With time and experience, you realise that you need to listen to your heart and in a creative space, your creativity is your own. And eventually, if you persist and work hard, you find the right clientele who loves what you do. “I have been lucky to have women all over the world, love and embrace my designs and their appreciation and demand is what encourages us to keep creating better and giving our 100%,” expresses Vidhi Wadhwani, the Creative Director of the brand Vidhi Wadhwani’s Studio.
Vidhi,through her brand is redefining clothing for the contemporary woman by breaking the shackling norms and embracing the powerful and beautiful femininity of the wearer. “It has been a journey of many ups and downs and a great learning experience,” she adds. After graduating with honours from NIFT, New Delhi, Vidhi started her label in 2010 under the namesake ‘Vidhi Wadhwani’ with a small studio and just 3 workers.
“It is imperative to have your own unique voice that makes it stand out from the others”
The motive was to design pieces through came from her heart, that were original and unique and catered to a market that was looking for something different in the contemporary fashion. “I showcased my collections at Lakme Fashion Week,IBFW, Amazon Fashion week and slowly took on from there,” informs Vidhi.
A Class-apart Studio
Vidhi Wadhwani’s Studio has always strived to deliver pieces that are unique and stand out, while using the skills of the Indian artisans in a contemporary fashion to reach out to a global consumer. Zero -wastage is another strong value of the brand where no pieces of fabric (Katrans) are thrown out, instead used to create textures and value-addition for new collections and pieces, that makes each piece unique and in limited-supply. Its team has also decided, to reduce their dead-stock and excess inventory by only creating small capsule lines and working on a made-to-order basis that helps reduce wastage and burden on the environment.
Vidhi’s label has been a frontrunner at many events and international platforms like London Fashion Week, Who’s Next Paris, Lakme Fashion Week India and in showrooms in Spain, Paris, and Dubai. It has been covered in Indian and international magazines also. Vidhi has won an award of excellence for her ‘Outstanding contribution in the field of fashion’ along with an excellence award for her contribution towards society felicitated by VIA. She was also honoured with an Excellence award given by N.A.A.C for fashion. She is an also established member of the esteemed Dubai Design Fashion Council, UAE.
Her label is eponymous with unusual drapes, moulage, structuring, three-dimensional textures through deconstruction, fabric-manipulation and focus on hand-skills of the Indian artisan to create silhouettes and elements that are unique, flattering, and feminine. Her diffusion line is all about fluidity and structure with delicate and intricate, handcrafted textures utilizing waste fabrics and materials keeping sustainability as key focus. Versatility and wearability are the prime elements for the brand where each piece has a story to tell.
“A personalised, customised service is what a consumer will remember after a purchase and at our company, the customer always comes first, as we look at the long-term benefit of trust and building a community, rather than just a one-time sale”
Industry Dynamics
The pandemic has been a wake-up call for many designers. It has helped Vidhi prioritize and strategize the company’s core-values to benefit both the consumer and the company. E-commerce has been a great boon and has helped the brand and to reach a wider, more diverse community. Direct-to-consumer chain has also immensely benefited her in understanding the demands of the ever-evolving clients and their needs.
Talking about the challenges, Vidhi mentions reaching out to the right customer, understanding their needs while keeping their design aesthetics in mind is a constant cycle of evolvement. Scaling up and establishing a strong brand -presence in tier-2 cities was also a challenge that she came across. To tackle these challenges, she had kept a distinctive approach and strong brand ethos towards catering her clients.
“The essentials of being a trendsetting fashion professional is a signature, that identifies your brand or outfit in this competitive market and a core USP of quality, workmanship, and great customer-service,” conveys Vidhi. “I think, what makes any brand/label great is their strong footing in their core values, offering a great product at a great value and building a long-term relationship with the customer,” she adds further.
For the young entrepreneurs, she advises them to enter with a strong foundation of what their brand offers (in terms of branding, service, product) and knowing who their ideal customer is critical. “Being an extremely competitive industry, your narrative must be very strong and original for the market to notice you,” says Vidhi. She also encourages them to have immense patience while building a brand as creating a niche takes time and lots of hard work, sweat, tears and deadlines!
Vidhi believes she was lucky to have created an e-commerce and B2C platform before Covid-19. It has helped her to save time and keep the sales up. She plans to reach out to a wider audience this year, as her team has received interests from various international clients and store, while also keeping the company’s core values of Zero-waste and sustainability in focus.
“The brand embodies the spirit of femininity through its western diffusion-line and through deconstruction, handcrafted fabric manipulation and a focus on handicraft to create unique and flattering silhouettes and designs”
