Fashion with a twist – make your wardrobe trendy and fun
Women and fashion are inseparable. Apart from making obvious style statements by donning the most fashionable attire, women are increasingly getting into creative roles – they are making a splash in the fashion industry by giving fashion itself a twist.
As people aware of the latest fashion trends would know, a lot more emphasis is now on cuts and borders and the way clothes are stitched. Customisation is the key word and it helps if women into fashion wear have a manufacturing unit of their own.
One such venture is the brand Pilgrim, which has a tailoring unit in Bengaluru. Started by Priyanka Haridas in 2012 after spending over four years in an IT firm, she designs clothes and is closely involved in the tailoring unit.
Priyanka started marketing her products, first by launching them at the Sunday Soul Santhe. After that she marketed her products on Facebook. A few exhibitions at select boutiques and Pilgrim is now all set to go online shortly.
Armed with an MBA in human resources, Priyanka worked for a little more than four years at a leading IT firm before she put in all her savings to start her dream venture, Pilgrim.
Here the focus is on contemporary clothing for women, traditionally tailored using hand woven Indian fabric. At Pilgrim, they work mostly with kalamkari, ikkat, and various kinds of block prints.
So be it the fuss-free clean silhouettes made in soft cotton, to khadi and linen, Pilgrim is closely associated in the production step of each piece they manufacture. “Making the clothes we come up with, we enjoy every step of its production, right from fabric sourcing, pattern making to its creation in our local workshop. The clothes fit well, are well tailored, and are fun to wear,” says Priyanka.
Pilgrim just launched their new collection, The Color Burst Collection. Celebrating colours, soft structured patterns with detailing that includes both gathers and pleats, fitted and free flowing silhouettes, Priyanka specialises in style statements in jackets, maxi, halter and pleated dresses, flared skirts and tops.
If you thought fashion is only this, think again. Here’s an interesting take on the very concept of fashion.
Pre-owned fashion picking up
Picture this. You wake up in the morning. You open your wardrobe and realise – you’ve got nothing to wear, and no space to store your clothes. For many, this is a very familiar everyday situation.
It was so for the founders of Rekinza too, till they decided to do something about it.
An online community for women to buy and sell pre-owned fashion, the co-founders of the venture believe that fashionable women’s closet should not burn a hole in their pockets nor should it diminish the resources on this planet. From a Zara to Burberry, Rekinza has a dream wardrobe on a year long sale.
“We believe that the cycle of reusing from each others closet isn’t limited to just buying and selling, it extends to providing clothes to those in need. Every item sold on their website is hand picked for quality and authenticity by us,” says Stuti Bhageria, who says their speciality is fun and in the identity of people being completely anonymous.
As the founders say, it is a masked shopping carnival, where identities are protected and you simultaneously get to meet your style partners as well.
Co-founded by Stuti, Vidisha Pasari, Nirali Vasisht, and Ekansh Babbar, Rekinza is indeed a fun concept.
“The social sites gave me a clear indication that people are faced with two problems – they have nothing to wear and they have too many clothes. So we thought the clothes could either be donated or be used by others,” says Stuti adding that they launched the website on March 8 this year. Ever since its inception, the business has only grown year on year and now they get close to 80 orders a week.
They have a digital marketing approach and very soon are going to do a few offline ground events to showcase their collection.
Essentially, the Rekinza team uses an e-commerce platform customised to their requirement. “We are now looking to develop a system for pricing and personalisation,” says Stuti.
With 400 registered sellers on their platform, Rekinza is a consignment-based model. “The items are picked up by us and go through a thorough quality check where they are tested for holes, stains, colours, etc. Only after the products pass through the quality test, we photograph them and put them up in the inventory,” says Stuti, adding that it pre-owned fashion is a relatively new concept in India and this is an attempt to bring in innovation in the Indian fashion industry.
The Rekinza team is a neutral party and they recommend fashionable attires to others.