Tag: Europe

Innovation and creativity is the order of the day. Business houses, especially in the retail industry, have to be on their toes, keeping their eyes and ears open for any slight development in the market, to be in the reckoning. As competition hots up in different domains and verticals of the organized retail game, with the entry of leading international brands and many Indian retail giants consolidating and expanding with a vengeance, the Indian retail market is definitely not for the fainthearted. Retail companies have to start looking for innovative formats that can make them distinctive and unique – a cut above the rest.

One of the latest retail formats making a grand entry in this game of guts and guile is Wedding Malls. An unheard of entity in the advanced global retail markets like the United States and Europe; it has become a big hit in India. These wedding malls stock a whole list of items and products that goes into any big fat Indian wedding, ranging from jewellery to apparels. Retailers are astutely combining the best of the global retail trends with the local flavors, keeping in mind the needs and preferences of the target consumers. Such customization and blending of ideas to come up with innovative formats is not only a welcome change, but a necessary requirement to be a step ahead of competitors in this rather crowded market.

Then there are Khadi Plazas, a successful retail project rolled out by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, under the government of India. These swish and ritzy outlets showcase the exquisite designs and patterns of the traditional handloom and handicraft products, manufactured in the Indian villages, in a trendy and chic package to catch the attention of the young Indians with changing lifestyles and attitudes.

Another addition to the list of extraordinary retail formats is the Village Malls. These malls are the archetype of shopping malls that dot the urban landscape, providing multiple services and outlets in a single location. Village malls are an extension of the fair price shops that have been revamped to cater to the larger needs of the local population. Many states have introduced this retail format spearheaded by the Gujarat government, where it has been successfully running for the last two three years.

In fact, only innovation can save the day; and players in the organized India retail sector have to start thinking out-of-the-box to initiate inimitable retail formats that can take them forward in the game.

In fact, only innovation can save the day; and players in the organized India retail sector have to start thinking out-of-the-box to initiate inimitable retail formats that can take them forward in the game.

Men’s wholesale clothing distributors fulfill a very important role in the clothing retail chain. If there were no wholesalers, many shop owners will go out of business. Let us briefly examine why this is the case.

If you are the owner of a men’s clothing store, or even a stall holder, you have to purchase your inventory from one ore more suppliers. The bigger the variety you sell, the more difficult it will be to make deals with all the various manufacturers. In most case they won’t even be interested to sell in such small quantities anyway.

You also face the additional problem that nowadays a lot of clothing is imported. There is simply no way that exporters from China, Europe or India are going to be interested to ship a few hundred items to an individual shop owner – these exporters want large orders, usually container loads.

In come the men’s wholesale clothing distributors. Their role is to source clothing from the various manufacturers and make it available to retailers. The benefit for the retailer is that he has a large variety of items to choose from, all under one roof.

The variety alone makes it worth his while for the average retailer. As every store owner well knows, more variety means more sales. And if you have a men’s clothing store selling general lines of clothing, as well as specialized items such as sports clothing, clothing accessories and boys clothing, you won’t find everything under one roof except at a wholesaler.

One other reason making it a good deal to buy from a wholesaler is the fact that, because they buy in bulk, they get much better prices which they can then pass on to the retailer. As an individual buyer purchasing one or two hundred items at a time, you will never be able to negotiate this type of prices with the manufacturer.

Often wholesalers will provide credit to retailers that have been buying from them for a certain time. If you as a retailer can arrange such a line of credit, you could probably sell the item even before you have to pay for it. This means none of your own money will be tied up in inventory.

Even if you have a specialized order, such as a customer that wants a few hundred T-shirts with his company logo, your clothing wholesaler could well be able to help you. These guys often have a close working relationship with so-called cut, make and trim (CMT) manufacturers who are able to fulfill custom orders. Buying from men’s wholesale clothing distributors therefore makes a lot of sense for a retailer.

Developing a fashionable style takes a quantum of research in life and constant observation of ever changing environments, as the evolution of style and the progress of fashion continue its cycles. To the end it is a culmination of the past and present that takes fashion forward.

A designer will draw heavily on archival material, be aware of their surroundings and keep a close eye on the changing weather patterns, with an ear to the ground. It’s an all consuming profession for the passionate.

A creative imagination is not something to be turned on and tuned into the local news like a television set, or begins when you clock on at work. Think of it as a trickle of water given birth on a tropical forest floor and gains momentum as it forces into a stream, then a creek, then a river. Finally to deposit it gatherings into the ocean.

All of your observations and gatherings, scrap books, ideas, researching and theorizing finally culminate an idea to fruition, just like the river to the ocean.

At some point the idea has to be captured and documented otherwise it goes off into infinite space. Knowledge is limiting, but imagination encompasses the universe, the two trains of thought have to harmonies for the realization of great ideas. Technical, visionaries.

An obvious example is the retail setting, from fashion to floor polish, any object that catches your attention is the product of some ones ideas. A gathering of right place right time theorem in every case.

Tracing ideas history: The Trench Coat is a classic example of unintentional fashion. When a young man by the name of Thomas Burberry Noticed local shepherds and farmers wearing linen smocks, which were cool in summer and warm in the winter, he attempted to apply the same principles to other clothing.

In 1879 he developed a fabric which was weatherproofed in the yarn before weaving, using a secret process and then proofed again in the piece. The new material was untearable and weatherproof. He called the cloth -gabardine’ and registered the word as a trademark. So when you go looking for a trench coat, it has changed little in basic style for well over one hundred years. Its origins have been well documented by historians, it’s the truth.

During the Trench War in Europe, the mackintosh became the choice of British officers and appropriately labeled it The Trench Coat. It remains true to original form apart from some colour additions. A testament of style is constant.

As hundreds of millions of neck wear are sold every year, the predominant style, stripes, its origins are not commonly known, but none the less fascinating and also well documented and can easily associated with an Oxford University rowing club win.

Conversely fashion owes as much to imagination as to scientific intervention, this sense has been formed a perfect relationship that few fashion writers or historians have elaborated. A shinning example is The English Madder silk tie. Its continuing success over a hundred years owes more to science and sound economics, the latter has sustained its growth thanks to a couple of unknowing English Chemists who took the colouring agent in madder root called alizarin and chemically extracted and then synthesized it in 1869 by. Although the dyeing process requires a variety of painstaking steps, synthesized alizarin brought the price within the reach of commercial producers, good economics.

There is more than meets the eye in fashion seldom do we consider its accidental creation and scientific intervention; we just want to look good.

Old styles are continually modernized but still bare very close resemblance to their originals. Don’t for get the cufflinks