21 January 2023, Mumbai

Madame has opened a store in South Delhi. The store is 1,869 sqft and has new visual merchandising elements. The store caters to the mid-premium to elite segment of customers.

Madame used to operate a store in the same location from 2012 to 2017, which made it a natural choice for re-opening. Being located at a popular shopping destination in the country’s capital, the brand expects to attract a daily footfall of 150 to 200 customers at the store.

Madame is a western wearwomen’s brand. Launched in the 1980s, and based in Gurugram, Madame has over 150 stores across India, of which 21 are in New Delhi. In addition, the business is working to increase its customer base through its e-commerce platform. The women’s wear brand caters to customers in Tier II and III cities who are equally aware of global fashion trends and are looking for brands to offer them western fashion options at affordable prices.

The brand’s sales grew by 25 per cent during the October-December quarter and it expects a strong end to the financial year on the back of its retail expansion. Madame was created to meet the fashion needs of progressive and modern Indian women.

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 17 January 2023, Mumbai

Rangriti’s new line features an array of festive sets. The collection features ethnic sets in jewel and muted tones as well as classic shades of maroon and black. Coin and bead embellishments add a bohemian flair and numerous ensembles come in heavyweight fabrics for the colder months.

Array

The collection also features palazzo pants, straight-cut suits, lehengas, indie tops, slim-fit pants, dresses, jackets, and coats, among other garments. Rangriti, a women’s ethnic wear brand, was launched by Biba as a value-focused subsidiary in 2015 with the aim of offering traditional styles at affordable prices.

Extensive footprint

The brand has exclusive brand outlets across India and operates in a large number of Tier II and III cities.

In recent times, with India’s online retail boom, changing lifestyles, and rapid urbanization, the ethnic market has seen tremendous growth. Much of the market is unorganized. The increased demand for ethnic wear is not only attributed to festivals and special occasions but also the increased demand for fusion wear.

Emerging category

The women’s ethnic wear category is expected to remain the fastest-growing category in the next five to ten years. The trend will be more toward fashion consciousness and there will be a greater demand for high quality, fashionable and affordable fashion.

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 21 January 2023, Mumbai

Mango plans to open 35 new stores this year in India. These new stores will include two new flagship stores in Bangalore and Ludhiana which will take its network to more than 110 points of sale by the end of the year.

The brand has tripled its presence in India in the past two years with 85 points of sale as compared to the 28 it had at the end of 2020.

The Spanish fashion brand sees India as one of the most important markets in its internationalisation strategy, since, according to all forecasts, this country is destined to become the third-largest consumer market in the world within the next few years and

Mango wants to have a significant presence in it. As part of its expansion plan drive in India, Mango recently opened its first Mango Man store, which marked the launch of its men’swear line in India.

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 18 January 2023, Mumbai

Ethnix plans to have 80 stores by the end of fiscal year 2023 and 150 by the end of fiscal year 2024.As of now there are 45 stores.

Ethnix, a wedding wear brand run by Raymond, is geared up to capture a higher share of the wedding market and to leverage its brand and distribution network. Apart from this, Raymond also has an existing network of 1500 stores, some of which will also be selling ethnicwear or wedding wear products.India’s leading fashion and textile company Raymond has plans for big fat Indian weddings.

The wedding season is one of the most important focus areas for a majority of Indian retailers and brands. India’s wedding market size for the months of November 2022 and December 2022 was estimated to be Rs 3.8 lakh crores, of which branded apparel formed Rs 50,000 crores.

Augmented urbanization, fashion upgrades and enlarged disposable income are driving the growth of the global bridal wear market. Also technological advances, entry of local players, and augmented luxury weddings are some of the factors that have accelerated the bridal wear market growth. The idea of sumptuous weddings has also contributed to the rising popularity of weddings at destinations.

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13 January 2023, Mumbai

Forever 21 has opened a store in Nagaland, which happens to have a fashion feel.

