‘Demand for designer clothes rising in small cities’

NEW DELHI - Start small, think big. That seems to be the mantra of fashion designer Monisha Bajaj who in her new avatar as creative consultant for a multi-brand retail store chain believes that there is a demand for designer wear in smaller cities and it’s better to “start from there”.

Delhi-based designer Bajaj has been missing from the fashion circuit for a long time but is back as a creative consultant for the multi-brand retail store chain, Store One — an initiative of Indiabulls. She has crafted the entire look of the stores and chosen the brands which will retail from them.

Currently the stores are in Pune and Nagpur. Another store will open very soon in Mumbai.

Elaborating on the expansion plans, Bajaj said: “Right now we want to establish our brand. We don’t want to expand in a hurry and then burn our fingers. So let the foundation be strong and eventually we will focus on other cities as well.”

“People in metropolitan cities have easy access to designer wear but not in small cities where people are getting fashion conscious. They have money and want to shop but for it they have to travel to a metropolitan city. So it’s better to start from there, establish your brand, generate good revenue and then move to other cities,” Bajaj said.

“For a designer store like this, two-tier cities are the best places to start as you get better response from customers. They want to wear designer clothes but unfortunately they don’t have access to many designer stores. We are cashing in on this concept,” Bajaj told IANS.

With retail chains like Kimaya and Aza retailing designer apparel from their stores, Bajaj says Store One will prove to be a one-stop shop for Indian labels, international labels, home dcor and other items.

“We are not just retailing designer apparel. We are more of a lifestyle store where you have everything under the sun. The store has women’s pret line, men’s wear, kid’s wear, beauty section and very soon we are planning to start our yoga line as well,” Bajaj said.

With this opportunity, Bajaj hopes to cash in on the budding and talented lot of young designers.

“Such retail stores are great platforms for young designers to retail their labels. This helps them professionally and people also don’t mind opting for an affordable designer line,” Bajaj said.

Store One houses fashion lines from designers like Ritu Kumar, Lecoanet Hemant, Rinku Sobti, AM-PM by Priyanka and Ankur Modi among others.

Asked about her entry into creative consultancy in retail designing, Bajaj said: “Creativity is not just limited to apparel designing. There are many ways to explore that creativity and currently I am doing that and enjoying every bit of it. It has been a learning experience because I have not done anything like this before.”

“It’s not that I won’t be designing in future. You people will soon see my collections, but right now I want to give full attention to this project,” she added.