October 2019 Edition Apparel October 2019 issue | Page 72

BRAND PROFILE
OUR STYLE STATEMENT HAS BEEN
ABOUT CLOTHES THAT CHILDREN
CAN GROW INTO—IF IT IS A DRESS
NOW, IT IS FLEXIBLE ENOUGH
TO BE WORN AS A TUNIC TWO
YEARS LATER.
blankets, daywear and nightwear, nursery
fixtures, and much more for all infants. The only
thing I have not yet dabbled in is footwear. Most
importantly, I want Mi Dulce An’ya to be an
inclusive, sustainable brand.
WHERE DO YOU SEE MI DULCE AN’YA
FITTING IN THE KIDS’ WEAR MARKET?
Currently, the kids’-wear market in India is
estimated at around US$10 billion. . So I may only
be concerned with approximately 10 per cent
of the market. But even if we have a tiny subset
of the whole segment, it would still be a positive
growth graph for us. As of now, our turnaround
is not yet enough to establish a walk-in store;
however, for micro brands like us, I feel that
consolidation is on its way, and that the market
will increasingly become consumer-driven.
HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO INTRODUCE
CONSUMERS TO THE ORGANIC MAKE
OF YOUR APPAREL?
Our aim is to champion organic cotton but things
would not have worked if we had only played
the organic card, which is why we had to start
by telling our audiences, “We craft comfortable
and easy-to-wear clothing for your children.”
This helped us acquire greater accessibility to
them, while enabling both the child and parent
to connect with our brand. Gradually, we started
telling them that our clothing is also kind to the
environment. From the beginning, our style
statement h
has been about clothes that
children ca
can grow into—if it is a dress
now, it is fl flexible enough to be worn as a
tunic two years later. The primary mark
of our c clothes is their longevity; I know
of four girls, whose mother buys from
us regu
regularly. As one child grows out
of thes
these clothes, they are passed
down to the other, with the quality
remaining
intact.
rema
HOW DO YOU
DIFFERENTIATE
DIF
YOURSELF
FROM YOUR
YO
CONTEMPORARIES?
CO
The fact that we offer such a
Th
wide spectrum of products in
wid
the kids’-wear realm—with all
of the
them being purely artisanal—is
70
I APPAREL I
October 2019