Lulu & Sky : How India’s female entrepreneur is bridging the gap between luxury and affordability
The Indian fashion market even though still at a nascent stage, has been witnessing rapid growth and evolution since the past few years. The contributors to the growth have been mostly the flag bearers of the industry providing the influx of breakthroughs, which has resulted in giant leaps regarding fresh trends, and substantial rise to fashion awareness for the Indian customer.
The fairly new label, Lulu & Sky, has been such a breakthrough for the Indian fashion market and e-commerce platforms. The brand is the brain child of CEO Kalyani Saha Chawla who is a serial entrepreneur, and a powerful figure in the Indian fashion circuit.
Although it was launched in December 2016, the brand has been able to generate impressive revenues in its first few months itself, which is another jewel in the crown for this unstoppable female entrepreneur.
From the past two years, online market places have registered losses due to stagnation, as commissions from retailers were failing to contribute to its profits. New wave of E-commerce platforms were needed to take these market places out of the current state, and companies such as Lulu & sky are proving to be the refreshing change.
The e-commerce brand is a marketplace selling private labels from all across the globe whose merchandise has been sourced from LA, New York, Milan, London, China, and manufactured in India as well.
The founder and CEO of the company, Kalyani Saha Chawla, who has been the former head of Dior in India, had the vision to create a brand which caters to style conscious women wanting to afford off the runway pieces at the comfort of their home. The prices are between ₹ 5000 to ₹6000, keeping in mind the affordability and ensuring international quality of the merchandise.
As she puts it, this is her venture to bring something which is a brand ‘’between Zara and designer wear’’.
She has even kept a range for curvy women, namely ‘Curvy Lulu’ as it is tough to find trendy, in vogue pieces for plus size women in India. This has been remarkable in bringing fashion consciousness to plus size women, creating a bigger market and providing wider options to the same.
She hasn’t limited the brand to just females, as accessories and assorted gifting options for men are available on the website. What’s best is that Lulu & Sky products are handpicked by her, as she brings her personal style to the brand.
The brand is targeting customers from age 15 to 50, and has the perfect price point in the market for consumers who want high street fashion in good quality. Some of the pieces of the brand were sold out in two days of the launch of the website, thanks to all the gen Y Bollywood celebrities making appearances in it’s merchandise.
There is no doubt in the fact that Kalyani, being a part of the marketing and PR industry due to her marketing agency Koi communications, has a good understanding of brand building. She has a fairly large number of people with whom she has had the pleasure to work with in the industry, and these connections are willingly supporting her new venture.
It’s an impressive feat by this female entrepreneur who has mostly females holding the official chunk of the brand. From Tina Antoniades who is Kalyani’s friend, an international designer, entrepreneur and also a major contributor for the brand, to the Brand Rain makers and financial heads, the team is packed with female power.
Her 18 year old daughter Tahira Tara Chawla, is one of the key influencers for the brand aesthetics. Together they make a powerful pack of unstoppable females who are the backbone of building the brand to what it is now.
All of this brings us to one question, Where does she get it from?
Well it’s in the family history. She has a background of fashion savvy female entrepreneurs in the apparel industry, which exposed her to the apparel market since a very young age. She knew the vibe of Indian consumer and what would appeal to them which plays a significant role in the acceptance of a brand.
The part of making the brand visible to the masses was a vital aspect in the success, which was successfully taken care of through various social media platforms. Facebook marketing, Snapchat and teaming up with new age fashion bloggers to strut the brand merchandise, helped in providing appeal to the fashionable Instagram savvy youngsters.
On the floor marketing was taken care of by Pop-up stores of Lulu & Sky, in collaboration with a famous jewelry brand in five star hotels of Delhi and Mumbai. This was successful in catering to the fashion conscious strata of upper middle class women, who didn’t mind shopping with cocktails in hand while mingling with their own likes. This helped well with the brand positioning.
Since the success of the website from the past 9 months, Lulu & Sky officially launched its first brick and mortar store in Delhi’s Select City walk mall, which is a hub of the class of people the brand aims to target. It would also provide the visibility and popularity amongst people who are still hesitant to shop online and prefer stores.
What’s interesting is that back in the day, brands used to launch stores and later shift to their own retail websites. But this new age brand is expanding to physical spaces after its success on the internet, as it aims to earn profits through sale per sq feet as well.
The case has been such that, people who wanted affordable high fashion while wishing to stand out of the crowd, craved for something other than what existing apparel e-commerce platforms have to offer. The limitation was that they play safe regarding style, offering limited experimentation as they target a wider range of consumer.
Needless to say that Kalyani and her team have been successful in overcoming this limitation in the Indian fashion E-commerce space, while creating a brand which is a perfect representation of the style of a fashion conscious woman, created by a woman, for women of all shapes and sizes.
More power to her!
Excerpts were taken from Hello!, Vogue, Elle, Yourstory.com
