, causing fashion retailers to shut their stores once again.

As per Fashion Network, this has resulted in brick-and-mortar clothing stores shutting their doors once again. E-commerce platforms focusing on fashion once again face a shut-down. Beauty retailer Nykaa has once again cut its Maharashtra and Delhi product selection to just essential goods in a move reminiscent of last year and e-commerce giants Amazon and Flipkart have also returned to their restricted services.

Many fashion boutiques and malls in the national capital region had already announced a temporary closure ahead of the the mandatory lockdown. Luxury mall DLF Emporio had announced just a few days ago that it will remain closed until April 30 and numerous other stores have made similar announcements.

There have been calls to expand the definition of essential goods, especially with many people working from home. The definition currently only permits groceries, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment in both Delhi and Mumbai. With essential online orders already facing delivery delays, according to the Times of India, many shoppers are already relying on online deliveries, the Press Trust of India reported.

A recycling project by cellulosic fibre producer Birla Cellulose, part of the Aditya Birla Group, has received the first National Innovative and Sustainable Supply Chain Award from UN Global Compact Network India.

The project case study presented by the company– Liva Reviva by Birla Cellulose and Fully Traceable Circular Global Fashion Supply Chains – was recognized for addressing the challenges of textile waste which is either incinerated or landfilled due to a lack of recycling technologies, as well as the lack of traceability in long and complex fashion supply chains.

Birla’s Liva Reviva viscose fibre is based on 80 per cent wood pulp and 20 per cent pre-consumer cotton fabric waste and has achieved RCS (Recycled Claim Standard) certification.

Since its launch in 2020, the fibre has been adopted by many global brands and close partnerships across the global value chains have helped in the establishment of viable reverse logistics, as well as creating higher value for textile waste for small scale waste recyclers.

RELATED ARTICLE UNIREC presents recycled 'PET bottles' sustainable garment collection

Join our community on Linkedin 

CREDITS: Knitting Industry. 

US-based women’s wear and accessories brand Tony Burch has collaborated with Reliance Brands to open first exclusive brand outlet in India in luxury mall DLF Emperio in New Delhi. The store offers Tory Burch’s line of monogrammed handbags, accessories, and women’s wear. The store opened with the brand’s spring/summer 2021 collection featuring delicate floral prints, a fresh color palette, and range of handbags and sandals.

However, the store is likely to remain closed until April 30, 2021, in line with the announcement by the state government of new measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 made on April 15. Reliance Brands first added Tory Burch to its fashion brand portfolio in February 2020,. The business plans to open Tory Burch stores in India along with stores for other new licence acquisitions Balenciaga and Kurt Geiger.

Global sports brand Puma has roped in cricketers Washington Sundar and Devdutt Padikkal, as its new brand ambassadors. The duo joins Puma’s roaster of cricketers that include Indian captain Virat Kohli; wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul; women’s national cricketer, Sushma Verma, and names like Yuvraj Singh.

Puma is a German sports brand, designing, developing, selling, and marketing footwear, apparel and accessories. For over 70 years, Puma has pushed sport and culture forward by creating fast products for athletes.

Puma offers performance and sport-inspired lifestyle products in categories such as football, running, and training, basketball, golf, and motorsports.

The Puma Group owns the brand's Puma, Cobra Golf, and Dobotex. The company distributes its products in more than 120 countries and is headquartered in Herzogenaurach/Germany.

Puma is committed to promoting new-age cricketing talent in India, Abhishek Ganguly, Managing Director, Puma India, and Southeast Asia says, the brand has always believed in supporting not just established players, but also talent with immense future potential.

It will continue to partner with young athletes, also at the grassroots to give back to India’s sporting ecosystem.

Dear Reader, we at DFU Publications are committed to providing the latest news updates on trade development and insights, to keep our readers informed. Stay tuned. Subscribe to our newsletter.  

TOP 5:

1. Flipkart, an Indian e-commerce company, collaborates with PUMA on the ‘1DER' line, which features batsman KL Rahul

2. Consumers will determine growth of sustainable fashion e-comm in India

3. Myntra to offer 1 mn styles from about 7,000 brands at the 'Big Fashion Festival'

4. Maharashtra government honors VIP as 'Best Innerwear Brand' for 2021-22

5. Nike strengthens retail presences with new store at DLF Mall of India,Noida

Return to homepage

The second COVID-19 wave is leading to a reduction in business for many retailers, restaurant owners and mall developers in India. Consumer spending has taken a backseat and this scenario is likely to continue till things settle down in some time, says Sundeep Chugh, Managing Director and CEO, Benetton India. E-commerce sales have also been impacted this time, adds Chugh. He expects business to pick up only in the third quarter of the calendar year.

Delhi is observing a curfew and has forced malls to remain shut till April-end. Maharshtra has imposed strict curbs, allowing only essential services. Madhya Pradesh said Indore, Bhopal, and Ujjain will impose curfew till April 26. Karnataka imposed a night curfew across cities. Across India, the mood is grim. Meanwhile, CAIT has appealed for an immediate 15-day lockdown in Delhi.

This has impacted business badly with footfalls falling 80 per cent across India while sales falling by 60 per cent. Also, this time there is no pent up demand as last time, says the CEO of a fashion apparel retailer.

Shopping Centres Association of India says, footfalls in malls have dropped by 75 per cent due to local curbs. The uncertainty of the situation has sent many consumers into a savings mode, adds Nilesh Gupta, Director, Vijay Sales.

The resolution plan to restructure Future Retail’s existing debt under the RBI’s special scheme for COVID-related stress has been approved by a group of 28 lenders. However, the restructuring needs to be approved by an expert committee led by KV Kamath. The resolution plan includes restructuring of Future Retail’s listed non-convertible debentures (NCDs). However, it does not include NCDs issued to certain trusts and US bonds, carrying an annual interest of 5.6 per cent and maturing in 2025.

The restructuring will help the company recover from the COVID-induced financial stress. It will also enable promoter Kishore Biyani to chalk out a new strategy even as he awaits the court’s approval on the sale of the company’s business to Reliance.

The resolution plan will also extend the company’s loan repayment period by two years. It will waive its unpaid penal interest and processing fees from March 2020 till the implementation date of the plan. Additionally, interest accrued between March and September 2020 will be converted into a loan, which the company will have to pay by December.