Building a fashion brand during Covid times need more than window-dressing

For Sreejith Sreekumar, founder of Giacca&Abito Sartoriale Fashion, Covid-19 was not a constraint to build an apparel brand from Kerala. He formed a startup in 2020 and launched suits and blazers under the brand name “T the brand” in the work-wear segment and “Bare Brown ‘‘ in casual wear.

Sreejith, who holds a bachelor degree in fashion from NIFD Bangalore and Masters from Italy, quit his job after working with leading apparel brands to start his own venture. In a short span, he was able to sell his brands through over 100 counters of leading fashion retailers across the State, besides making presence in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Bihar within a year.

Asked about what inspired him to launch the product in Covid times, Sreejith said there was a business opportunity in the pandemic times when big brands were on the backfoot with old inventories. This led to a gap in the manufacturing space among suppliers. It had created a need for fresh products, prompting his company to test the waters. Typically, during peak demand, suppliers enjoy bargaining power and it will take time for orders to materialise for a new entrant.

In an interaction with BusinessLine, Sreejith said the disadvantage of being a newcomer was easily overcome, and the company was able to close the last financial year by doring ₹5-crore woth business on increased acceptance in the market “We are looking at a revenue of ₹20 crore in the current fiscal, with ₹1 crore already generated during April-May”, he said, adding that a new brand for ethnic wear will soon hit the market.

In-house product design team

The finished products are being outsourced mainly from Bangladesh and Cambodia for which the company has an in-house product design team to carry out quality checks, he said. 

Referring to existing brands in the market, he said, most of the reputed apparel manufacturers were established long back and a majority are looking at sales and revenue. They are not focusing on building their brands, which is a tedious process and time consuming. “My aim is to come up with a luxury product at an affordable price to a common man, given the change in the buying pattern in men’s apparel with focus on the value segment”, Sreejith said.

“It was purely on the product strength that we built up the brand with zero advertisements and zero discounting. This will continue especially since the men’s apparel industry, currently assessed at $35 billion in India, is expected to touch $45 billion by 2025”, he added.

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