19 September 2022, Mumbai:

With a young population, India has emerged hotbed for top fashion brands from across the world. Over the last two decades, the country has attracted many reputed brands including adidas, Nike, Zara and H&M who have established their presence swiftly in the market.

For example, having entered the Indian market in 2008 in collaboration with Reliance India, M&S has been seamlessly integrating its online and in-store businesses to offer enhanced customer experience. Recently, M&S collaborated with IBM Sterling to expand its omnichannel capabilities in India.

The company uses IBM Sterling’s order management software to ensure faster delivery of products. The software also enables M&S to see all available inventories and offer precise delivery dates.

Renowned Australian fashion brand Forever New expanded its retail presence by launching a new 1,000 sq. ft. highly advanced store in Ahmedabad in June 2022. With 41 stores, the retailer has been growing in India at a CAGR of 16 percent.

More global brands eye Indian retail

Five international fashion brands are being launched in an independent brand store on Myntra. These include NA-KD, Miss Poem, OXXO, I Saw It First, and LC Waikik. Among these, the Turkish brand Miss Poem offers products for the fashionable Gen Z audience.

It sells stylish dresses, printed tops, and quirky T-shirts on Myntra. OXXO, another renowned Turkish brand offers sustainable fashion tops, casual bottoms, and well-fitted denim for girls and women in the age groups of 16 to 45. Manchester-based brand Saw It First offers body con dresses, printed crop tops, etc.

Myntra also launched the global sportswear brand New Balance earlier this year. It has bagged the distribution rights for the American fashion brand Bebe in the country.

India’s leading lifestyle social commerce platform Trell launched European fashion brands Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, and Only on its platform earlier this year. The platform partnered with Bestseller India for these launches. It allowed Jack & Jones, Vero Moda, and Only to access over 18 million content creators and 100 million users from Trell.

New labels entering India

Along with old and established ones many new fashion brands are also heading to India, US brand Gap recently entered a long-term partnership with Reliance Retail to relaunch the iconic fashion brand in India.

The Reliance-Gap alliance will explore Gap’s position as a leading casual lifestyle brand, and Reliance Retail’s expertise in operating robust omnichannel retail networks and scaling local manufacturing, and driving sourcing efficiencies.

Reliance Brands (RBL) has acquired the distribution rights for Valentino India and will open the first boutique in Delhi, followed by a flagship in Mumbai.

Naming India one of its best future markets, Uniqlo is expanding its retail presence with a new store in Lucknow. Spread across 9,265 sq. ft. the store will be Uniqlo’s seventh in the country. Recently, Danish women’s wear brand B Copenhagen launched an e-commerce store and social media platform in India.

The store was launched with the brand’s Spring/Summer 2022 collection. It offers dedicated segments for tops, capris, denim, and dresses amongst other smart casual separates from the line.

India to lead global fashion by 2026

India offers an attractive opportunity for designer premium brands as well. Over the last two decades, the country has witnessed entry of many premium designer brands including Gucci, Burberry, Bottega Veneta, etc.

Other premium brands like Valentino and Balenciaga are ready to foray into the market soon. Leading the $106 billion fashion industry by 2026, India is set to be one of the topmost fashion retail markets globally in the next few years.

Latest Textile News

17 September 2022, Mumbai:

The CMAI Fabrics, Accessories & Beyond (FAB) show will be held in Mumbai, September 19 to 21, 2022. The business-to-business event will showcase garment and textile producers from across India. Participation in the trade show is exclusively open to members of the Clothing Manufacturers Association of India.

Featured product categories at the event will include readymade garments, garment manufacturing machinery, textiles, software providers for garment businesses, suiting businesses, buttons, and trims, among others.The event will feature three fashion shows to present the latest trends in textiles on the runway.

The CMAI event is designed to facilitate networking between manufacturers and buyers, wholesalers, retailers, and other related businesses as well as to showcase industry trends for the upcoming season.

Brands scheduled to participate in the trade show include Supriya Silk Mills, RK Sewing Machines, Rajhans Synthetics, JayeshkumarRasiklal, Century Fabrics, Top Man, Softcon Business Solutions, Mahendra Mohan, Somnath Fabrics, Anox Lifestyle, Shree Sacha Textile, and Unique Button House, among others. The trade show supports the government’s Make in India campaign to increase domestic production.

