THE DRESS CIRCLE
PRICE
LESS, SELL MORE
Indian
designers have finally realised that price sensitive off-the-rack occasion wear
is the way to go, Most of the them are launching diffusion lines
Designer
Indian occasional wear has always come with a heavy price tag. Traditionally an
Indian designer cocktail sari can cost you more than an evening dress by Oscar
de Renta, Ellie Saab or Marchesa. Five years ago, I had a close friend’s
wedding to attend, I remember going to one of India’s best known couturiers,
known for their fine craftsmanship and majestic aesthetic sensibilities.
I had a budget in mind, it was comparable to what one would pay for a Lanvin or Azzedine Alia cocktail dress. Yet there was nothing in the store
I could find at that price point. This seemed a bit ridiculous to me. So I opted to revamp one of my mother’s beautiful vintage saris. Cut to Wills India Fashion Week (WIFW) a few weeks ago. I visited the stall of two of India’s most accomplished couturiers Tarun Tahilani and Rohit Bal to preview their Spring/ Summer 2013 collections. Their stalls were filled with highly-stylised Indian occasion wear, all with a retail price of under Rs 60,000. These were pieces that, with the right accessories, could easily be worn in the festive and wedding season. The only drawback: these collections will not be available in store till Spring. Earlier this year, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and Suneet Varma also unveiled highly stylised lines that had lighter price tags than one would expect. I could not help but think is this “The Sabyasachi Effect”?
Sabysachi, love him or hate him, in the decade he has been in the fashion industry he has become a major power player. This week he opened a store in Hyderabad. His fifth standalone.
His turnover has grown by 35 per cent in the last year and now touches Rs 60 crore. Twenty-seven-years-old Satya Paul is probably the only other Indian designer brand with a high turnover higher. Sabyasachi is now expecting a large round of funding and investments to come and is hopeful of his growth rate soaring up by 400 per cent in the next couple of years.
The story of his success has to be his pricing. For the last four years Sabyasachi focus has been on Indian
bridal and occasion wear with a traditional twist that is well priced. At his store 80 per cent of what he sells in priced at under a lakh. Of that 80 per cent, a good size of that is priced at under Rs 30,000. Says Sabyasachi, “I am business man first, then a designer”.
He believes the sweet spot for Indian designer occasion off the rack wear is at the under Rs 50,000 mark and that is what he concentrates on.
With the customer base growing for Indian designer wear, it is no longer just the elite wearing designer. There are the DINKs, the professionals and the new Upper Middle Classes. While they are open to spending, they are still price conscious. And there is no question that the recession of four years ago has had an impact on how we spend. The result is that high fashion designer wear is now about “No questions asked” couture which designers sell from their studios for the lucky and also growing elite. Then there is the price sensitive off-the-rack occasion wear sold at stores. You could call this a diffusion line — it not as special and as expensive as couture, but still distinctive enough to be worn for a night out.
Of course when you speak to senior designers most will say that Sabyasachi has little to do with this trend, its just a sign of times. This in a way could be true, but it seems Sabyasachi was among the first to adapt to this change, and his product has hit a chic cord with the customers — his growth rate is proof to this. What has also helped stimulate this easier on the pocket-priced occasion wear is that fact that our understanding of fashion has matured. “Women now want more subtle evening wear,” says Varma. And Tahiliani agrees, “It is no longer about embroidery, Swarovski and embellishment but about quality style and fit,” he says.
Varma will be opening a second store in Delhi in the new year at the DLF Promenade and this store will only sell his diffusion line priced at Rs 30,000 and under. This for Suneet is a natural progression. “The more you sell, the more price sensitive you can be,” says Suneet.
Tahiliani’s collection that previewed at fashion week, “A Revelation,” is all under Rs 60,000. Chikankari, kantha and dori are used in a quirky way in this line of separates. Tahiliani is already thinking this collection could be the start of a second label for him which he would call “OTT”, which he can see growing as a new and more affordable line.
“Moving into bifurcation can be difficult. With the couture studio doing so well, the philosophy of couture tends to spill into everything you design.” But his spring A Revelation line shows a clear focus on diffusion lines. Each of these styles will be produced in high quality and high quantity. “It is about economies of scale”, says Tahiliani.
What’s common to most diffusion lines of Tahiliani, Varma, Bal and Abu-Sandeep is that it’s all about well-styled clothes. Drape, cut and print play a larger role in making clothes more chic and cleaner-looking styles. Surface
ornamentation tends to play a back seat. So hopefully this trend will put an end to what I like to call the ‘Christmas Tree’ style of dressing! Even if you step out of occasion wear into bridal wear, most brides no longer wear lehengas that weigh kilos. So this new diffusion occasion wear will not only mean more of us can afford to wear designer, it will also encourage more chic and elegant dressing too. Price cuts it seems can lead to more sophistication!
