FASHION & LIFESTYLE

Arjun Kilachand opens immersive store in Mumbai

Men’swear design house Arjun Kilachand has opened an immersive and experiential store in Mumbai.

Each corner of the store mirrors the designer’s luxurious creations.The store seamlessly combines Indian heritage with contemporary sensibilities. The store’s exterior and interiors are painted to sandy colour to match Arjun Kilachand’s distinctive style vocabulary. The use of joint-free in-situ flooring and wall texture gives the room a sense of unity and continuity. In order to maintain a neutral colour scheme throughout, the design ethos consists of a blend of earthy materials like stone, jute, copper, walnut wood, and glass. Each rack, mirror, piece of furniture, and light has been designed specifically for the brand, making each one unique. The store exemplifies contemporary minimalism and lets the creations be the storytelling subjects, adhering to the core ethos of understated elegance. The flowing rack that meanders throughout the retail space was inspired by the principle of fluidity – an embodiment of the designer’s sartorial flair and symbolism.

The metal finishes were deliberately corroded to put the spotlight on the handcrafted Indian and western ensembles. The interesting pieces of furniture and cladding are a representation of the brand. An entire area of the store has been clad in jute pillows inspired by Indian jute textile work.

for all retail channels and consumers across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Welspun has seen tremendous success in North American markets from its brand licensing business.

Welspun India is one of the largest home textile manufacturers in the world. The company offers a wide spectrum of home and technical textile products and flooring solutions and has been a strategic partner to global retailers for over 35 years with its farm to shelf capabilities and innovative solutions. The home textile’s pan India footprint has crossed 10,000 outlets and 500 towns. The company manufactures a range of home textile products ranging from towels, bathrobes, bath rugs and carpets, mats, area rugs, carpets, bedsheets, utility bedding and fashion bedding.

Welspun aims at being carbon and water neutral by 2030. The company is also engaged in the generation of power.

Disney licenses characters to Welspun

Welspun has signed a brand licensing agreement with Walt Disney.

The license will give Welspun the rights to design, develop, manufacture and distribute a complete range of home textiles products leveraging Disney’s vast franchises and characters across Disney, Pixar, Marvel and Lucas brands. With this agreement Welspun hopes to leverage its innovation and sustainability leadership to create inspiring home solutions for consumers.

With this collaboration Welspun aims at further enhancing consumer living spaces with market leading solutions and experiences

Anita Dongre has launched a line of plantbased vegan luxury handbags.

Handbags in the new vegan accessories line include a Swan Mini Grab Bag, a Birds Of A Feather Crossbody Bag, a Nocturnal Glass Beaded Bag, and a Champagne Gold Glass Beaded Bag.

The line also includes two belts, the Birds of a Feather Belt and the Haathi Belt. Accessories in the collection are made from Mirum which is a 100 per cent natural, zero per cent plastic, and cruelty free plant-based material which is manufactured to look and feel like leather. A number of bags are also made from recycled glass beads. This line is created for women who wear their values on their sleeve, a philosophy of fashion that includes conscious, ethical, and timelessly elegant pieces. The collection is designed to be worn with traditional, fusion, or western style dress.

To highlight her commitment to animal welfare, Dongre will donate five per cent of the proceeds from the line of accessories to the India Animal Fund which works towards a future where animals are treated with care and love. Anita Dongre is known for brands like And and Global Desi. A showcase of exquisite Indian aesthetics and craftsmanship in a contemporary language is prevalent in all of Anita Dongre’s designs.

Levi Strauss upgrades Indian business

Levi Strauss is scaling up investment in its stores and innovation in India. The denim maker sees India as a top priority for sales growth amid fears of recession in many developed countries. Levi’s came to India nearly three decades ago and now has more than 400 stores across 150 cities.

Levi’s started its operations in India by forming a wholly owned subsidiary known as Levi’s Strauss India in 1994 and has grown invariably since then. The brand aims to strengthen its physical footprint in the country with better stores and consumer experience.