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19 September 2022, Mumbai:

US fashion retailer Revolve has come on Nykaa. Revolve is a fast fashion retailer for women specialising in western wear ranging from party wear to athleisure.

Nykaa Fashion is an online multi-brand fashion platform. Nykaa’s partnership with Revolve features over 26,000 styles from more than 400 brands. The Revolve store on Nykaa offers hassle-free international shipping with cash-on delivery services available.

The service also offers no documents or paperwork and no hidden costs on international orders and is designed to make the process of shopping international brands from India more simple. Revolve offers activewear, streetwear, sporty casual wear, resort wear, party heels, and club wear, among others.

One of Nykaa Fashion’s big strategies has been about bringing the world’s best brands to India. So the strategy is about bringing the right product to the Indian consumer and this is true, especially for beauty and fashion products.

Nykaa has eleven private labels. The strategy is not to treat them like private labels, but as brands in their own right. A lot of these private labels don’t have the word Nykaa and have their own life. So they sell on other platforms, in stores, and often have their own stores.

Latest Textile News

16 September 2022, Mumbai:

Angel & Rocket has opened a store in Hyderabad. This follows an earlier store in Bangalore. This is a premium children’s wear brand based in London. It caters to girls and boys, newborns to 14 years old.

The brand offers parents a stylish yet fun take on children’s clothing, reflecting a child’s playful personality whilst ensuring comfort and quality. The sustainably made clothing line helpschildren express themselves through fashion without exerting stress on the environment and at an affordable price point. Premium fabrics are used, including fair-trade organic cotton and recycled polyesters.

Angel & Rocket also has a strong marketplace presence with Nykaa Fashion, Ajio, and Tata Cliq, to name a few.

The global children’s wear market is growing at eight per cent. Asia-Pacific is likely to hold a significant market share over the near future owing to growth in the infant population especially in developing countries like India and China. Robust economic growth and rising household incomes are expected to increase consumer spending on children’s apparel and footwear products in the Asia-Pacific region. The growth in the number of high net worth individuals and urbanisation in Middle East countries, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, is creating huge opportunities for luxury children’s apparel brands to enter the apparel market of these countries.

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19 September 2022, Mumbai:

Indian womenswear brand Mulmul has opened its flagship store in New Delhi.

The store provides a personalized styling service and a unique in-store experience where customers can shop the widest range with the help of a personal stylist. The store’s interiors completely align with Mulmul’s aesthetics and branding, along with a minimal classic colour palette, offering a rich feel to the overall in-store experience.

The flagship store offers a wide range of collections and exclusive product categories as well. With the festive season approaching, this store should be a go-to shopping place to have a leisure shopping experience.

Mulmul’s store launch was not an ordinary one. The day was full of events and entertainment with everything fancy--super fun selfies at the photo booth, mouth-watering gelato pop-up, a sketch artist, a creative florist offering beautiful flower bouquets, fancy drinks, and a music band performing live for all the guests.

Mulmul stores already exist in New Delhi, Noida, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Gurugram. Right after the launch of the flagship, two more stores were opened in Pune and Bangalore, making sure to make Mulmul’s in-store experience accessible to as many as possible.

Mulmul was born by intertwining Indian nostalgia with the idea of curating bespoke affordable luxury garments for the modern woman. Mulmul believes in weaving breathable, pure cotton timeless pieces that are equal parts skin-friendly and trailblazing.

Latest Textile News

14 September 2022, Mumbai:

Snitch’s festive collection has contemporary designs and styles. The idea behind the festive collection is to bring together prints and colors from various regions across India to show the nation’s diversity. In this collection, there is a mix of solid rich colors and versatile prints that blend well with Indian men's personality.

The collection is inspired by traditional Indian motifs and prints with deep shades of color and interplay. Apt for card/themed parties, festive outings, and get-togethers with friends and family, the festive collection offers voguish designs. To make the shopping experience even more exciting for its customers, Snitch will be running a special discount offer, allowing its shoppers to make purchases at a great value with a discount of up to 25 per cent.

Snitch is an Indian men’s fashion brand known for fast fashion and the latest trends. This 21st-century fashion station and destination for millennials founded in 2019 is widely known for its limitless, fast fashion, and experimental approach that captures worldclass trends and designs and produces mindful and sustainable everyday drops of the freshest styles.

