Opening new stores in difficult times may seem counter-intuitive, but there’s enough historical precedent to show that it’s actually a smart thing to do for retail businesses.
Which is why I was not surprised when I was invited to inaugurate the revamped Satya Paul store at DLF Promenade Mall in Delhi in September.
Visionary businessmen know that assets become more accessible when a disaster, let’s say a global pandemic, hits and small players are forced out. They also know that no matter how long this lasts, there will come a time when human nature will come to terms with its horrifying reality, and shop around. We will always shop to mark our personal and family milestones and feel alive.
With this realization, I watch with great interest the story of the revival of Brand Satya Paul. And if we allow ourselves, the Indian fashion industry can learn a lot from the new direction of this iconic label.
“The first thing we did was to cut the label to about half its market size,” says Darshan Mehta, president and CEO, Reliance Brands (RBL). The process began in April 2019 after Reliance Brands increased its investment in Satya Paul’s holding company Genesis Colors. By June, designer Rajesh Pratap Singh had come on board as creative director.
However, before one of India’s most talented designers was hired, there were Dark Ages; It was a decade or so when the brand name of Satya Paul, which had been coveted by the founder’s phenomenal sarees since the mid-1980s, was diluted with badly regulated franchises across the country and indiscriminately offered product ranges. . These ranged from logo-ed wallets and tie pins to inexpensive digital print pieces on Chinese satin, crepes, and georgette. The corporate gifting catalog touts a ready-made box of tie-pocket square-cuff link combos sourced from our notoriously productive neighbor, while the in-house design team tries hard to break into the wedding market with digital-printed ‘couture’ Of. lehengas and gown. This was Pierre Cardin’s position. And bringing hot young talent Masaba on board in 2012 didn’t help either, as she was never really in the running for the brand.
Most of the Indian designers who have been around for a few years will resonate with these struggles. But today, as the entire industry faced the exodus of its artisans first during the CAA-NRC debacle and then faced with the realities of a global pandemic for a year and a half, Satya Paul’s long struggle may turn out to be a learning moment.
great cleaning
“Given The history of the brand, we had to do something drastic,” says Mehta. “As part of the new strategy, we started clearing the market.” As a result, the label closed all of its franchises, and even bought back stock from distributors who would sell to MBO, regardless of which collection or season it belonged to.
“We need to go back to the beating heart of the brand,” says Mehta. And here came Rajesh Pratap Singh. In terms of design, Singh went back to the brand archives, extracting old examples of the founder’s work with weavers from Banaras and Telangana, as well as his experiments with floral prints and color. and printmaking. “If Mr. Paul were here now, how would he design ready-to-wear? What can we do without making the medium of digital printing excessive and therefore meaningless?” There are some questions he asked, and answered through his first two collections for the label.
“We went back to the ikat weavers Mr. Paul worked with double-palla saris in double ikat, as well as a whole line of jamdanis in floral Art Nouveau motifs that we dug up from the archives,” he says. Huh. “Similarly, we got some throws from Banaras khaduas inspired by Mr. Paul’s floral motifs. Printmaking came with history and loads of stuff, so the first thing was to clean the palate. These are not seasonal products; It is a continuous process,” says Singh.
Creating a Global Indian Brand?
Today, With several franchisees going through closures and its owned stores undergoing makeovers, Satya Paul’s retail presence across India is beginning to look like brick-and-mortar strategies employed by luxury brands that seek experiential touch points rather than chasing numbers. focus on. “I have gotten tired and a little defensive about a question that has been coming to me for the past 20 years: Why are there no luxury brands coming out of India? Now I think the time has come to give an appropriate answer, Even if it takes two or five or 10 years,” says Mehta.
To do this, he has a two-pronged approach. Giving Singh the complete freedom to drive the brand in keeping with the label’s core values - bold prints, color and luxury – while controlling the retail space. “The store is already open at the Promenade in Delhi, and we are soon opening a flagship at the new Jio World Drive Mall. Another store will open in Delhi’s Khan Market in late November…” he lists. “We’re paying more and more attention to about 10 to 12 places.”
For Singh, it’s a strategy that works, whether it’s for Satya Paul or in general. “We’ve been told for so long that physical retail is going out and everything is going online, but the truth is, when it comes to luxury fashion, people want to come up and come up with what they want to buy. want to have a conversation.” He says. In addition to excellent service and storytelling by the sales staff, it is important to bring people into the brand world.
It is a straightforward strategy that will require time to prove itself, as the stakeholders are ready to do anything. Perhaps, amidst the new wave of Indian brands being acquired by corporate giants like Reliance Brands and Aditya Birla Group, this could show the way forward for India’s fashion designers to make a mark in the retail space. And before we chalk it up to the money that companies like this bring in, we should remember that the designer labels we’re getting today are those that stood firm to their creative approach. Even when he stumbled and fell, remember that he got up again and again.
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