Colour is a big part of our DNA: Custo Dalmau

Much like the American sub region ‘latinamericano’, India, for Spain’s fashion designer, Custo Dalmau, is a sunshine place. He looked for colour inspirations in Asia and picked up India (Delhi, precisely), to launch his premium brand, Custo Barcelona. In an exclusive interview, the man talks about his foray into the Indian market.

Custo Barcelona is known for its colourful and vivid collection. What is the inspiration behind your collections?

Our DNA is fusion of colours, graphics and materials. Our inspiration in each collection is to reinforce and refresh our identity. This project was started 33 years ago in Barcelona, and the priority has been on how the consumer would recognise the product without reading the brand’s label. We think of that while designing our store also. The brand has a special way of retailing its collections.

Who is your target customer?

Colour comes to Indians very naturally and colour is a big part of our DNA, too. Using that logic, we are exploring the potential that the market here offers. We have collaborated with the Indian company, Wave, which is responsible for our runway show, and also, to explore the opportunity to set foot in the Indian market. As for the target customer, we are targetting people who have a strong sense of individuality and a young spirit.

Why India?

India is the centre of all the projects. It’s becoming one of the top markets in the world. Everybody is headed here. Also, a lot of Indian customers frequent our stores in Europe and North America. They buy a lot of our products. We hope to see it getting translated in the Indian market. The colour of the country is inspiring for me. I like how the people here wear colour; I like to visit the markets a lot. India is a very colourful country.

How would you go about opening up Custo Barcelona stores and what cities are you targetting?

This is our first time in India; we will need some time to work on our strategy. We are in touch with a large Indian company to help us open stores in malls.

The first in the line of events is to show the collection in Delhi and watch out for reactions of the people and the media. Since Delhi and Mumbai are big cities, the first two stores will open up here. After we have the experience of handling these stores, we will plan to take the brand to other cities.

How has the brand grown internationally?

We are present in all of Europe, North America, Latin America, etc. Now we are trying to enter into Asia, starting with India and China. The brand has 80 exclusive outlets and about 3,000 fashion retail associates across 40 countries.

Where does your product lie in the pricing spectrum?

We are offering vivid and contemporary colours and highquality material. We will lower our pricing in sync with local spending power, but definitely not the quality. The prices would neither be too-high nor too-low.

How much investment have you parked to get your brand to India?

We are still in the process of doing that. The final figures can’t be disclosed right now because we are not finished with that yet. Our approach has been very different: we want the people and the media to see the collection (Spring-Summer 2015) before we determine the best strategy behind opening up of stores. Also, we have little experience with the market here.