By Shubham Dasgupta, Features Editor
Apr 06, 2023 / 9 MIN READ
Women’s western wear wasn’t in vogue during the early 2000s. There were few international and regional players replicating western fashion and applying it on the Indian market, hoping for good returns. But the scope remained limited to a niche user base with high knowledge and exposure to western fashion, until Latin Quarters introduced the middle ground of western wear for Indian sensibilities in 2006.
Today, the brand is present at 375 locations across 200 cities in India with a mix of exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) and large-format departmental stores. Rahul Bhalla, CEO and CO-Founder, Latin Quarters, explains how a zen-like focus on product quality and design has helped the brand spread across 90% of departmental stores in India.
Knowing the Indian fashionista
A crucial market survey in 2006 prompted Latin Quarters to explore the untapped potential in affordable fashion for women in western wear. Over the past 16 years, the brand managed to appeal to the aspirational, fashion-conscious customer from 25-35 years of age, seeking high-quality western wear, designed with Indian sensibility.
Eventually, Latin Quarters saw its prospects incline towards western wear from a traditionally ethnic standpoint. “That’s because most international brands have their products designed as per western sensibilities. We get a lot of global color forecasts and fashion trends from Milan that we need to assess for Indian buyers. We tally with every regional skin tone in the country and then work on how feasible a global fashion trend can be for an Indian consumer at any given moment,” says Rahul Bhalla.
Fitting is another factor and Indian sizes vary significantly from the West. This apart, weather patterns, fabric types, touch-and-feel and transparency are just a few of the varied grounds where Latin Quarters personalizes each range, months after months. Professional experience with international brands, claims Bhalla, has enabled him furthermore to execute best practices, understand global fashion, supply chain, customer behaviour, integrity and mechanisms of the trade.
Occasion wear, the change-maker
Since imposing fast-forward fashion risks a disconnect with Indian consumers, Latin Quarters found out a healthy demand for occasion wear dresses. There is a separate, dedicated team for product development of occasion wear alone.
This helps the brand as a festive country like India has occasions all the year round, aiding the brand to maintain healthy seasonal business cycles for different regions and ethnicities. “Kolkata is one of the largest markets and on occasions such as Durga Pujo, we get more traction than in Delhi or Mumbai. Similarly, demand picks up when winters come in Delhi. Thus, we have occasion wear relevant throughout the year,” he maintains.
Data mining and capturing regional markets
Artificial intelligence has helped the brand gravitate to automation in processes and intuitive predictability of SKUs and respective demand over the last year. Omnichannel, on the other hand, remains a work in progress for Latin Quarters, like any other fashion brand in India. Although companies such as Find help deliver products from stores to consumers, Latin Quarters is still on its track to become a pro-omnichannel brand.
That doesn’t distract one from the biggest USPs of this homegrown western wear entity. “We can execute a range from design to in-store in 40 days. International brands can’t match with such as fast turnaround time, as they take at least 5-6 months to achieve that. We judge the market, react to it better, and decide faster,” he maintains.
Innovation is also present in their influencer marketing tactic. The brand believes in tapping fan fever from regional markets and tracking demand at a micro-scale instead of relying on one celebrity entity for national business. This cost-effective marketing strategy was accepted after the pandemic, when the brand surveyed markets in Kolkata, Siliguri, and other major eastern cities and towns to finally onboard Bengali actor Nustrat Jahan for a successful run during Durga Puja 2022.
From Competitive Metroes to Profitable Sub-urbs
There is a host of opportunity in tier 2-3 cities, and Latin Quarters is in hot pursuit through what Rahul Bhalla calls ‘moving from India to Bharat’. “There are aspirations and a healthy disposable income in those regions. Customers are a lot more fashion-conscious and aware about quality, fabric, and fit than they were years before. Some of our largest orders come from tier 2-3 cities,” he claims.
This has prompted the brand to expand aggressively for 18 months at one go, across tier 2 and 3 cities. “We have opened stores recently in Bengaluru, Indore, and Ambala and are on track to open one exclusive outlet every month,” he says, adding that the brand is open to collaborations with reputed enterprises having multiple brands under their threshold, so as to ensure quality of manpower that’s available in metro cities.
Latin Quarters ranks in the top 3 women’s western wear brands today. When asked about competition, Bhalla maintains that constant innovation is the lifeblood for ambitious labels today. “Brands go wrong when they go safe and stop innovating. If your product is good, price point proper, and one has a strong offline distribution channel with a developing e-tail segment, then there is enough room for any unorganized, organized, homegrown, and even international brands to thrive,” Bhalla concludes.
Women’s western wear wasn’t in vogue during the early 2000s. There were few international and regional players replicating western fashion and applying it on the Indian market, hoping for good returns. But the scope remained limited to a niche user base with high knowledge and exposure to western fashion, until Latin Quarters introduced the middle ground of western wear for Indian sensibilities in 2006.
Today, the brand is present at 375 locations across 200 cities in India with a mix of exclusive brand outlets (EBOs) and large-format departmental stores. Rahul Bhalla, CEO and CO-Founder, Latin Quarters, explains how a zen-like focus on product quality and design has helped the brand spread across 90% of departmental stores in India.
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