How the wives of two of India’s leading businessmen made a success of stylefile.
Every year, with the onset of winter in Kolkata, the bungalow at 6/7 Burdwan Road in posh Alipore gets a makeover. It’s time for the annual Stylefile Lifestyle Night Bazaar organised by Preety Goenka and Sumedha Saraogi, the wives of two of India’s leading businessmen — Sanjiv Goenka, vice chairman of the RPG Group, and Vivek Saraogi, managing director of Balrampur Chini Mills, respectively. The eighth edition of Stylefile was held late last month.
“We are friends and the decision to get into business came very spontaneously over a cup of coffee,” recalls Goenka. Neither had any formal training in fashion and merchandising, and back in 2002, Kolkata was a stranger to lifestyle brands and designer labels.
The decision to invest in a fashion and lifestyle venture was, thus, a courageous one. “But more than the business, it was our desire to popularise fashion and designer brands in this part of the country,” states Saraogi, who keeps well abreast of fashion trends.
Stylefile began with a fashion show followed by an exhibition at the city’s oldest five-star, the Oberoi Grand. And over the past seven years, the one-day event has grown bigger and better. Today, it’s moved from the luxury hotel to a sprawling bungalow. Since 2007, it’s also become a night bazaar, displaying the collections of noted Indian designers.
“The idea of a night bazaar was to attract men who could drop in from work to help the women shop and at the same time pick up stuff for themselves as well. Fashion is no more restricted to women,” says Saraogi, displaying keen business savvy.
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Given its market, Stylefile offers a range of price points for its designer labels. “We ensure that we have something for the average buyer, so prices start at Rs 550 and go up to lakhs,” assures Saraogi. With the wedding season now, this year’s Stylefile had a collection of wedding jewellery, bridal trousseau, shoes, handbags and accessories.
Of course, it hasn’t been easy. In the early years, it was difficult to convince well-known designers and labels to come and participate in Kolkata as they feared it wouldn’t be worth their while in terms of business. “We had to persuade them. Now, owing to the overwhelming response to the event, they come every year and we have developed a rapport with all of them,” says Goenka. City-based designers such as Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Shantanu Goenka, Kiran Uttam Ghosh and Anamika Khanna are, of course, an integral part of Stylefile.
Both Goenka and Saraogi take personal interest in selecting the designers and their collections. “We want to ensure customers get the best and most exclusive items,” says Saraogi. The two even visit the studios and outlets of new participants to guide them on what customers expect.
“Our USP has been the quality and uniqueness of each item at Stylefile and we take care to maintain this,” adds Saraogi. With every year, the numbers of designers participating at Stylefile has increased as Kolkata has been able to find its place in the fashion map.
As for the future, the business partners intend to take Stylefile to other metros as well. “We have had three successful Stylefiles in Mumbai already,” says Goenka.
What is their husbands’ contribution to the business? The ladies are quick to point out that they wouldn’t have got this far without the support of their family and husbands. As they say, behind every successful woman there is a man.