• SUJATA ASSOMULL SIPPY TCR121103
I had a budget in mind, it was comparable to what one would pay for a Lanvin or Azzedine Alia cocktail dress. Yet there was nothing in the store
I could find at that price point. This seemed a bit ridiculous to me. So I opted to revamp one of my mother’s beautiful vintage saris. Cut to Wills India Fashion Week (WIFW) a few weeks ago. I visited the stall of two of India’s most accomplished couturiers Tarun Tahilani and Rohit Bal to preview their Spring/ Summer 2013 collections. Their stalls were filled with highly-stylised Indian occasion wear, all with a retail price of under Rs 60,000. These were pieces that, with the right accessories, could easily be worn in the festive and wedding season. The only drawback: these collections will not be available in store till Spring. Earlier this year, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and Suneet Varma also unveiled highly stylised lines that had lighter price tags than one would expect. I could not help but think is this “The Sabyasachi Effect”?
Sabysachi, love him or hate him, in the decade he has been in the fashion industry he has become a major power player. This week he opened a store in Hyderabad. His fifth standalone.
His turnover has grown by 35 per cent in the last year and now touches Rs 60 crore. Twenty-seven-years-old Satya Paul is probably the only other Indian designer brand with a high turnover higher. Sabyasachi is now expecting a large round of funding and investments to come and is hopeful of his growth rate soaring up by 400 per cent in the next couple of years.
The story of his success has to be his pricing. For the last four years Sabyasachi focus has been on Indian
bridal and occasion wear with a traditional twist that is well priced. At his store 80 per cent of what he sells in priced at under a lakh. Of that 80 per cent, a good size of that is priced at under Rs 30,000. Says Sabyasachi, “I am business man first, then a designer”.
He believes the sweet spot for Indian designer occasion off the rack wear is at the under Rs 50,000 mark and that is what he concentrates on.
With the customer base growing for Indian designer wear, it is no longer just the elite wearing designer. There are the DINKs, the professionals and the new Upper Middle Classes. While they are open to spending, they are still price conscious. And there is no question that the recession of four years ago has had an impact on how we spend. The result is that high fashion designer wear is now about “No questions asked” couture which designers sell from their studios for the lucky and also growing elite. Then there is the price sensitive off-the-rack occasion wear sold at stores. You could call this a diffusion line — it not as special and as expensive as couture, but still distinctive enough to be worn for a night out.
Of course when you speak to senior designers most will say that Sabyasachi has little to do with this trend, its just a sign of times. This in a way could be true, but it seems Sabyasachi was among the first to adapt to this change, and his product has hit a chic cord with the customers — his growth rate is proof to this. What has also helped stimulate this easier on the pocket-priced occasion wear is that fact that our understanding of fashion has matured. “Women now want more subtle evening wear,” says Varma. And Tahiliani agrees, “It is no longer about embroidery, Swarovski and embellishment but about quality style and fit,” he says.
Varma will be opening a second store in Delhi in the new year at the DLF Promenade and this store will only sell his diffusion line priced at Rs 30,000 and under. This for Suneet is a natural progression. “The more you sell, the more price sensitive you can be,” says Suneet.
Tahiliani’s collection that previewed at fashion week, “A Revelation,” is all under Rs 60,000. Chikankari, kantha and dori are used in a quirky way in this line of separates. Tahiliani is already thinking this collection could be the start of a second label for him which he would call “OTT”, which he can see growing as a new and more affordable line.
“Moving into bifurcation can be difficult. With the couture studio doing so well, the philosophy of couture tends to spill into everything you design.” But his spring A Revelation line shows a clear focus on diffusion lines. Each of these styles will be produced in high quality and high quantity. “It is about economies of scale”, says Tahiliani.
What’s common to most diffusion lines of Tahiliani, Varma, Bal and Abu-Sandeep is that it’s all about well-styled clothes. Drape, cut and print play a larger role in making clothes more chic and cleaner-looking styles. Surface
ornamentation tends to play a back seat. So hopefully this trend will put an end to what I like to call the ‘Christmas Tree’ style of dressing! Even if you step out of occasion wear into bridal wear, most brides no longer wear lehengas that weigh kilos. So this new diffusion occasion wear will not only mean more of us can afford to wear designer, it will also encourage more chic and elegant dressing too. Price cuts it seems can lead to more sophistication!
• SUJATA ASSOMULL SIPPY TCR121103
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