We design a nine-to-nine wardrobe for the contemporary working woman
Salt Attire professes to understand the Indian body type and make clothes to attain that perfect fit. Known to provide customisations and personalisation, the tech-driven brand offers tailored fits that help customers tailor the items to their exact body measurements. With its experience stores and professional stylists, the brand offers working women hands-on help and guidance to attain the perfect fit. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, CEO & Founder Dipti Tolani talks about clothing for Indian working women, design process, and customer experience.
We design a nine-to-nine wardrobe for the contemporary working woman
Salt Attire professes to understand the Indian body type and make clothes to attain that perfect fit. Known to provide customisations and personalisation, the tech-driven brand offers tailored fits that help customers tailor the items to their exact body measurements. With its experience stores and professional stylists, the brand offers working women hands-on help and guidance to attain the perfect fit. Speaking to Fibre2Fashion, CEO & Founder Dipti Tolani talks about clothing for Indian working women, design process, and customer experience.
How has the rise of e-commerce and online shopping impacted the fashion industry as a whole? What opportunities and challenges has it presented to both established brands and emerging designers?
E-commerce has revolutionised the Indian fashion industry, expanding market reach and transforming consumer behaviour. With innovation and convenience at its core, e-commerce has redefined the shopping experience. Fashion brands must embrace digital transformation to tap into a vast consumer base and stay competitive. However, challenges arise, including intense competition, counterfeit products, and fraudulent practices. Brands must invest in online presence, seamless user experiences, and collaboration with e-commerce platforms to protect trust. Overall, e-commerce’s transformative impact has created opportunities for job creation, economic growth, and investments, shaping the future of the Indian fashion industry. However, one of the biggest challenges in e-commerce is to convert visitors into paying customers. An e-commerce website might have a lot of traffic, clicks and impressions, but sales may not be as anticipated.
Sustainability has become a significant focus in the fashion industry. What are some key initiatives or trends you have observed regarding sustainable fashion practices, and how do you see this movement evolving in the future?
Sustainability has been an important topic for a while now and rightly so. A key trend regarding sustainable fashion practices in the industry is the use of less water and energy in the production of clothing. Brands are implementing sustainable production practices such as using low-impact dyes, recycling water and reducing carbon emissions. Upcycling, i.e., repurposing existing materials to create new clothing, is also becoming more popular. Another key trend is circular fashion, which involves designing clothes to be reused, recycled, or repurposed. Brands are also exploring ways to make clothes more durable so that they can be worn longer. In the future, we will see more brands participating in the sustainability movement in some capacity or the other.
With the increasing influence of social media and influencers, how has the role of marketing and advertising transformed in the fashion industry? How do brands navigate this new landscape to effectively reach their target audience?
The internet has transformed the way we live and work in many ways, and the design and fashion industries are no exception. Social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have made it possible for fashion brands to connect with consumers in a more personal way. This has led to an increase in the number of followers and engagement for fashion brands, as well as an increase in the number of consumers. The challenge for apparel companies is to be proactive in dealing with social media, rather than being swept away by the wave. This means knowing your customers well enough to be attuned to what inspires them; helping to shape and guide the online conversation about your company and products; and having the agility to take advantage of new opportunities that arise on a moment’s notice.
Every business goes through phases of trial and error and their moments of glory. Thus, as a business owner, you should always be open to attempting, improvising, and accepting new trends for your digital and social media marketing campaigns.
These days, reaching your target audience through social media is essential in ensuring the survival of your business.
Personalisation and customisation have become increasingly important for consumers. How is the fashion industry adapting to this demand, and what innovative approaches are being used to offer personalised experiences and products?
By offering a variety of colours, styles, designs, and text options to choose from, fashion brands allow customers to customise their products in simple or complex ways. Initially, this might seem like a simple task. But, if the design and production process is not handled effectively, implementing it and getting the product out can be challenging.
Fashion brands are using a lot of new technologies in the personalisation space, including RFID technology, 3D Printing, Wearable Tech, Chatbots, AI etc.
Can you tell us about the inspiration behind starting Salt Attire and how the idea for the company came about?
I happened to experience, and then identify a gap in the Indian market when it comes to high quality business casuals and workwear for women. I also found that the demand for such clothing is going to only increase as more women enter the workforce. I then conceptualised a one-stop store for 9AM-9PM clothing needs, where any piece of clothing that you pick, could be worn to both work and after.
