BackLounge Preview | Stylista.com
Indian fashion designers and celebrities create affordable collections for a new online shopping website
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Ripping off Indian designer wear has never been easier. Just last week my mother bought a metre of Masaba Gupta’s chequered polka-dot print at a fabric shop in Khar (West), Mumbai, without even realizing that the designer had only showcased the design at the Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week in October.
Gupta isn’t the only designer whose collections make their way to wholesale textile markets and knock-off boutiques just weeks after launch. Now a new online shopping website, Stylista.com, offers Indian designers like Nishka Lulla, Wendell Rodricks, Priyadarshini Rao and others, and soon even Masaba, a chance to sell their labels at the same cut-prices, on their own terms, the legitimate way.
“Fashion for some strange reason has gotten into this very exclusive place. But it’s not like Indian designers don’t want to expand their target audience," says Anjana Sharma, chief operating officer and fashion director at Stylista. “They just don’t have the backend support or investment capabilities to do it on their own."
As the former head of fashion at IMG-Reliance, a sports, fashion and media management firm, Sharma uses her experience from organizing Lakmé Fashion Week to sign on senior, mid-level and up-and-coming designers and celebrities to the Stylista label. “We are all about the true democracy of fashion. We want to give consumers a chance to sample big designers at relevant price points," she adds. “At the same time, as a collaborative platform, we offer quality and control to the designers so they don’t worry about diluting the equity of their own brand."
Unlike high-street labels and department stores in Europe and the US that launch capsule collections by guest designers as seasonal specials a few times a year, Stylista.com has been designed to offer a steady supply of new designer-wear-for-less every time you visit the website. Each designer is signed on to create at least four-five collections yearly, with up to 50 styles making up a single collection. Two new designers are introduced every month and collection releases are staggered by launching only 10-15 new designs every few weeks.
But it’s not economies of scale that help the e-tailer keep its prices in check. On the contrary, Stylista claims all its products are limited edition, with only 50-100 pieces of each style. Instead, a partnership with Mumbai-based garment manufacturer and export house Biharilal Fashions, for production and sampling, and a revenue-share model built on sales commissions instead of royalty fees to designers, allows the brand to roll out designer bargain lines.
Launched on 21 November, the website’s inaugural roster of designers includes popular names like Rodricks, Rao, Rinku Dalamal, Yogesh Chaudhary, Nishka Lulla and Tanya Sharma. At an office preview, we were impressed to see Chaudhary’s popular Pac-Man print on crop tops and drop-waist dresses, Rodricks’ line of dressy, solid-coloured dresses with dainty embellishments and Rao’s Pocahontas-inspired cotton tunics. We were also happy to spot a mint-green full-sleeve shirt by Lulla ( ₹ 1,750 on Stylista.com) that was quite similar to a powder-blue button-down from her own label on Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop for ₹ 5,900.
Stylista.com has an in-house label that Sharma says will not only help to complete the designer collections through its mix of wardrobe staples and separates, but also help the brand service a demand for international fashion trends. In the next few months, collections by Gupta, Lulla, Nikhil Thampi, Shivan & Narresh, Kallol Datta and even actor and singer-songwriter Monica Dogra will be added. “Popular culture dictates fashion so we are are starting with Monica Dogra now, but the possibilities are endless," says Sharma. “If there’s a gallery artist willing to collaborate with us tomorrow, we will gladly jump at it."
All the products currently stocked are priced at ₹ 1,050-4,450 (shipping is free), and payment by cash on delivery is possible for a ₹ 100 fee.
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