"I started bespoke even before bespoke was ever done"

Amy Billimoria, the Indian International fashion designer recently opened her store at Juhu, Mumbai. On the occasion, the designer spoke to our correspondent Sunil Pol about her plans of store expansion and dealing with e-tailers in the near future.

Why did you think of launching your own store? And what’s the amount of investment you have put in?

I have always had my own store but this is the dream which is almost a decade old. I wanted to house the best in design and that is what I have today. The Amy Billimoria House of Design houses luxury couture style in its best style forever.

In the current scenario of numerous Indian and international designer brands rushing to serve innovative Indo-western styles to the consumers, how will you manage to compete with them?

I have never competed with anyone. I have a wide clientele base. I have more than 10,000 clients across the world and I have been having patents for more than two decades because I completed twenty years in fashion and I started bespoke even before bespoke was ever done. I never believe in store having ready to wear because I believe everybody’s body type is so different and that’s why I think what I have come up with today is a unique concept. You can see design in all forms and then you amalgamate.

At the retail front, what’s your plan of increasing store counts especially in future? What would be the investment per store?

Yes, I am planning to launch my own two more stores in London and Dubai in about a year’s time. I can’t talk of investment.

Which will be the focus territories?

When you have luxury couture, you are generally hitting cities because cities have that buying power. This is a luxury destination.

What’s your take on eCommerce retailing? And how soon we can buy your products on e-market places?

Not very soon, but I am planning to sell through e-market places. I will be talking to all the leading e-tailers in the coming year. And to avoid discounting, I am trying to create something unusual which I don’t want to discuss now, but you will see something unusual in eCommerce. Working with eCommerce is something in my mind and that something I will announce in the near future.

Are you planning to go through the franchising route?

No, as of now I am not planning to adopt the route of franchising. Every store will be of my own.