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Indian textile major Raymond sizes up fashion industry

Dress up, India!

Having clothed generations of aspiring Indians, no one knows better than Raymond what garmenting is all about. Top Raymond executive Aniruddha Deshmukh says despite a flood of international brands, India has a long way to go as far as dressing is concerned

As I prepared for my first job interview in the 80s, my father offered his two cents worth: “Remember what you say is more important than what you know. If you don’t express, they will never know what you know.”

Clicking as it did in my life’s next trajectory, I held that home-made epigram close to my heart — till I realised otherwise at a foreign embassy where I went to apply for a visa. A creased T-shirt and trousers draped on a haggard physique failed to make much impact on the visa officer. Neither did a normal office wear in my second try.

What it took me to get that much-needed visa was an immaculate but borrowed suit, and that’s when I realised that in this fast moving world how you look is more important than what you say. However stupid it may sound, anecdotal stories and scientific evidences prove that what you wear does make a difference in how you influence the world.

They say clothes do make the man, but in India they say Raymond makes “the complete man”. The company has been in the business of dressing up the Indian male for the last eight decades. And there is no better person than Aniruddha Deshmukh, president, textiles, at Raymond, who can tell you that dressing is not about a mass of clothes wrapped around your body, but a fusion of art and science that involves proven fabric, right style, perfect fit and quality trims. It’s also about picking a garment that respects the occasion, not forgetting “you never get a second chance to make a first impression”.

Deshmukh tells Khaleej Times in an interview though there have been fast changes in the last three-four years, India still has a long way to go as far as dressing is concerned. But he says the classical sari or salwar kameez will always stick on in more ethnic-inspired styles.

Excerpts from the interview:

Having dressed up people for decades, could you answer this: Is India properly dressed?

We are improving all the time. If you look at corporate dressing, as it happens in the Western world and even in lots of Asian countries like Singapore, the trend is very formal. In India, it is not that way yet. We have a long way to go to get corporate dressing up to international standards.

Formal dressing in India is more towards occasions. If you look at weddings, evening functions etc, that’s when people tend to dress formally and very appropriately. Of course, in some of the evenings these days we see lot of ethnic wear. The distinctions between formal, casual, party, travel and all that are just coming into the apparel brands. If you step back a little earlier, the distinctions were not there. The shirt was a shirt. Then you start getting all kinds of wears with the advent of so many international brands. This trend will definitely accelerate.

As far as corporate dressing is concerned, suits are not so popular over there. If you look at the mode of travel in metropolitan cities like Mumbai, most people travel to their offices in trains. You might want immaculately dressed, but there are too many impediments to the whole process.

But in some sectors, for example banking or finance, dressing has to be in line with international standards, while in IT, advertising and communications fields, people are more casual. Yes, there have been fast changes in the last three-four years, but India still has a long way to go as far as dressing is concerned.

What do you think is the ideal attire for the Indian male and female and what is the latest trend?

Formal jacket is good, but lots of people are also using ethnic. About a year back, Raymond started off with the ready-to-stitch ethnic concept, and this season we are with our full readymade ethnic range. Indian dressing is mainly occasion-driven. For parties and occasions, the Indian male is into sherwanis, bandgala suits, Indo-Western and designer suits.

For office wear, most Indians typically prefer formal shirt and trousers. A jacket, especially in cooler climate like in Delhi, would be appropriate. I have seen that an increasing number of people are wearing jackets in airports. I was also surprised but it is good for us.

As far as the Indian woman is concerned, we are seeing an increased trend of Western cloths — whether in college or office. Having said that, I don’t think the classical sari or salwar kameez will ever go out of fashion. I also don’t think a company or office should be biased towards the traditional dress. It’s better left to individual taste and comfort.

There is this perception that Raymond is for the wealthy. Any plan to reach out to the common man?

It’s a very strange dichotomy. While Raymond is for the wealthy, we are also aspirational to every segment of the society, including the working class. Raymond is definitely affordable, but we do maintain a premium image in our communication, but that premium varies segment to segment. So the each segment we dress up we, for sure, will be a premium to whatever the competition will be.

And it’s such an aspirational brand that whenever there is an occasion like wedding, Raymond becomes the default brand, immaterial of the prices. So Raymond is probably for everyone who aspires to be a complete man. We have products ranging from Rs250 a metre, which means you can actually get a pair of trousers stitched for Rs600, which is less than US$12. You can also go as high as Rs100,000 per metre.

We are very widely penetrated with 700 exclusive Raymond outlets, out of which 350 are in small towns. A powerful statement by one of our franchisees encapsulates what Raymond is all about: The rich and the poor walk into the Raymond shop with equal pride.

