Hidesign president Dilip Kapur on the leather company’s image, the Calcutta market and overseas plans...
lWhat was your brief to the designers for this collection?
My brief was keep it simple, with a lot of bold detailing. The look is very international. It has a professional look, serious but stylish. This is Italian designer Alberto Ciaschini’s fifth collection for us and I think this time he has got the look completely right. He is used to designing luxury bags and our range is of affordable luxury, so it was a little difficult for him initially. At Hidesign, we attempt to preserve the natural sensuousness of leather, it is all vegetable dye and we avoid heavy painting and embossing on the leather.
lWhat is your target market in India?
Among the women, we are targeting the professionals. We do not have party bags. It is a market that is difficult to please because women are by nature more choosy. But we relate to them on an emotional plain. India is our second largest market worldwide.
Men are by nature more functional. But our customers, even among men, are those who have an eye for style.
lWhat has been the most important change in the country’s fashion scene in the past few years?
Women! In the past six-seven years, women have started going out to work more and our bags appeal to them — they are individualistic and classy. Women who buy Hidesign are on an average about five years younger than men who buy Hidesign.
lHow has business been in India and abroad?
Business has been good. Our turnover last year was Rs 100 crore, 15 per cent of which was our profit. We have been doing very well in the international market. But we discovered that though we sell very well abroad, customers are not familiar with the brand name. This is because we were selling through distributors and did not have our stores. Now we are opening Hidesign stores abroad. We are also exploring the shop-in-shop options. We now have two stores in South Africa, in Cape Town and Johannesburg, we have a store at the Hong Kong airport and at Shanghai and seven in Russia. We also have stores in the US, UAE, Kuala Lumpur and Columbia.
We are not very interested in opening stores in Europe because though the UK market is very good, it is not an expanding market. We now have to understand these markets and how to satisfy them. For example, Chinese women are small, but want big bags and soft bags, Russian women are always made-up and want party bags.…
In India we are now going beyond the metros to cities like Cochin and Coimbatore and are doing very well there.
lWhat about the Calcutta market?
Calcutta has grown tremendously. In fact, among the metros, it showed the highest growth rate last year and even our store in City Centre is finally doing very well, and showed a 70 per cent growth last year.
lWhat is the nature of your deal with Louis Vuitton?
We have entered into a mutual aid agreement. They are going to help Hidesign improve productivity without resorting to mass manufacturing. Last year we could meet only 70 per cent of our orders. They will also help us improve our quality standards. I think Hidesign is still 25 per cent away from the quality standards of a luxury brand. We will help Louis Vuitton get land here, understand the work culture etc.
lYour plans for the future?
We are not aiming at the high-end luxury segment. Many of the emerging markets have a tradition of luxury, but they can’t afford the really high-end brands. This is the gap that we, as an affordable luxury brand, aim to target.
lDo you intend to diversify more into jackets and leather apparel?
We are trying to turn jackets into a style statement. We are working with washed, hand worked and light-weight leather that can be made into stylish jackets, but the market still needs to be built. Similarly for belts.
Poulomi Banerjee
