A passion for fashion

Our First Million

Rajiv and Puja Gupta have known each other for 20 years, much before even that defining year in their lives "" 1988 "" when they set up the first Bizarre boutique, to cater to the clothing needs of the contemporary woman. They were married later the same year.

Despite the couple's insistence that they haven't allowed the business to dominate their lives, Bizarre has grown rapidly, moving from a fun venture that required an investment of "barely a few thousand" to a Rs 6 crore business. The company had a 20 per cent growth this year and is now expanding beyond Delhi for the first time.

PUJA: Sometime in 1988, Rajiv and I were in an impromptu brainstorming session with family and friends when one of us said "let's do something really bizarre".

The positive connotation of the word is something unusual and exciting. At the time there was hardly anyone into contemporary westernwear for women in the country, so we decided to tread this uncharted path.

There was a sense of fun about the whole venture. With a minuscule investment we set up our first boutique the same year, in Greater Kailash.

RAJIV: Puja had done a fashion designing course from Delhi's Polytechnic Institute and the initial designs were hers.

I had been working as a chartered accountant with Price Waterhouse and was rapidly getting bored of my desk job.

Naturally, I took over the more practical aspects of running the business. Though it wasn't planned as such, the combination of a financial background and creative, lateral thinking stood us in good stead.

If you think of it, most successful businesses in this industry today have that combination. But we just hit upon it by chance.

PUJA: From the outset, we've thought of our clothes range as intended for the upmarket, cosmopolitan, empowered woman.

A mother and daughter should be able to walk into a Bizarre boutique together and there should be something there for both of them.

Our USP is the depth in our merchandising and our understanding of our consumers. We cater to all moods "" formal dressing, studied casualness, you name it.

We have used an extensive palette of colours for our Summer 2003 collection, ranging from pastel soft hues to bright, flamboyant colours.

There have been some obvious changes in the market since we first set out. The country has many more high-profile designers today than there were in 1988.

Retail has moved a huge distance too, with malls mushrooming by the dozen. Information technology has made a big difference as well.

RAJIV: More than five years lapsed before we opened our second boutique, in South Extension in 1994. The reason was that we were in no rush to hurry things.

We wanted to maintain complete control over our product and not dilute it by getting into franchises and so on. The personal touch is very important to us both.

The other thing is, we try to look at the larger picture. Both of us have many interests and we want to keep time for our other passions "" for instance, I participate in the world championship of hot-air ballooning in France.

Puja is into yoga and classical music, and we're both very interested in art as well. Also, we got married just a couple of months after the first boutique opened, and we were busy with our family life.

We have a 12-year-old daughter who, incidentally, is already talking about taking Bizarre global when she becomes involved with the business!

PUJA: We believe Bizarre has made a difference to the Indian market. It's a national brand today, in terms of awareness and recognition throughout the country.

Real estate agents know we're worthy of a presence in the best locations, and that's a big advantage. After setting up four boutiques in Delhi, we took our first step towards going national earlier this year when we opened a boutique in Kolkata.

That's a virgin market, and we're excited about the prospects. Next on the agenda are boutiques in DLF, Noida, Chandigarh and, eventually, Mumbai, where we're prepared to face tough competition.

And yes, we are more or equal partners. He puts in 51 per cent, I put in 49 per cent. If you ask him, though, he'll say just the opposite!