Lea Clothing Co was born with the intention to build a sustainable fashion brand for the young Indian consumer—a one-of-a-kind brand that would cater to women of all shapes and sizes and help them celebrate their bodies. Made to embody the three foundational brand pillars of body positivity, sustainability, and size inclusivity, Lea delivers timeless designs that can become a long-term fixture in customers’ closets. In an interview with Fibre2Fashion, Lea Clothing’s Founder Lavanya Aneja discusses ethnic wear and westernwear for all shapes and sizes of Indian women.
What was the inspiration behind starting Lea?
My motivation behind starting Lea was two-fold—first, to build a sustainable (and affordable) fashion brand for Indian consumers, and second, to build a brand that would cater to women of all shapes and sizes and help them celebrate their bodies. I believe that for too long, women in this country have been shamed for possessing the bodies they naturally do, while being pushed to attain an unrealistic Eurocentric beauty ideal (re: skinny, tall, fair). Further, the plus-size fashion options in our country are mostly limited to shapeless clothing designed to disguise ‘flaws’, and not designed to celebrate and accentuate bigger bodies.
Thus, with Lea, I wished to create a purpose-driven brand that would allow Indian women to own and embrace their curves regardless of the shape, size, or colour of their bodies.
What does ‘Lea’ mean?
‘Lea’ has its roots in Latin aptly translating to ‘lioness’; it’s made to grace the wardrobes of fierce women who aren’t afraid to question the status quo and be bold, impactful, and confident in everything they do.
When was it founded? What are the initial hiccups of being a young clothing brand in India?
Lea was founded during the pandemic, in January 2021. The clothing space in India is so crowded that without an impactful value proposition that addresses a pertinent problem in the market in a unique, creative way, any young clothing brand would struggle to not only make its mark, but to even survive. For us, the USP was always clear, but delivering on the same in the extenuating circumstances of our launch took a while to figure out.
Further, with a lack of any real copyright laws in this industry, our iconic styles being ripped off by several ‘Instagram brands’ was a persistent problem that we struggled to address. As we (and our audience) have grown, we’ve learned to roll with the punches and continue to innovate and deliver on our brand ideals in everything we do.
Where are your products manufactured?
Our products are manufactured in Noida (NCR). My family has been in the garment export industry for over 25 years, and we have rented out a space in the export manufacturing unit to carry out our own production. This has allowed us to maintain the highest quality and tailoring standards that haven’t dropped as we’ve grown. We’re proud to say that Lea has grown from a small team of 5-7 members to a flourishing team of over 30 members over the course of two years.
What are your best performing categories?
When people think Lea, they think corsets. We introduced the category in the country long before brands like Zara and H&M, and it’s what most of our customers come to us for. With double lining and fusing combined with our impeccable, upcycled fabrics, our corsets truly do provide a fit unlike any other. Besides corsets, we’ve quickly become known for our ‘birthday dresses’ as well, and some of the most-liked ones are our Pixie Puff Corset Dress, Tatiana Ruched Mesh Corset Dress, and more.
Which price points work well in ethnic wear and westernwear?
Our price points are higher than average compared to the industry, since we offer premium products for our customers. For us, the majority of our price points for Lea fall within the ₹2,990-5,990 and those are the price points that our customers are most comfortable with as well.
With our ethnic wear brand, Saanjh by Lea, our price points tend to be higher since we deliver most made-to-order, hand-embroidered garments that are more expensive to produce. The price points for this category tend to fall between ₹11,990-24,990.
What are some of the latest trends in ethnic wear and westernwear?
Some of the latest trends hitting the ethnic wear segment in India are corset-style blouses, saree gowns (especially for cocktail looks), and artfully draped, pre-stitched sarees. We were one of the early adopters of the corset blouse trend with our launch collection of Saanjh by Lea back in October 2021, with our Leila Hand-Embroidered Corset Blouse becoming a cult-favourite.
Some of the most exciting trends in westernwear also revolve around unique new takes on corsets, size-inclusive clothing, lingerie-inspired clothing. The former two trends have been crucial to our ‘Lea’ brand identity, and we’ve been experimenting with the latter with our more recent collections as well.
Which are your major markets in India?
Our biggest markets in India are Maharashtra (with a large chunk coming from Mumbai), our home ground of Delhi/NCR, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad.
What are your future plans?
In 2023, we plan to make our entry into the retail sector with Lea and Saanjh and make our styles accessible to more people. We also plan to launch our lingerie vertical that will offer the most size-inclusive range in the country with the signature Lea quality and fit.
We want to make Lea a household name in the country (and beyond) and continue to have an impact on the industry when it comes to inclusivity in fashion.
Published on: 22/12/2022
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.
