The fashion high street touched base with the masses in India with the opening of Design Vault- billed as the country's first
high-end fashion discount store - at Ambavata Complex in Mehrauli adjacent to the ancient Qutab Minar heritage zone dating back to the 14th century Muslaim Lodhi dynasty.
The store offers discounts ranging from 20 per cent to over 90 per cent.
The fashion galleria, owned by businesswoman Tina
Tahiliani Parikh and designer Tarun Tahiliani is a retail hub of “unsold” clothes, shoes and accessories by leading
designers like Tarun Tahiliani , Rohit Gandhi, Rahul Khanna, Monisha Jaisingh, Varun Bahl, Rohit Bal, Tarana Mansand, Payal Jain, Anna Singh, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Jean Paul Gaultier & Lanvin, Abraham & Thakore, Rakha & Rabbani and the Ensemble Design Studio.
“The idea behind the discount store, modelled on the ones we have seen in Milan in Italy, is that is every designer is always left with unused stock in their basements which turns yellow or grey with disuse at the end of the fashion season or if an export order is cancelled. We have sourced such stocks and set up a retail store with amazing discounts. Some of the pieces are classic and women who have the confidence to carry off a dress that is two seasons' old can find some of the best bargains at the store,” Tina Tahiliani Parikh said.
Usually, the left-over stocks “are put on short-term sale making it difficult for the cosmopolitan buyer to attend or are purchased by traders from smaller cities, where the clothes get lost,” Parikh said.
“A discount store in a metropolis or a fashion capital has several hidden benefits for designers. It offers an opportunity to designers to convert stocks into liquidity and reinvest in the next season's collection,” Parikh, who is Traun Tahiliani's sister, said.
The price bands are more-than affordable.
For instance, a Tarun Tahiliani creation- formal evening dress- priced Rs 61,000 is on sale for Rs 31, 200, while a traditional Indian-style bustier and drape in pink chiffon and zardosi has a discount price of Rs 19,000 against the original price of Rs 39,000.
Another Tarun Tahiliani dress, which originally cost Rs 33,172 is priced Rs 3,500.
“I was inspired by the discounts shops in Italy which are packed with bargain-hunters across the year. I even shopped from such stores. The idea took time here because I had to get the right place and the stock. There are several stigmas attached to unused stocks in the country. Indian buyers think that unsold clothes are either damaged or not fit for sale. The store was long overdue to target a new set of customers,” Parikh said.
But designers do not always manage to sell everything they make, she explained.
“The clothes we are retailing are brand new – and are available in almost every size and colour. But the only difference is one may not always get what one wants. It is the luck of the draw; rummage through the racks and get the right dress,” the co-owner said.
Design Vault, timed to draw the Diwali crowd, will add to its stock in November.
“I don't think Mehrauli as a location is too far away from the south, central, east or west Delhi. For cheap bargains, it is worth a drive,” Parikh said.
Ambavata Complex - a new multi-storied haute fashion shopping arcade – features almost all big names in the couture industry who retail their clothes in standalone stores. The mall overlooks an old 14th century Muslim mausoleum across the street in the ancient Qutab Heritage zone.
The area, which till a few years was a cluster of decrepit shantytown and villages, has grown into a high-end fashion hub with leading designers renting out spaces to set up their retail stores and studios. It boasts of all the leading couture brands which jostle for space amid the crumbling ramparts of the ancient Lodhi dynasty capital and its adjacent 13th and 14th archaeological relics.
Mehrauli is one of the seven ancient cities that make up present-day Delhi.