Kimaya: Encouraging Extravaganza
Kimaya: Encouraging Extravaganza

Kimaya is best known as a one-stop shop for national and international designer brands. It houses almost 147 fashion designers from Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa besides India and many more. Pradeep Hirani, MD, Kimaya Fashion Pvt Ltd, identified designer couture as high potential area and founded Kimaya in 2002. He shares his luxurious retail journey in a candid interview with Franchise India Media.  

Franchise India Media (FIM): Will you put your brand in the luxury segment or the lifestyle segment?

Pradeep Hirani (PH): It would be unfair for me to classify the brand. It’s the consumer who should decide. However, designer wear is classified as a luxury and not a lifestyle product, worldwide. There is a premium attached to the label.

FIM: Has consumer’s perception about Kimaya changed? Have you added new clients to your kitty?

PH: Of course yes! We started our journey six and a half years back. We have 15 stores across India and have scaled up the maximum. We saw the fulcrum of fashion shifting towards India. The fulcrum of fashion shifts every 15 years. It started in 1945 from Paris, then shifted to London, New York, Los Angeles, Milan and the next fulcrum is formed by India and Brazil together. We saw the revolution coming or you can also call it the Fashion-Tsunami. We were lucky to ride that way. Yes, we have been able to convert a lot of things, creating an upper hand. We have all evolved, we have all scaled up. I am proud of riding the fashion revolution.

FIM: What inspired you to rope in international designers?

PH: Fashion does not have any political or geographical barrier and has an aesthetic and universal language. We have a store in Dubai and it’s not only India that we are looking at. We work with more than 147 Indian designers and also 16 Italian designers in India, while in our Dubai stores we not only carry Italian but also South African, Malaysian, Brazilian designers also. Fashion for us is not limited to India as long as its creative, well finished, well priced and it’s just right for our clients.

FIM: Are you also looking at increasing your portfolio?

PH: We have signed with 16 brands to launch their stores in India. We have looked around and decided to wait for the storm to pass over and we have pushed the dates to 2011. Yes, we have not publicised it yet. We will be commencing with the new brands in spring 2011 and we will be having separate stores for them.

FIM: Do you plan to expand to other cities as well?

PH: We are present in Bangalore, Chennai etc and we plan to launch four stores in 2010.  Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Hyderabad feature in our plan.

FIM: Ludhiana is market where stores have a tough time sustaining themselves. It is a tricky market. How will you address the market?

PH: There is a notion in the industry that it is an over-hyped market but our country is not just about Mumbai or Delhi. People expect a lot from Ludhiana. The country’s actual growth is coming from the smaller towns. We did a small recce and we realised that Ludhiana is a tricky market and we love tricky markets. Our biggest store is in the trickiest market in the country and that is Bangalore. We decided to have the biggest store there which is 10000 sq ft in area.

Bangalore is a very conservative market as far as the high fashion spending is concerned. There is a popular adage in the country---the maximum money is made in Bangalore and spent in Ludhiana.

What we will sell will be an ego-massage and not a product. When you buy a Porsche car, you buy the energy, the speed etc together. Like, when you buy a Cartier, you don’t buy it for time. It is the sheen that people actually want to acquire. One man’s meat is another man’s poison!

FIM: Have you decided to make your stores bigger in the future?

PH: Yes, the bigger size would be 8000-10000 sq ft. Our Dubai store has an area of 11000 sq ft. We have booked our spaces much in advance and we get much better rentals at most of our locations per square feet. We do need space as luxury is all about splurging, being comfortable. We need to be liberal with space and design.

FIM: What price points do you offer?

PH: We have a variety of designers and the price points differ. The starting price is Rs 8000-9000 which can go up to 7-8 lakh, for bridal lehenga.

FIM: Is it just the weddings that attract Indian consumers to luxury-shopping or there is more to it?

PH: The first reason definitely is weddings and the second more important and bigger reason is indulgence. If you want to indulge and be happy, shopping is the biggest antidote in the world. We offer a feel-good factor, right craftsmanship, vibrant colours etc.

 

 

 

 

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