Some time ago, you had plans to dress up corporate women with your Made-to-Measure suits. Has the plan taken off?

We have 18 exclusive Made-to-Measure shops in India. They are all for men. We also have Made-to-Measure options available in 54 other Raymond shops, but we are yet to extend the service to women. Yes, we did some trials about five-six months ago, but have not gone into the implementation stage. There is enough opportunity in men’s wear right now. Though we can physically produce women’s garments, the brand issue comes into play because 90-95 per cent of offerings from Raymond and other sister brands like Park Avenue and Colour Plus are male-driven. Of course, we will have to get into the dressing needs of women, but I cannot give you a time frame.

Can you describe the business philosophy behind the Made-to-Measure shops?

If you step back a bit in time, there were two main options for consumers. One is you go and buy a readymade garment which will come in whatever size and fit you want. On the other side, you have the tailored garment in which case you purchase a fabric and get it stitched at a local tailor. Both of them have their advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of the readymade concept is that the products are finished well and the quality of the trims used is very good, but the fit might not be prefect.

In the case of stitching, while you might get good fabric and the fit might be near-perfect, the issues in terms of repeatability — like how the measurements are stored — and in terms of the quality of finishes and trims used by the tailor are uncertain. What we are doing with the Made-to-Measure concept is combining the benefits of both of them.

The Bangladesh textile industry is facing a crisis on account of safety issues. Hundreds have died in recent factory fires. Do you think Raymond can take advantage of the situation to clinch more exports?

We export fabric to lots of countries, including the US, Europe and Japan. This happens both as fabric itself and readymade. We have a huge garmenting facility in Bangalore which converts fabrics from Raymond to finished products and ship them to stores abroad. We work with Peerless, which is a very large manufacturer in the US, and Konaka in Japan. We also have stores in Bangladesh because that country has a strong tailoring culture and sales of fabrics are very popular.

In Bangladesh, more than 95 per cent of the apparel market is casual wear-driven and we don’t play in that particular segment. Our strength is essentially in the polyester-wool segment, not so much in polyester-viscose which is cheaper. That is our main strength in the international market, so we are not going to gain from the Bangladesh and Pakistan situation as such. On the other hand, the psychological impacts from Bangladesh and the world’s over-exposure to China make manufacturers look at India as a good sourcing opportunity.

What’s your comment on Bangladesh’s textile factories that endanger worker’s lives?

Just like lots of apparel companies in India, some of our brands too take in some garments from Bangladesh mainly because garments can be imported into India from Bangladesh duty free. But it is not a critical element of our strategy to source from Bangladesh. Companies get fabrics imported from China into Bangladesh and get them stitched there before transporting to India. I cannot comment on the safety of garmenting facilities there as we are not too well-versed on this issue. Whatever I know is whatever I read in newspapers.

Do you think the shrinking rupee can boost Raymond’s export business?

The rupee plunge works in three different ways. While it helps exports for sure, it also makes our import costlier. We import lots of wool from Australia, so the rupee fall increases the cost of our wool. However, the Aussie dollar has also weakened against the US dollar in the last one or two months, as a result of which we are not so badly impacted. Yes, to that extent we have benefitted. Though our expectation is that the Aussie dollar would go back to the levels where it was, wool prices in the recent times have been fairly okay. The third element is that the strengthening dollar will also push up petroleum prices — it has already been increased in India — and polyester prices will also go up.

Which is your biggest foreign market and what are your expansion plans?

The biggest foreign market is the US. If you look at the Raymond shops we have, the Middle East is a very large market. My guess is we have 25 exclusive stores here. The US is another large market because we sell lots of suits over there. Japan is another big market where we do business with Konaka and some other large manufacturers.

If you look at Dubai, we have six stores here, plus one or two more are coming up. So we have a nucleus of Raymond shops and we believe there is definitely scope for opening more stores, especially Made-to-Measure ones, in the entire Gulf.

The Middle East is going to be largely a B to C (business to consumer) market, meaning largely driven by consumers, whereas the US, Japan and Europe will be B to B (business to business) driven. We are not going to set up shops in the latter markets. We make suits for giants like Ralph Lauren, JC Penney and Konaka. That is our business model there.

We have also explored the African market. We have done some selling over there, but not so much from the exclusive store point of view. Africa is an opportunity we should to look at.

Dubai has decided to set up its own fashion Design District where many international brands are expected to move. Will Raymond look for an address there?

These are opportunities Raymond can definitely explore.

suresh@khaleejtimes.com