After realising the gap between what working women want out of their clothes and what’s available, I started digging into the reasons why the gap exists and started asking myself about what could be done better. Some core factors such as design, fabric selection and fit stood out clearly. I did a lot of ground research and studied the industry and the designing process in detail. For fits, since India is a big export hub for the garment industry, everything from the measurements to sizing is based on western proportions (mostly UK/EU). Items produced for consumption in India are sized and fitted by leveraging UK size charts. So, we created our own body measurement ratios based on research done on Indian body shapes and sizes. Our design team has a simple philosophy, design a nine-to-nine wardrobe for the contemporary working woman. We have anticipated her needs, her lifestyle, her schedule to create designs which are functional, sophisticated and chic. We focus on clean cuts with finer detailing.
We understand the need for functionality without compromising on the aesthetic appeal. We make sure that our customer can wear something comfortable and flattering into the office without a second thought. At Salt, we create elevated basics that are work appropriate; with no plunging necklines or high slits.
What differentiates your company from other online fashion retailers? What unique value do you offer to your customers?
Every piece of clothing that you pick up from the Salt collection is eligible to be worn both in office and for all your other official appointments. Hence, no lugging around extra clothes for that dinner party you might have to attend after office. This is one of the many ways in which we at Salt bring together the best of fashion along with complete functionality.
We offer tailored fit pants, anti-gaping shirts, lightweight skirts, fuss-free tops, and the most flattering dresses – all made with the best quality lightweight polyester, rayon and pure cotton which are imported from the best sources. After all, what looks good to the eyes, must feel good to the skin too.
Our assertion to our consumers is that given our fabric, our finishing, and our workmanship, Salt Attire will give the best bang for your buck.
What challenges did you face while building and scaling Salt Attire? How did you overcome them?
As a woman-led brand, a major challenge was to go out for ground research to find the right vendors, study the market, and build lasting relationships with the people involved in the industry. Initially, it was hard to navigate the markets and be out and about at odd hours due to safety issues. It took time to connect with the right people in the right places, but we have successfully achieved that.
How do you ensure the quality and sustainability of the clothing available on Salt Attire? What steps do you take to maintain ethical practices?
We have a select number of places to source our raw materials from. Most of our styles are designed to be versatile and crafted in premium fabrics to ensure lasting wear, leading it to be an investment rather than an expense.
The brand operations are run locally, boosting the local economy, thus empowering the people that work with us. We also do not maintain a large inventory of products but instead operate on a made-to-order basis.
What role does technology play in your operations? How do you leverage technology to enhance the customer experience?
At the manufacturing level, we provide custom-made clothing tailored to individual measurements. To facilitate on-demand manufacturing on a larger scale, we have developed a robust technological backend that automatically populates manufacturing details based on customer measurements and preferences. This eliminates the need for any designer or human intervention in the process.
On the design front, we have a dashboard that analyses historical data, predictions, and customer preferences to forecast the success rate of upcoming designs.
Salt Attire emphasises timeless fashion and minimalist aesthetics. How do you stay relevant in an ever-changing fashion industry while sticking to your brand’s core principles?
Fashion is a big industry, and an important aspect of building your brand is defining your target audience. Keeping our core values at the centre of all our decisions, we take into consideration the changing lifestyle choices of our consumers and factor those in. Our authenticity is the key to maintaining loyal customers.
Can you share some insights into your design process? How do you curate and select the clothing items?
Our design process is thorough, and intention driven. It consists of many stages, starting with market research to determine the ongoing and upcoming trends in colours, fabrics, silhouettes etc. Based on the research, a sourcing trip is planned for materials, followed by a brainstorming session for the styles. After consideration, the collection is designed with respect to our core values and what works best for the brand. The pieces are then sent for manufacturing, followed by a photoshoot, before they are launched in our stores and on our website.
What measures do you take to provide a seamless and personalised shopping experience for your customers? How do you handle customer feedback and improve based on it?
We offer our customers an omnichannel experience with our online presence and several stores across Delhi and Mumbai. We try to offer a seamless shopping experience to our clients both online and offline.
Salt Attire offers bespoke tailoring services to give our customers their desired fits without compromising on aesthetic and garment quality.
We go through consumer feedback regularly and do our best to implement that.
How do you approach sustainability and eco-consciousness in the fashion industry? Can you share some initiatives or practices implemented by Salt Attire?
Our designers have an ingrained process of following an eco-conscious mindset in their creations.
Salt Attire aims at making quality pieces, thereby changing the thought process of how we value clothing by extending the life of clothes.
Looking ahead, what are the future plans and goals for Salt Attire? Are there any new features, collections, or expansions on the horizon?
We recently opened our third store in Mumbai, marking our fourth store in India, located at the Nexus Seawoods Mall in Navi Mumbai. Our team is working to ensure that everything runs smoothly at all our current locations. At the same time, we are also working on expanding our reach and opening new stores in additional locations.
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