Wooing the club segment

OUR BIG IDEA

Our backgrounds
Sanjeev: My father and uncles have been major players in the shirtmaking industry since the seventies, with brands like Liberty and Silkina.

A commerce graduate, I worked in my father's company for a long time, but yearned to do something beyond traditional shirtmaking apparel. I got married to Deepa in 1993.

Deepa: I don't have a garment industry background, but I wanted to do my own thing and not just be affiliated to my husband's family business.

Branching out
Deepa: I decided to branch out on my own in 1996 and launched Pacific Clothing. Sanjeev decided to accompany me. For a while, we were literally groping in the dark. I wanted something sophisticated, intellectual, smart, something that would say 'buy me and look cool'.

Sanjeev: The market for denims and casuals was saturated. Meanwhile, the market for branded wear was taking off with Charagh Din, Provogue and a variety of other players.

We fiddled around with ideas for five years, trying to find a niche. We continued to use Pacific Clothing as a manufacturing unit for Silkina while we looked for something new.

Inspiration for Tuscan Verve
Sanjeev: The concept of 'club wear' was the piece of the puzzle that we were looking for. In 2000, we showed some of our designs to somebody in the trade. He was sceptical and said it was too clubby and flashy. To us, this put-off was manna from heaven. We decided to manufacture clubwear.

Deepa: To complement the range, we came up with the concept of loungewear, to provide fashionable apparel for parties held post office hours in five-star hotels. People were still unclear about what to wear to lounge parties.

The naming ceremony
Sanjeev: The name Tuscan Verve, therefore, was intended to signify an elegant menswear line for a trendy and sophisticated crowd that was fashionable and young at heart. The focus of Tuscan Verve alternates: every winter is for clubwear. The summer campaign is aimed at sophisticated loungewear.

Deepa: A big challenge was designing on ordinary fabric. By the time we innovated and worked with textile designers, the season was almost over and the fashions would become a little outdated. We now work with textile developers to incorporate our design at the threading and weaving stage.

Challenges
Deepa: There wasn't much excitement when we brought in club wear. We were brainstorming about ways to sell our product to the public andcame up with the idea of showrooms that had the ambience of clubs and lounges.

We rented a showroom at Linking Road and transformed it into a club look-alike with disco strobelights, music and other fixtures. The consumer was then invited to try out these clothes within the atmosphere of a club or a lounge recreated in the showroom.

Sanjeev: It was obviously very difficult for customers to simply look at our wares on a rack or in a retail showroom in a mall and get a sense of how it might look. The right environment was essential.

Future plans
Sanjeev: We do not plan to expand within the domestic Indian market, since it is difficult. The untapped sectors are the southern and eastern regions as the night-clubbing culture does not exist there.

That's why our Hyderabad store is still struggling. With five stores today, we want to have 15-18 more stores in five years in Bangalore and urban mini-metros. We are signing on six new designers to design exclusively for Tuscan Verve.

Deepa: We plan to strengthen Tuscan Verve's focus on womenswear. We are also looking at exporting to the Middle East, Europe and South Africa.