For instance Levi’s has relaunched its Chandigarh store. The new store, spread across 4045 sqft, in the brand’s cutting edge NextGen store format that is designed to give consumers an authentic and consistent expression of the Levi’s brand. It is digitally enhanced and with a lighter, modern and more open design elevating the experience for consumers to explore the store and collections. By upsizing one of India’s best-performing Levi’s stores, the brand endeavours to bring consumers a seamless shopping experience conducive to finding the perfect pair of Levi’s jeans.

As the world’s second most-populated country, India is an attractive market for apparel brands, especially with youngsters increasingly embracing western-style clothing.

and over 100 offline stores.Fashion and lifestyle platform Nykaa Fashion was launched in 2018 to sell fashion and lifestyle products. The store houses over 1600 brands and over 5.1 million SKUs across five consumer segments: women, men, children, luxe, and home.

For the second quarter Nykaa’s profit rose 344 per cent. The lifestyle retailer’s revenue from operations recorded a 39 per cent increase. During the quarter, the company continued to demonstrate strong GMV growth with improvement in gross margin, efficiency in fulfillment and marketing cost lead to improvement in Ebitda margins. Gross merchandise value rose 45 per cent while the gross margin improved to 45 per cent. Ebitda margin improved to five per cent.

New season merchandise accounted for 24 per cent of Nykaa Fashion GMV; international brands are at 13 per cent of western wear category GMV. Repeat buyers in fashion now contribute 66 per cent of GMV. In the beauty and personal care segment, Nykaa’s GMV grew 39 per cent in the second quarter while margins also improved by 630 bps.

Liva campaign stresses on fluid fashion

Wacoal sets environment friendly way to grow

across various channels.The current share of Wacoal in the luxury segment is 15.2 percent. Wacoal has tripled its revenue in the last two years and now with the pandemic losing its grip it is further looking at tripling these numbers in the new financial year.

The brand is targeting a turnover of Rs 100 crores and looking at opening more than 100 points of sales this year, which will take the total count to more than 200.

Wacoal’s products are built on the paradigm of sustainability and a sense of responsibility toward the environment and its elements.

Women’s lingerie brand Wacoal is in 25 large format stores and has 21 exclusive brand outlets. The brand is available across major cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, and Nagpur.

The plan is to expand in Tier II cities. Wacoal is on online e-commerce platforms like Myntra, Nykaa, Nykaa Fashion, Ajio, AjioLuxe, Amazon, and Tata Cliq, apart from its own website. Currently, the brand has a customer loyalty rate of more than 60 percent in the online space. Its online-to-offline mix is 15 percent, it plans to boost to 30 percent in the next financial year.

Omnichannel marketing would play a vital role in the optimum utilization of inventory

Nykaa Fashion introduces streetwear label

Nykaa Fashion is offering consumers a new Gen-Z-focused label called Mixt. Mixt offers streetwear-inspired modern apparel options such as bodysuits, corsets, jumpsuits, jackets, cardigans, and footwear. Mixt is expected to encourage self-expression.

Mumbai-based retail company Nykaa founded in 2012 sells beauty, wellness, and fashion products across websites, mobile apps,

Liva has launched a campaign emphasizing its core proposition of 100 per cent natural origin fabrics. This is a brand from Aditya Birla. Liva fabrics are 100 per cent plant-based and are naturally sourced i.e. from wood pulp and have properties that not only make them eco-friendly but high on fashion as well. The campaign focuses on the natural aspect of the fabric as fluid fashion for every woman who is not only fashion conscious but also makes her choices wisely. With this campaign the brand wants to shatter the myth that high fashion and sustainability are two different ends of the buying spectrum and that the most aspirational fashion comes when it’s inspired and integrated with nature. The integrated marketing campaign aims at raising and building consideration for natureinspired fashion and is targeted across multiple platforms. The campaign calls out to women to make a balanced choice with Liva, which is eco-conscious and fashionable at the same time. Today Liva-based fabrics are adopted by more than 150 brands globally addressing both consumer needs and environmental concern. With natural fluidity and unmatched comfort, Liva fabrics are a perfect choice for all wearers and the campaign is focused on bringing alive the core essence of Liva i.e. being one with nature.

