How Indian Market is Evolving for Loungewear Segment?
How Indian Market is Evolving for Loungewear Segment?

How did the brand NeceSera come into existence? Kindly shed light on the journey so far?

After returning to India after graduation, I was supposed to move to Mumbai for a job in Marketing, and I spent my last month in Delhi, helping out with the family garment business. During that month I noticed what the apparel industry in India lacked, high quality comfortable garments. Fashion trends go out of fashion, winter wear is seasonal, beach and resort wear are both very specific to holiday destinations, but loungewear is something everyone needs, everyday. No matter the season, the location or mood.

Coming from a marketing background, I knew I wanted two things – fabrics that will make people want more, and designs, that will bring them to NeceSera. Started off with the only the idea of creating nightwear, so we thought of the name Sera – but we didn’t want to restrict ourselves to nightwear so we thought of NeceSera – from ‘necessary’, something that’s essential for every woman’s life.

My journey with NeceSera has been incredible. Being an art enthusiast and a harbinger of comfortable clothing, I worked with designers in Europe to put together luxuriously comfortable fabrics and prints inspired by wide-ranging quirky ideas to create NeceSera. With an aim to making the idea of comfortable clothing more fun and something to look forward to, our team is constantly ideating new prints and colors. 

How do you see the market for loungewear brand is growing in India?

Loungewear is comfortable clothing that can be worn in and outside your home. So inside or outside India, the market is constantly growing. I like to relate the idea of loungewear to daily necessities, because irrespective of age group, weather, location or profession, everyone needs comfortable clothing. The market response to our first collection reaffirmed the growing need for loungewear brands in the Indian market. 

Kindly shed light on your distribution? Any plans to have your exclusive online store?

Our distribution is mainly online and through offline pop-up shops. We plan on increasing our offline presence across India this year because when customers touch and feel our products, that’s when they understand the quality and fall in love with it.

E-retailers such as Prettysecrets, Zivame and many more are also into nightwear segment. Do you see them as your competition?

Yes, not just the nightwear brands, even brands like Zara is our competition since they do have a section of basic essential clothing. We aim to be the one stop shop for everything comfortable, so whether it’s a basic comfortable t-shirt or quirky printed pajamas, we have it all. So anyone with these products would be our competition.

What are the plans to expand your categories further? Also, shed light on your best selling product?

Working on some new collaborations, you’ll need to stay tuned for that, as for the categories – everything that helps our customers ‘Notch up their Comfort’.

Kindly tell us about your design and manufacturing team?

We work with Creative Managers, to ideate the concept of each collection. Once we have mood boards for each design, we send it out to graphic designers who work on the prints. Mood boards include all kinds of inspirations from pictures from travels, to flowers and food. Many a times, the prints turn into something completely different from what we began with. For the basics collection, we include new colors of the season. Manufacturing is in house in India which helps us ensure quality and a sustainable manufacturing process.

 Have you raised any sort of equity fund so far or plan to?

Completely bootstrapped as of now, aren’t planning any funding right now.

What kind of logistics challenges are you facing while ensuring safer home delivery?

We’ve actually been lucky enough to partner with logistics companies that ensure safe and on-time deliveries even in tier-2 cities across India.

 At last, kindly highlight your growth plans?

Since our first popup shop in August 2017, the response has been incredible, we will be constantly working on new ideas and innovative ways to make loungewear quirkier and cozier â€‹

 

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