Catering to men’s clothing from what’s trending, it offers a wide range of everyday staples, featuring formal wear, party wear, leisure wear, and much more.

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20 September 2022, Mumbai:

Indifusion is an amalgamation of Indian tradition with international fashion. The Indo-western brand utilizes design, colors, texture, and fabrics from both Indian and Western sensibilities. The aim is to blend Indian and Western cultures in its apparel. The look is that of a high fashion Indian brand appealing to an international audience. This is for the woman who wants more than what off-the-rack brands can provide her.

Every collection from this brand will showcase not only a signature style but will also explore aspects of India and Indianness that have not been explored in the fashion arena. The brand communication is multi-faceted and spans film, print, outdoor and digital mediums. The campaign features ancient monasteries, magnificent palaces, petal-strewn forest floors, and placid lakes.

This is a brand run by Bestseller India, which has always been at the forefront of getting international fashion to India. With Indifusion, Bestseller intends to expand the portfolio and cater to a larger set audience with Indian fusion wear.

The aim is to make Indifusion a key player in this segment. Bestseller India operates 20 brands, such as women’s western wear labels Only and Vero Moda, and menswear brands Jack & Jones and Selected Homme.

Latest Textile News

13 September 2022, Mumbai:

First-generation entrepreneur Kishore Biyani became the ultimate superstar in India’s retail sector when he went big in 1992. Having launched Manzwear in 1987, he converted this into the now famous Pantaloons retail chain that has its footprint across the length and breadth of India. Acknowledged as the pioneer of organized retail in India, in 2001, Biyani went on to launch the department store-like Big Bazaar to provide affordability and access to the masses.

Rise, rise, and then a fall

Whilst Kishore Biyani was on the trajectory of enormous success, insidious situations came to the fore, bringing his parade to a crashing end. Financial pundits attributed the end of this glorious journey typical to first-time entrepreneurs with unrealistic ambitions.

Unquestioned and endless bank credit can falsely goad an entrepreneur into believing pumping in money can ensure success but in reality, unplanned growth often leads to debt and subsequent bankruptcy. Many say that the frantic scaling, excessive dependence on bank loans, and a blind eye toward the growth of e-commerce led to the floundering and subsequent demolition of Biyani’s empire.

An instance of unbridled ambition is Big Bazaar. Within seven years of being launched in 2008, it counted more than 100 stores across India.

The expansion program was not restricted to Big Bazaar and also included E-Zone electronics and white goods stores, premium-food retailers Food Hall and Food Bazaar as well as fashion outlets like FBB, Brand Factory, and Central. These expensive forays without feasibility tests proved to not only sharply increase operational costs but also weakened the group’s balance sheet which destabilized the organization.

Fatal diversification from core business

The business community was taken by surprise when Biyani entered non-core sectors like insurance, financial services, stock brokerage, asset management, logistics, and real estate. This was compounded by the fact that Biyani also started film production. From what looked like a risky diversification, emerged to be a chaotic mess. Predictions that the writing was on the wall started circulating.

The rumors didn’t pull Biyani down as the convention-defying entrepreneur continued his acquisition spree. Between 2012 and 2020, he acquired Nilgiris Group, Easyday, online furniture store FabFurnish, Heritage Foods, and Hypercity, debt and all. The balance sheet was growing weaker with each acquisition and the final blow was the strict Covid lockdown.

From March 2020 to August 2020, the operation of Future Group’s almost 1,500 retail stores remained completely closed, squeezing the company’s cash flow and revenue. With no revenue, paying off the large sums of interest became a challenge and within weeks of the lockdown, Future Group defaulted.

Creditors and financial institutions panicked and set in motion stringent recovery plans from the group. Rating agencies dealt another huge blow by severely downgrading Future Group to junk status, pushing it to the brink of bankruptcy.

Perhaps Biyani was aware of the disaster to come. In December 2019, he sold a 49 percent stake of Future Group’s shares to Amazon for Rs 1,500 crores, in a bid to streamline the group’s balance sheet. In August 2020, Reliance Retail stepped in as the much-needed savior. It bought off the Future Group, lock, stock, and barrel and eased the superstar of Indian retail out of business.

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