Interview with Karan Bose

The womenswear market in India is about US$ 15 billion, out of which about 75 per cent is Indian ethnic wear (sarees, kurtis etc), which occupies the most retail shelf space.

There were several advantages. 1. As a consumer brand, we have much higher brand visibility than manufacturers. This not only helps in consumer engagement, but also in attracting top talent (HR) and quality vendors. We did not anticipate the power of consumer brand beyond marketing. 2. We have been approached by SME retailers in the United States of America and the European Union to foresee their production and design processes in India. We will soon be launching a separate division to cater to the needs of our clients in those regions. 3. Controlling the entire spectrum of the value chain, from procuring fabric to selling the final product to end consumer, gives us enormous insights about our consumer's buying preference, and we have the flexibility to incorporate our learning. There were also some disadvantages. 1. It takes much longer than one anticipates, to build a fashion brand. 2. The infrastructure required for fast fashion is completely different from that of a traditional fashion brand. We tried to use the standard infrastructure, and after a few months, we gave up the standard infrastructure and decided to build a new infrastructure unique to us. 3. When it comes to education, fast fashion as a fashion category is still not mainstream. Hence, enough importance is not given to teaching fast fashion, especially at design schools such as NIFT. 4. Hiring skilled workers attuned to fast fashion is a big challenge. The mindset required for working in the fast fashion segment is very different from running a traditional fashion business. For example, a designer at a fashion house is required to do a collection of 20 to 30 styles, while a designer at a fast fashion company has to do 70 to 100 styles. The approach and the mindset completely change, and hiring people with the right value system becomes very challenging. 5. The cost of controlling the entire value chain is much higher than we anticipated.

We have paid a lot of attention to building our company culture. We call our company culture Uni-Culture. Some key points of Uni-Culture are: 1. No titles: Even the founders don't hold titles such as CEO, CTO etc. By removing titles, we took an extra step to remove bureaucratic hierarchy which stifles a growing organisation. 2. No HR: Yes, we are technically an anti-HR organisation. We think that if an external HR executive has to intermediate between a manager and the subordinate, then there is a serious breakdown of communication within the entire organisation. 3. Clear reporting structure. 4. Employee dispute resolution is not done by the recruiter or HR, but directly by the department head. 5. Office environment is fun and casual, but we have strict deadlines and office hours.

We deal in western casual wear, and women's topwear occupy a big part of our current merchandise allocation.

We are only focusing on topwear now. Though our top selling products are graphic tees, we see fast growth in women's Western casual dresses.

We launched in December 2014 and in the last six months, we have more than doubled sales.

We are soon launching Unicolr Supplier Group (USG). We will open-source our infrastructure of fast fashion to other retailers in the United States of America and in Europe. They will provide us the tech pack and specifications, and we will get the manufacturing done for them. Our combined manufacturing capacity is over 10 million SKUs per month. The idea is driven by the changing approach of retailers in matured markets, where they now prefer to have a brand-to-brand conversation and eliminate the middle-men. We think we are in the right place --- India --- and at the right time to pursue this opportunity.

Since our target audience is the young, urban working population which spends a lot of time browsing the internet, we are focusing on building our brand online first and then foraying into offline retail. For the next two years, only online stores will be our focus.