October 2019 Edition Apparel October 2019 issue | Page 74

BRAND PROFILE
Urban Essentials
New Delhi-based siblings Rupanshi and Bharat Agarwal, both engineers, recently co-founded
QUA, a label of Western workwear for women. Brinda Gill writes.
Having graduated in computer science and worked in technology, Rupanshi Agarwal
realised that workwear options for her and women in general were extremely limited.
She also found that most workwear garments were made from synthetic fabrics
such as polyester. “Those clothes looked fine, but they made me uncomfortable and
sweaty in the middle of the day. That is when I started thinking about establishing my
own brand to solve these problems,” says the young engineer-turned-entrepreneur,
who went on to co-found QUA, a Western workwear label, with her brother Bharat,
who is also an engineer. The brand is headquartered in New Delhi, and their first
collection was launched in July 2019 through the brand’s official website. Looking
back at the year that was spent in establishing QUA, the siblings say that it has been
a wonderful learning experience all the way.
SENSING MARKET POTENTIAL
When Rupanshi travelled abroad for work and holidays, she observed that workwear
options for women there were aplenty. Rupanshi elaborates, “Seeing the range of
women’s workwear in stores abroad, I had this constant nagging thought in my
mind—it was that no Indian brand was paying enough attention to the wardrobe
needs of working women in my home country. It struck me as ironical—the dearth
of workwear options in today’s times in a country that has a multitude of women
professionals. Office-wear for women in India lags far behind menswear. This led
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I APPAREL I
October 2019