“Entirely different beast”
"These designers are chosen based on their quality and willingness to customize,” she informs us. "Our objective is to empower niche designers and boutiques by letting them reach out to audiences beyond their vicinities.” Sleeve length, colors, necklines and fit can be changed to suit individual needs. Clients can upload their measurements on the website. While primarily offering Indian styles and cuts, the venture also offers blouses, gowns and dresses. "There are always new patterns, new techniques and new types of customer requests that teach us how to improve our business and processes every single day. Never stop iterating — that’s our philosophy,” says the 29-year-old entrepreneur.
Selling "cloud tailoring," Rashna Sanjana (left) and Bhavana Motwani showcasing their company at an exhibition
Actor Tanaaz Irani and daughter in matching StitchMyFit outfits; outfits from their collection
Rashna Sanjana with husband Darius Aga and adopted canine Soli Sanjana
Bhavana Motwani and husband Prashant
Clients in Bombay can also avail of tailoring services from fabrics pre-bought by them. "After measurements, you discuss patterns and our stylist (who visits customers at home) pens down a design made just for you,” she states. Lately approximately 70% of the firm’s business comes from this segment. Lead time for deliveries is 14 days and eight for "rushed” ones. Prices for "off the shelf” creations start at Rs 1,500 while tailoring charges range from Rs 850 upwards for a kurta to Rs 1,800 upwards for a lehenga (Indian skirt) while gowns go for upwards of Rs 1,500, says the seamstress.
Sanjana explains how she and her co-director in the venture Bhavana Motwani, who had started the business in 2015, met: "I ordered something from StitchMyFit.com because I liked the concept. The product I ordered was customized to my favorite color and size and it fit me perfectly.” She decided to pick up the phone and speak to Motwani as she was keen on opening something similar. "We met and started talking about our vision for the company, worked together for a few months to see how well we jelled and have been formally working together for seven months now,” she explains.
"For a bootstrapped company like ours, we do not want to take the investment plunge into brick and mortar just yet,” says Sanjana. Our "cloud tailoring model is working very well,” she quips referring to their online store. Their "doorstep sessions” in Bombay gives them a "mix of both online and offline benefits without having the overheads of a store,” but adds that "with the correct investor we are open to the concept of setting up small stores” within the city.
The custom clothing industry is on the rise in India with players such as Creyate joining the game, says Sanjana. "This not only helps the cause of sustainability but also allows access at lower price points for bespoke clothing than otherwise available,” she reasons. "Currently there is no one offering doorstep tailoring services for women, combined with an online presence such as ours that we have heard of in India,” she notes. A few websites offer customizations for shirts "but they’re highly skewed towards men. Offering customizations for women is an entirely different beast altogether,” she states.
Their goals for the next five years include: to be the leading platform for new designers to launch their products without investing in a large inventory or holding costs or investments in storefronts; to "professionalize” the tailoring industry with a network that is able to deliver quality products in a timely manner. "By 2022, we would like to launch the tailoring services two more cities,” she notes. The initial challenge will be setting up the right model for expansion. "Although franchising has its benefits, we are keen to keep a close watch on quality control as we are such a personalized business ...expansion versus quality control will be our biggest challenge and we are looking forward to tackling it,” points out Sanjana. StitchMyFit.com started shipping to clients in USA and Canada this year, and by 2022, plans "to be the destination for non-resident Indians wanting good quality designer wear made just to fit them.”
An alumna of H. R. College in Bombay, Sanjana worked with Neilsen in analytical roles in India and Dubai before embarking on a one-year management course at INSEAD, Singapore in 2015. Married to industrial engineer Darius Aga who works in his family business, Gold Seal Engineering, they have adopted a canine and named him Soli Sanjana. Motwani and her banker husband Prashant have a five-year-old son Vihaan.
"My interaction with the community in my growing up years was minimal,” says Sanjana. Now actively involved in the youth wing of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce, she assists with "providing a platform for networking for young business people.” Parsis, she believes, are a "progressive, benevolent and unique community — we’re so colorful when it comes to living life, but so black and white when it comes to making rules for the community... it is surprising for outsiders to hear about not allowing a woman who has married out of the community to bring up her children as Parsi or even be considered part of the community...” Classifying herself as a liberal, Sanjana believes that "if we want to see change in our community, it can only start by changing ourselves... (gender) equality is a bare necessity, not a wish,” she ends.
Kayani closure?
"My mother has been going to Kayani Bakery since she was nine years old... it’s no wonder then that I did too,” wrote Poona based food blogger Kainaz Writer Bokdawala to Parsiana on October 22, 2017. "From the time of the jovial Noshir Kayani to the ever-kind Paula Kayani of the present generation, the Bakery has served sheer awesomeness in terms of bakery products to Poona. It’s a big part of Poona’s heritage,” she said. Writer Bokdawala was responding to Parsiana’s requests for comments on the iconic Bakery, which has shut shop since October 13. The makers of the much-loved Shrewsbury biscuits, besides many types of cakes, breads and biscuits, Kayani received an oral notice from the city’s Cantonment Board (PCB), "as they do not own any valid shop license since 2006,” reported the Pune Mirror of October 17.
Established in 1955 by Hormuz and Khodayar Irani, the Bakery is a must-visit spot for both residents of the city and visitors. The notice to the owners of Kayani, and two other outlets in the area, Kwality and Baghban restaurants, came as a result of an inspection by the sub-area commander and PCB president Brig Rajiv Sethi. The Times of India (TOI) of October 12 had reported that according to PCB executive officer D. N. Yadav, "the establishments... have been running their businesses illegally as we have not issued them trade licences since 2006. The board president has ordered them to close down for violating the lease agreement.”
"The Bakery has been applying for renewal of its license since 2006, but the PCB has not responded,” their lawyer Dara Irani told TOI on October 14. Speaking to Parsiana on November 6, Irani clarified that the Bakery had applied for its license (required under section 277 of the Cantonments Act) for the financial year 2017 -18 well ahead of time, in February 2017. "The authorities need to know that with every power (to grant licenses) is a corresponding duty (to revert with information on whether it is granted or not),” he states. The owners have decided to down its shutters as they did not want any "commotion to affect their neighbors,” he said, adding that they have sought a civil injunction against the oral notice.
Writer Bokdawala whose family ran a spice business in Poona’s cantonment area states that "in the early 1990s we constantly faced license-issuing hassles with the PCB; to the extent that we finally got fed up and closed shop a few years later… In spite of constant requests and yearly applications to the PCB, we would be issued licenses after a lot of struggle. I hope the PCB… realizes the folly of its ways.”
An online petition to save the Bakery by Krishna Kamath, who describes himself as "a loyalist to the Bakery,” has nearly 6,100 supporters and wonders why the closure is taking place 11 years after the license allegedly expired. "Why not settle the matter amicably rather than closing down such an iconic joint?” questions the petition.