The store has women’s wear, men’s wear, collections for party wear, casual wear, dinner or lunch dates, accessories and footwear.The opening of the store saw a considerable turn out of people, both men and women, eager to try out the first collections available there. With this the brand has a total of five stores in the northeast region. But this new store has the best facade among all the other northeastern states including an LED screen outside to display offers when available. Offers will be provided in the store every alternate month.

Forever 21 is an American fast-fashion giant. It is heavily favoured by young people across the globe for its affordable pricing and trendy styles. In 2016, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail acquired the rights to the India network of Forever 21.

The brand currently has over 30 stores across India. Since then the company has changed its image and collection to keep up with changing trends. So it will be opening and expanding more stores in the future. Forever 21 has tied up with other international brands such as Hello Kitty to collaborate on specific collections.

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Les Petits, the luxury fashion brand for children, has come up with a premium collection from the house of Dolce & Gabbana. The collection will be available only on the Les Petits platform which reserves the exclusive rights to offer the collection in India.

Les Petits brings a diverse range for different age groups of children, carefully curated keeping in mind upcoming occasions – Diwali, wedding season, birthday parties, baby showers etc. It comes with a variety of designs with different price ranges to make it a one-stop solution for children up to 12. One could choose from a fine collection of formal and party dresses, beautiful lacy, pastel colored tops, trendy pants and premium shoes. Accessories like fancy hats, handbags and belts make Les Petits a preferred shopping destination for the urban Indian consumer.

The collection consists of dresses, track pants, shoes, etc featuring eye-catching, unique designs. The offering from D&G explores opulence with its unconventional and luxurious collection. It brings a distinct style to life that echoes the designer’s tryst with elaborate patterns to create a statement even when the children don their most casual looks. Les Petits is continually driven by the desire to ramp up its offering in the children’s segment.

Les Petits, a venture of the DS Group, is an established player in the luxury children’s wear segment in India. Launched in 2011, Les Petits has a solid lineage and an offering suited to the luxury demanding audience in India.

13 January 2023, Mumbai

Biba has opened a store in Gurgaon.

The store which retails the brand’s full range of stitched and unstitched garmentshas a spacious interior and features a dedicated section for the brand’s Easy Stitch fabric sets as well as sections for occasion wear and casual wear and accessories.

Biba is an ethnic wear and lifestyle retailer. New launches by Biba include its Weddings by Biba line designed for the upcoming spring wedding season. The collection is made with Liva Fluid Fabric, a natural origin textile designed to be sustainable. Along with classic kurtas in bright hues, the collection also offers more fusion and casual style ensembles such as jumpsuits and maxi-dresses.The brand has also launched a new footwear line featuring juttis and sandals designed to be suitable for wedding wear ensembles.

The women’s ethnic wear brand has a massive store expansion program. Of these stores 40 per cent would be flagship stores, around 3000sqft to 5000 sqft in size. These stores would have a different experience for customers. The trial rooms, for instance, would have special lighting techniques that allow customers to see how a dress would look in the afternoon or in the evening. About 20 per cent of the brand’s stores are franchise-owned.

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 19 January 2023, Mumbai

Tasva has opened a store in Jaipur. This is Tasva’s 33rd franchise outlet in India.

Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail partnered with couturier TarunTahiliani to launch Tasva as a men’s ready-to-wear brand in December 2021. In October 2022, Tasva made its e-commerce marketplace debut with Myntra. Until then it was retailed on its own website. As part of ramping up its offline presence, Tasva launched more than five stores in December 2022 at different locations. The recently launched stores are situated in New Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Lucknow and Mumbai.

In February 2021, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail acquired a 33 per cent stake in Goodview Properties, giving it access to the existing luxury couture business of Tarun Tahiliani. The two brands have since developed and launched the brand Tasva. Followed by the launch of its first store at Bangalore in December 2021, Tasva opened two more stores in the same month in New Delhi and Mumbai. Tasva operates in 20 cities across India.

Tasva celebrates traditional crafts in a contemporary approach with fabrics ranging from silks to cotton to brocades and velvets. Accessories include safas, sarpeches, brooches, pocket squares, buttons, sehras, stoles, shawls and footwear. The brand connects modern silhouettes with traditional craftsmanship techniques, diverse fabrics and textures.

