[100 Emerging Women Leaders] How Riddhi Jain is redefining comfort in loungewear fashion

In 2017, sisters Riddhi and Sudiskha Jain decided to build a loungewear brand NeceSera that brings quality clothes to the Indian market.

Seven years and a pandemic later, the company has a customer base of over 34,000 across India.

Sustainability is at the core of Delhi-based NeceSera’s identity.

“We spend 50% of our time in what we’re wearing at home. I began wondering why then were we not paying attention to it as much as we should; the softness and breathability of the fabric, and the comfort we get out of it,” says Riddhi, whose family owns and runs a garment export business called Mangalam Ventures.

But she also knew she didn't want to get into fast fashion, which was an easier choice with higher margins, “but wouldn’t be timeless.”

“My idea was, if you buy a loungewear set from us today, two years later, it should still look stellar and as fashionable in your wardrobe,” she adds.

A prime point of NeceSera (derived from the words ‘necessary’ and ‘evening in Italian’) is fabric innovation.

Riddhi started working on the brand in 2016, the year she graduated business school from Emory University, Atlanta. Carrying a love for art and slow fashion, she began learning about brands that were innovatively marketing USPs like fabric sustainability and conscious buying.

Her research led her to the discovery that Indian brands offered premium quality garments in export fashion, but did little to give the same to customers within the country. A year later, NeceSera was started as a way to fill these very gaps.

Today, the company’s fabric range includes ‘Lushknit’, a mini-waffle fabric with a 3D texture and a flat back that is meant to be highly absorbent, breathable and allow easy airflow through its porous cotton weave; Bamboo Terry, a blend of modal, cotton, nylon and spandex that is meant to be ultra-soft with thermoregulatory properties; and Luxflo, a blend of modal, cotton, nylon and spandex crafted from an in-house developed tri-blend fabric that is breathable and crease-free.

Sustainability as a value

NeceSera sources from subsidised drip-irrigated cotton in Gujarat and Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), a sustainability initiative for cotton and a non-profit, multistakeholder governance group that promotes better standards in cotton farming and practices across 22 countries.

The company also uses Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)-certified dyes and recycle 75% of the water they use in a recycling unit set up inside their factory in Faridabad.

“Cotton as well as garment manufacturing are water-intensive industries, so an important part of our principle was water recycling,” says Riddhi. “In addition, we also follow some basic principles like not using recycled polyester, which leaves behind a lot of microplastics,” she adds.

“For this, our initial setup cost was high and we believe it will get amortised over time,” says Riddhi, who has also set up solar panels in the factory.

A market created in lockdown

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and nationwide lockdowns were imposed, NeceSera’s sales jumped two-fold, with people coming back to buy good quality loungewear and referring the brand to friends and family.

As demand was soaring the brand also started transitioning into workwear and evening wear segments, creating garments that were versatile enough to be worn for different times and events in a day.

“This sustained the demand for our clothes even after the pandemic ended,” says Riddhi.

Among the most important things Riddhi says she has learnt through it all is to “take up any task without hesitation.”

“The fact that I was very young (23 years old) when I started this brand, also meant I was willing and flexible to learn new things,” she says. “Whether it is being by the side of the digital marketer in our team or observing and learning from our master ji, my curiosity allowed me to watch and absorb skills.

“To anyone who is entering a business, this I would say is a huge part of becoming successful,” she adds.