Madame celebrates fashion trends

Madame’s new autumn/winter 2023 collection incorporates the latest fashion trends. The range includes outerwear in daring shades, chunky knitwear, practical leather pieces, the newest denim styles, including wide-leg pants and fitted jackets. The collection offers something for everyone, from elegant casual wear to opulent party attire. Madame believes that fashion is a celebration of individual style and expression and the autumn/winter collection embodies this ethos, with a range of pieces that cater to every style preference and occasion.

The women’s fashion brand aims at achieving a 33 per cent increase in its overall business in the forthcoming financial year. Madame is leaving no stone unturned to deliver a unique and immersive shopping experience, investing in the latest technology to make sure customers get the best of both worlds – a virtual store that provides a seamless shopping experience and the chance to showcase their individual style in the metaverse.

Madame has partnered with Trace Network Labs to give an experience of a digital clothing store in the metaverse, becoming the first apparel brand to do so. The virtual store allows customers to experience immersive shopping. This partnership marks Madame’s innovative approach to online shopping and has revolutionized the fashion industry.

ahead of the festive season. The event was promoted across multiple channels, including a large-scale TV campaign, print campaign, and across digital channels.

Birla introduces weavers to fibers

Birla Cellulose will introduce the weaver community to fibers like viscose, modal, and excel, which are relatively price stable.

The aim is to create awareness about natural, sustainable and durable alternatives and preserve a precious art like handloom weaving. Till date Birla Cellulose has trained 1500 artists, across seven states and supplied 5.5 lakhs of yarn annually. Given that the cost of silk yarn is often exorbitant and out of reach for the mass market, Birla Cellulose has blended silk fabrics which preserve the luxurious feel of pure silk while being competitively priced. Modal-made products have a lustrous shine, brilliant color, and luxuriously soft feel reminiscent of silk. Birla Cellulose’s brand, Liva, nurtures the Indian textile value chain contributing to a more sustainably produced fiber that also resolves the breakage issue these weavers face with traditional threads. Further, with its robust supply chain supported by regional partners, Birla Cellulose ensures timely and consistent delivery of quality yarn that meets all of their customers’ needs, helping boost weavers’ production capacity. With its versatile R&D center continuously engaged in developing new yarns and fabrics with regional partners, Birla Cellulose has helped commercial bulk fabric manufacturers develop new bases for printing with the latest, in-demand yarns or by changing the weaving patterns.

Zivame launches campaign

site, 120 exclusive stores, 4,000 partner stores, along with key e-commerce platforms. The marketplace model provides between 15 per cent to 20 per cent margins to the retailer in contrast with 50 to 60 per cent margins coming from retailing private labels.

Zivame has launched a campaign to promote empowerment.

This is an intimate wear platform for women. The campaign celebrates every Indian woman and how with the right intimate wear by her side she can put her most confident foot forward.

Zivame, founded in 2011, retails its range of intimate wear from its dedicated e-commerce

The company plans to build a premier woman-centric brand across the country. The brand offers bras, shapewear, activewear, sleepwear, maternity wear and personal care. Grand Lingerie Festival (GLF) is Zivame’s flagship semi-annual sale event. The September 2022 edition was bigger on every front, from 100 plus brands participating, big deals and discounts on bestsellers, exciting games, and coupons and of course the largest variety of intimate wear for consumers to choose from. The sale event saw a wide range of products across lingerie, sleepwear, activewear, shapewear, and more from over 100 brands.

Zivame partnered with top influencers to engage with consumers and promote the event

Reliance Retail plans new format

Reliance Retail is planning to launch a value apparel format. The company plans to lease a 6,000 sqft to 9,000 sqft space across malls and high street for the new brand, which will sell clothing within the Rs1000 range.