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 17 January 2023, Mumbai

At the outset the outlook for wearables in India remains strong in the current year with users from Tier II and III cities becoming attracted to it. In Q1 FY’22 India’s wearable shipments grew 20.1 percent Y-o-Y to 13.9 million units and rest of the quarters growth too is expected to remain healthy due to continuing push from brands as a catalyst and scenario looks very bright on the back of demand tailwind.

Pull and push

The performance-linked incentive scheme is encouraging key players in the sector to venture into local manufacturing and launch ‘Made in India’ products, further lowering their selling price, adds Joshi.

Consumers are being encouraged to spend more on wearables through aggressive discounts, new features, and a strong push from brands and channel partners, says Anisha Dumbre, Senior Market Analyst, Client Devices, IDC India.

What is sellinThe growth was driven by increasing acceptance of earwear devices and upgrades to watches from wrist bands, both recording their highest annual shipments in 2022.

Prognosis

In 2023, the Indian wearable market is expected to migrate to more sophisticated devices with enhanced audio experience being the central theme for all vendors, say most of the trade observers as the high cost associated with wearable watches is not much of a challenge anymore.

But unqualified products been dumped in India is one concern flag raised by trade watchers & experts as this is both capex and working capital investment intensive and illegal imports are not going to take us any where.

Surprise element

The usage of digital technology, no prediction could have worked for long in the past in terms of shifting the business environment throughout the supply chain for an industry as fragmented as fashion where product cycles have also decreased dramatically, from months to days and where unit economics is pretty critical given 'Competitive Landscape'.

The truth is that no customer will pay more for factory-sourced items tomorrow than they did yesterday so the USP of success is going to be smart features and cutting edge product simple as this.

Use cases of smart wearables

Rather than incorporating electronic gadgets into accessories such as watches or spectacles, the next step is to incorporate them into the clothing itself. As a result, the user will not need to carry an additional accessory and will be able to wear smart device features right on their clothing.

Designers and manufacturers have been attempting to affix these gadgets to the cloth directly and already early movers are making best out of it.

Bits of Good

And India needs to replicate China like spirit and eco-system to make a big success out of this emerging category for a country of youthful demographics. We have climbed up in ease of doing business and, is helping global & Indian investors as these small things help maths adding up to sew a success story.

Now India has a strong manufacturing heritage to prove the point and the innovation led R&D in some of the companies is driving the future traction to create an intrigue around these lifestyle products and continued evolution of emerging technologies is the vanguard of this category.

There is a case for wearable devices help solve issues plaguing the fitness conscious Indians. Product! Product! Product; The trend we are witnessing today is that it is not really naive to argue anymore that remote monitoring powered by wearables can be of great help to effectively & meaningfully monitor health parameters and, relay these vital stats to doctors/physicians Or healthcare providers over the cloud thus timely get expert advice & prescription as in preventive cure and treatment and, this is the change we are seeing today.

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 12 January 2023, Mumbai

Monte Carlo’s revenues grew 12 percent during the third quarter.

Despite the higher raw material prices, the company has strategically tackled the volatility by optimising the product mix, passing on the costs to consumers and rationalising overheads. The quarterly sales have been the best for the company on the back of substantial brand equity among consumers, the latest fashion products and superior quality aided by solid end-of-season sales and the encouraging festive season across India.

During the quarter, the woollen knitted apparel maker continued with its strategy of strengthening its retail presence in India by opening 13 new exclusive brand outlets, out of which seven were opened in the northern region, two in the central region and four in the eastern region. With this, the total number of exclusive brand outlets has reached approximately 347 across 20 states and four union territories. Most of the company’s net revenue from franchises, exclusive outlets and multi-brand outlets are sold on pre-order or outright, inventory risk is minimised, consequently helping it remain insulated from hazard sales in the branded apparel business.

The stock closed at Rs 699, up four percent on the NSE. Technically, it has formed a long bullish candle which resembles a bullish engulfing kind of pattern formation on the daily charts, with healthy volumes.

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