Women Making a Brand Name

In India, there are around 8 million women who have started their own businesses, and they own 10 per cent of all official firms. Studies predict that the number of female-owned businesses in India will increase by up to 90 per cent in the next five years.

In present times, the retail industry is thriving, and a growing number of women are excitedly entering this sector to obtain information from a new point of view. There is a significant level of interest among women in being employed in retail because it is a lucrative field. Female business owners, whose numbers are steadily increasing, have been establishing names for themselves in a variety of industries and professions.

There are six clothing companies in India that were founded by women. These companies have an impact on the fashion retail sector and are essential to the growth of successful businesses.

The following are a few of the most successful apparel brands in India that were started by women.

BIBA

Meena Bindra, a designer who later went on to become an entrepreneur, launched the Biba brand in 1988. It built its first unique store in the early 1990s at Mumbai's InOrbit Mall after having spent many years distributing its products on a wholesale basis to conventional retailers. The shop-in-shop model was pioneered by Biba, making it one of the first few brands to utilise it.

Both Images and the CMAI Apex Awards bestowed upon Biba the title of "Most Admired Women's Indian Wear Brand of the Year" that same year (2012). The prestigious award for the Best Women's Ethnic Wear Brand of the Year alsowent to Biba.

People from all over India have gravitated towards Biba because of the distinctively North Indian aesthetic sensibility of its designs. The Biba Girls collection is one that was designed specifically for young girls.

Biba Apparels' annual sales are estimated to be over Rs 600 crores, and the company already has a presence in 76 cities across India.

WROGN

Wrogn is a startup that was founded by Anjana Reddy and is based in Bengaluru. Universal Sportsbiz is the company's owner. It was formally created on November 20, 2012. One of the company's earliest investors was Sachin Tendulkar, who purchased 21 per cent of the business in 2013. After that, Wrogn worked with Virat Kohli to make him a brand ambassador before making an investment with him. Since its launch in 2012, the brand has gone from strength to strength, which coincides with Virat Kohli's meteoric ascent in the world of cricket. This ascent has been mirrored by the rise of the brand itself.

Wrogn achieved a new level of success in 2018 by becoming the official clothing partner of the Indian Premier League franchise Royal Challenger Bangalore. The trendy athletic brand has successfully connected with the younger demographic segment thanks to the youth-oriented design and marketing that it employs.

The parent business of the brand, Universal Sportsbiz, has successfully raised finances totaling 91.5 crores of rupees from investors such as Altera Capital and Accel Partners, amongst others.

IMARA

Anjana Reddy, the CEO and developer of USPL, also founded Imara in 2015, and it has quickly become popular among fashion-conscious young urban women. The brand first became available for purchase at Shoppers' Stop locations, but it is now being sold on a variety of fashion websites, including Jabong and Myntra. Imara is pursuing an omnichannel strategy, and part of that strategy includes the opening of unique brand locations across the country.

The label gives its target audience, people in their twenties and younger, access to a wide variety of experimental styles at affordable prices. Kareena Kapoor Khan has been working as the spokesperson for the Imara brand since February 2020.

Imara currently has 210 points of sale located all over India, and they have set a target to increase that number to 420 during the next two years.

INDYA

In 2016, Shivani Poddar and Tanvi Malik established Indya, a startup that provides omni-channel access to fast fashion. The primary focus of the company is on contemporary cuts that are embellished with traditional patterns, styles, and motifs.

The company's name is now carried by more than 300 retail outlets around the country. Indya has successfully completed the first leg of its offline journey by opening 25 of its own stores across India.

HSE, the parent company of Indya, has positioned itself as a one-stop-shop for all of the fashion requirements of metropolitan women in their twenties and early thirties. In addition, HSE is the owner of the Western wear brands FabAlley, which is a fast-fashion label and Curve, which is a plus-size Western wear label. Each of the three brands has its own unique fashion stamp, and their products are designed with modern women in mind.

VAJOR

Natasha AR Kumar founded the e-commerce women's fashion and lifestyle company Vajor in September of 2014. The company focuses on fashion for women.

On April 17, 2018, they opened their very first retail outlet in the city of Delhi. In the not-too-distant future, the company intends to inaugurate ten to twelve new retail locations in the cities of Goa, Bengaluru, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Pune, and Jaipur.

Vajor has also decided to increase the variety of products it sells by expanding into the menswear and ethnic clothing markets in order to appeal to a wider demographic of consumers. There is now a selection of women's apparel, footwear, purses, jewellery, accessories, and home décor accessible for purchase.

OKHAI

The Okhai Centre for Empowerment was founded in 2008 by the Tata Chemicals Society for Rural Development. Kirti Poonia, a participant in TAS, saw that Okhai's products deserved the attention of the global community. In 2015, she transitioned the non-profit organisation into a fully functioning e-commerce business.

Okhai is known for its production of a variety of goods, including clothing, accessories, and handicrafts. These goods may be purchased at retail showrooms in Mithapur and Ahemdabad, respectively. The objects are the result of a collaboration between the traditional art form of the tribal women and the designs of the designer. Kirti launched the Okhai website the next year, in 2015. The items were eventually made available on other online marketplaces, including Tata Cliq, Amazon, Nykaa, and others.

Okhai plans to move the project forward at a more rapid pace. In addition to this, they intend to open ten physical retail sites while simultaneously extending their online presence and entering adjacent market segments.

Additionally, they plan to develop in the areas of maternity wear, sustainable children's clothes, things with a Diwali and Holi theme, emotion-based collections, and theme-based collections.

At this point in time, women run everything, from the more conventional woman-friendly firms such as cottage industries to the more innovative startup companies. In India, there are around 8 million women who have started their own businesses, and they own 10 per cent of all official firms. Studies predict that the number of female-owned businesses in India will increase by up to 90 per cent in the next five years. This is a significantly higher growth rate than is anticipated for these countries.

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