Anita Dongre: Fashion with ethics

The Indian businesswoman launched a flagship store at the Trianon Shopping Park recently. It offers Mauritian customers the three brands of her fashion house, And Designs India Ltd: AND, Global Desi and Anita Dongre.

Anita Dongre is a successful Indian businesswoman and a very talented, popular fashion designer. Today, she is about to conquer the Mauritian market. Before revealing her plans for the island, Anita Dongre looks back on the past in order to tell us how it all started.

It is during her teenage years, when she was 15, that she decided to become a fashion designer and aspired to create a fashion empire in India. “As a child, I used to spend a lot of time in my grandmother’s house in Jaipur, and was completely enamored of the beauty of Ra-jasthan, the colourful markets, the architecture, the people. That place ignited a creative spark in me and I decided that designing would be my chosen path,” she recounts.

So, after a degree in B.Com from Narsee Monjee College in Mumbai, Anita Dongre went to SNDT College, still in the capital city of Maharashtra, to study fashion design. However, in the 90s, pursuing a career in that field was not well seen. “I faced a fair share of opposition from my family. But I was determined and started a small workshop on my bedroom balcony with support from my sister,” she relates. Thenceforth, she began to design clothes for friends and even to supply boutiques with her models. Seeing her unrelenting passion, her father finally gave in and offered her a loan to start a small factory. “That laid the foundation of my fashion house.”

Her fashion house, And Designs India Ltd (ADIL) opened in 1998 and her first brand, AND, was launched in 1999, at Mumbai’s first ever mall, Crossroads. In fact, Anita Dongre officially embarked on her journey as a fashion designer in 1998. She then worked with TexportSyndicatean, an export firm. “I realized that there was a large gap on the Indian market for affordable and accessible Western wear. Women back then were mostly getting their Western wear tailored or buying it abroad. Yet, sizes, silhouettes – for the typical Indian body type – and finishing was a huge concern.” Seizing that opportunity, she launched AND, an affordable contemporary Western-wear label, with a vision to make it part of every Indian woman’s wardrobe.

A few years later, in 2007, Anita Dongre introduced Glo-balDesi, the Indo-fusion brand. “Because AND was like two personalities. I was travelling two worlds, that of the more sophisticated working woman and the alter ego, who is more fun, preppy and global chic. So I decided to spin off in a separate label, Global Desi, which is inspired by India’s vast and vibrant heritage of colours, textures and prints juxtaposed with Western cuts, resulting in a collection which is fun, fashionable and riding high on international appeal,” she explains. Motivated by her creativity and ambition, she then entered the wedding wear market in 2009 with the launch of her eponymous label, Anita Dongre, offering, she says, “bespoke couture bridal wear and menswear as well as a line of handcrafted gold jewellery, named Pink-city.” The jewellery brand has been commercialized as from 2013.

Today aged 51, Anita Dongre can be described as a flourishing businesswoman. The brand named after her has ten exclusive stores in India, with a flagship store at the premium DLF Emporio Mall in New Delhi. “We actually have three stores in New Delhi, one in Kolkata, one in Bangalore and four in Mumbai. We recently launched an exclusive menswear store in Mumbai as well, offering bespoke and ‘prêt-à-porter’ wear for men.” For the high street brands, AND and Global Desi, there are 62 and 78 stores respectively that can be found across 56 cities in India. “In addition to exclusive brand stores, the high street labels are available at multi-brand outlets like Shoppers Stop, Pantaloons, Lifestyle and manyothers,” the fashion designer specifies. And as regards the revenues of And Designs India Ltd, they have grown tenfold over the last four years. “Our turnover for financial year 2014 was Rs 215 crores (Rs 2.15 billion).”

As far as the Mauritian market is concerned, after a Global Desi store at the Bagatelle Shopping Mall, Anita Dongre has launched a flagship store at the Trianon Shopping Park recently. “As part of the company’s growth strategy, our vision has always been to explore and offer our products to the international market and reach out to potential customers. In 2013, we realized that the time was ripe to mark our global footprint, and after much research, we found a suitable partner in Mauritius. Given that it’s a popular tourist destination as well, Global Desi opened doors here.” Prompted by the positive res-ponse the brand received in Mauritius, Anita Dongre decided to open a flagship store offering all three brands under ADIL : AND, Global Desi and Anita Dongre.

What type of woman does this flagship address? “As a fashion house, we think and act global. Thus, our vision is to address the ever-evolving sartorial needs of a modern urban woman, wherever in the world she may be,” underlines Anita Dongre. It is with this vision in mind that she entered the Mauritian market as well, “bringing in our design philosophy through three distinct fashion brands which have their own unique DNA, yet individually and jointly cater for the varied moods, personalities, silhouettes, sizes and age groups of women, ma-king them confident and great about themselves.” She adds that the collections available at her stores in Mauritius are “high impact, elegant and versatile, perfect for the modern woman who likes to make a statement without being over the top.”

Anita Dongre, mother of a 22 year old boy, explains that her work life is an extension of the “real her”. “I have always been passionate about art, architecture, and above all, Indian weaves and crafts. That manifests itself in my design philosophy also. All my brands are a reflection of my personal beliefs and personality.” For instance, being herself a vegan and a PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) supporter, none of her creations use leather. In fact, she strongly believes in using organic and natural fabrics which can be seen in most of her designs.