India’s consumption structure has been skewed in the past over a narrow base of richer consumers accounting for a large chunk of the overall market. However, as the economy is broadening across many more cities and the impact is reaching further down the income ladder, the opportunity for value formats and value brands is expanding. In the next few months, multiple stores are expected to come up in this segment as big brands want to tap this segment. After the consumption has increased in metro cities as well as Tier II cities, retailers are eyeing growth in 2023.

Reliance Retail opened 789 new stores, totaling an area of six million sqft in the third quarter of fiscal year 2023. The company has been able to operate all stores, distribution and fulfillment centers, offices and facilities at pretty much at the pre-Covid level of efficiency. As consumers returned to stores, it also recorded the highest ever footfalls at 201 million across formats and geographies, a growth of 25 per cent during the same period.

Reliance Retail on store opening spree

openings in a single month is testimony to the fact that Reliance Retail is ramping up its expansion plans for this year.

For the third quarter Reliance Retail’s net profit grew by six per cent. The company’s revenue from operations surged by 18 per cent. Gross revenue, which includes the value of sales and services, rose 17 per cent. This increase in the revenue was led by well-rounded growth across all baskets and channels.

III markets. The development comes at a time when brands are looking to rapidly expand their offline presence amid forecasts of healthy revival of consumer demand. Retail industry sales in December 2022 showed a healthy demand for footwear and sports goods. Overall retail sales grew 16 percent in December 2022 compared to the pre-pandemic December 2019, with footwear and sports goods growing by 29 per cent and 25 per cent. However the entire category suffered during the pandemic when people stayed indoors and gyms and offices stayed shut, Adidas India’s revenue declined by 23 per cent in fiscal year 2021 compared to fiscal year 2020. Demand for athleisure and sporting apparel has picked up with the easing of Covid restrictions. Even before the onset of the pandemic, athleisure sneakers, sweatshirts, fitness clothing and high-performance sportswear had become trendy, with consumers opting for these even for casual wear dressing, and lines blurring between causal and sportswear.

Cantabil plans several stores a year

Reliance Retail opened 17 new stores across India in January 2023.

These are 12 new stores of John Player and five new stores of Lee Cooper. The John Player stores are in Mysore, Tumkur, Hyderabad, Jabalpur, Shahdol, Rewari, Amravati, Rewa, Jaipur, Motihari and Tikamgarh. The Lee Cooper stores are in Bangalore, Mangalore, Nizamabad, Hyderabad and Jaipur.

Launched in 2002, John Player is a midsegment men’swear brand. The brand was acquired by Reliance Retail in 2019 from the ITC Group. Founded in 1908 in England, Lee Cooper is a clothing and footwear manufacturing company, specialising in denim products. The brand is responsible for bringing denim jeans to the UK market. Reliance Retail acquired the brand from Future Group in October 2021. The high number of store

CK Jaipuria to open Adidas stores

Cantabil plans to open 80 to 90 stores every year.

The apparel manufacturer and retailer opened 19 new exclusive retail stores during the third quarter in different states including J&K, Maharashtra, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Haryana. With multiple store openings, Cantabil Retail has reached a 439 store mark and plans to continue expanding across India this year. Cantabil is focusing heavily on providing the best-in-class shopping experience both instore and online. The all-new Cantabil stores represent the future of retail experience for its customers, as they offer a full range of formalwear, partywear, wedding collections, casuals, and ultracasual clothing for men, women, and children in the middle to upperincome brackets under one roof.

up retail stores of Adidas across India.

CK

CK Jaipuria is PepsiCo’s franchise bottler in Andhra Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir. The plan is to set up 100 Adidas footwear and sportswear stores by the end of 2024. This will be Adidas’ biggest franchise partnership in the country. The stores will come up in Tier II and

Revenues from same stores played an instrumental role in delivering the desired growth in financial performance. Apart from this, the addition of new stores has also significantly contributed towards superior performance and provides an expanding platform to support the company’s strategic growth objectives. For the third quarter the company’s revenue was Rs163 crores with a net profit of Rs 27 crores. For the nine-month period, revenues were Rs 380 crores with ebitda and pat of Rs 123 crores and Rs 50 crores respectively.