Striking Silver

Circa 1989. Kavita Bhartia has just completed a course in textiles at a polytechnic and a short course at NIFT. Tina Tahiliani’s Ensemble, the first designer store in the country, is already doing brisk business, and Kavita is toying with the idea of a multi-designer store in the capital’s Hauz Khas Village, which she does start. She calls it Ogaan, which, in Sanskrit, means ‘a wave’. “Short and easy to pronounce,” she explains. And it seems to fit into what she is hoping to do for a still nascent designer market. Cut to 2014. The store is all set to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Kavita Bhartia has proved that time and determination can prove convictions right. She had hoped to give the well-travelled customer a taste of India and a break from the local darzis (tailors). “I had done shows with Rohit Khosla, Tarun Tahiliani, Devika Bhojwani and Anil Kapoor’s wife Suneeta, which were choreographed by Khosla right outside the store, then inaugurated by Jaya Bachchan,” she recalls.

When Ogaan came around, women were not yet pumping iron, so clothes were mostly roomy, with generous offerings of free-flowing kurtas. Now, there is a 180-degree turn with body-hugging silhouettes ruling the racks. “We started out with just seven or eight designers, and now, our expanding repertoire has almost 50, in five stores (four in Delhi and one in Mumbai),” says Kavita. “I believed we were addressing an urgent need for occasion wear in the Indian market, providing quality, finish and superlative craftsmanship, all under one roof.” There was a time when the workforce was just three people—it is now 200—and during exhibitions, Kavita's work day was 18 hours long. The Santushti store, the second to open, showcased Indo-Western, mostly prêt. But as buyers came along with bigger budgets for weddings, she thought 44 July 2014 of a store in DLF Emporio, with competitive prices and a vast range for trousseau. Though what she is especially proud of is her experience with the young designers she has promoted—Aneeth Arora, Rahul Mishra and Sunita Shanker—who eventually struck gold. “You see greenhorns flying off the nest and making it on their own, and it feels great to be part of that voyage,” she grins. Passing on the reins to her 30-year-old daughter Aashti, a graduate in anthropology and history from Columbia University, may not have been easy, but Kavita knew Ogaan was going to be in safe hands. Aashti, who also studied at the Ivy League Tuck School of Business, understood the dynamics of an evolving market, having worked with her father’s company—Jubilant Bhartia Group— before getting involved with Ogaan three years ago. The young Aashti has also authored the book Vote of Confidence, which emerged from her work experience in the US with Macmillan Publishing. Besides renovations of the stores, she has taken a step forward with the recently launched Coast Café at Ogaan, Haus Khas Village, which dishes up spicy coastal fare.

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However, bridal wear continues to be a sellout. So the young scion rejuvenated the 25-year-old brand by adding experimental collections based on the subtle shift in trends. “Young girls want off-the-ramp collections,” she smiles. “After instant coverage on blogs, Twitter and Facebook, fashion is served up almost immediately, so we did just that.”

Ogaan now leans towards structured jackets and crop tops with lehenga-skirts, Western silhouettes that now come fully loaded with embroidery—giving them an Indian twist, and backless and bodycon kurtas for the well toned bodies.“Women now want their clothes to be closer to the body, minimal and edgy,” says Aashti. “Plus, with destination weddings, simplicity is certainly not the norm.” Aashti’s challenge remains looking for new ways to take the business forward. “When I began, I had no idea how the designer market functioned,” she confesses. “But I also knew my strengths, which were making merchandise interesting, tailoring it to suit current needs, and responding to what people liked rather than only stocking safe and saleable pieces.”

It is not by accident that Ogaan has remained in the spotlight all these years, and the credit goes to innovative and strategic thinking by the mother-daughter duo. “I would like to make Ogaan the best one-stop-boutique store in India, and that is a dream that will take time to materialise, but I know we will get there,” Aashti concludes.