Raksha Tated
Founder Reverce, A modern day fusion streetwear apparel brand
The fabrics we use are exceptional and long-lasting
E-commerce brand Reverce’s USP is fusing streetwear with Indian and South Asian elements with subtlety and sophistication. The premium label caters to people of all ages, with varieties of hoodies, T-shirts, and sweatshirts influenced by various classic genres of music, art, and street style. Founder Raksha Tated speaks to Fibre2Fashion about the brand and the future plans.
Who are the founders and investors of Reverce?
I (Raksha Tated) am the owner of the brand. Reverce is a completely bootstrapped brand.
When was Reverce founded? What was the motivation behind starting it?
Reverce was established in the year 2022. The inspiration for starting Reverce was streetwear. Since I have a very subtle taste, I was looking for brands that created my style but couldn’t find one, so I decided to create one. I wanted to redefine what streetwear is for our country because I believe a brand like ours is completely missing from India’s fashion palette. Most brands tend to follow trends and are hyped, so I set out to create something timeless. The main goal of creating the brand was to promote slow fashion and create something that does not exist in the current fashion market.
Another motivation was to stand out. I hoped to set an example in terms of fabric selection because I want our clothing to stay in customers’ closets for years.
Which are your major markets in India?
Our primary target market at the moment is metropolitan cities. Our target audience ranges from 17–18-year-olds to 45–50-year-olds. Another important aspect of Reverce is that it is a brand for both men and women. The brand’s design language is both trendy and stylish. It is because the idea was to create a brand for anyone and everyone.
Which are your best performing categories?
From what I have observed from our best categories is the Reverce sets, I have found that people are more willing to buy the sets together rather than ordering one single piece. For e.g., if they are buying the top, they are also willing to buy the bottom with it, so that it goes as a set.
What is the USP of Reverce? What are some of the ideologies of the brand?
Reverce’s unique selling point is that we strive to create streetwear inspired by South Asian design, art, and culture. But we don’t want to do that by simply copying and pasting an Indian print onto our clothes; we want to interpret it in our own language.
In Indian art, shapes like paisley and leaves, as well as a variety of other natural shapes, are used. I tried to reinterpret and redesign them by combining abstract shapes like rectangles and circles to make my own paisley, which I then embroidered.
Since embroidery is a very old method of designing clothes, and putting art on them in India, I have only used it in my designs. I have not used any screen prints, puff prints, or 3D prints because I wanted to stay true to my Indian roots, which is one of the most important aspects of embroidery.
Another distinguishing feature is that we create our own fabrics. Rather than purchasing stock fabrics from the market, we purchase yarn, have it knitted, and then stitch it onto clothing. This was a more time-consuming process that lasted nearly a year, but we did it because we wanted to ensure that the fabrics we use are exceptional and long-lasting. The fabric should not lose its lustre or colour, and we did our best to achieve this.
Where are the products manufactured?
All our products are manufactured in India.
What are the brand & design sensibilities?
We tried to use fabrics that are super comfortable to wear. We’ve tried to keep the fit neither very oversized nor tight; we have kept it somewhere in the middle so that it suits a larger spectrum of people.
Going forward, we want to experiment with the design more; we want to add more colours to it or experiment with different shapes, and that is in the works.
What new categories do you plan to launch?
We plan to launch some more categories, the first being jackets, hoodies, dresses, shorts, and shirts with a new colour, along with our latest category, which has hats added. Currently, we have only one colour on our hats, but we are planning to add more.
Any plans of going offline?
After setting up all our digital channels, like our website and Instagram account, now we are planning to expand to offline events. One of our very first events is going to happen in December.
Going offline is always in the pipeline and is going to happen possibly in the near future. However, we have just started; it’s been only three months. As a founder who is very young, I do want to experiment. I do want to get as much feedback as I can for my design, be it for garments or just to sort of analyse and understand which designs are working and which aren’t. We will start working on our own store once I feel like I have enough data and it is the right time.
What has been your growth story so far?
We are a very young brand. If we are talking about the story from the idea stage, it is around 1.5 years. The idea occurred near the end of the pandemic. Since then, I have spent a lot of time doing research about fabrics, the process of building a fashion brand, and what I can do to cater to the customer and make this entire experience for people to buy our products seamless. When it comes to the design aspects, I love doodling and sketching, so I have been sketching different shapes for months, and the shape that I liked would be approved by my family, my friends, and some other people who I asked for feedback. I picked these shapes and then embroidered them on my clothes.
Published on: 07/12/2022
DISCLAIMER: All views and opinions expressed in this column are solely of the interviewee, and they do not reflect in any way the opinion of Fibre2Fashion.com.
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