“The recent trends show the inclination towards Minimalistic Fashion” – Ms. Srijata Bhatnagar Co-Founder & CEO of EthnicShack

Co-Founder & CEO of EthnicShack Srijata Bhatnagar shares her views with technuter.com:

• When and how the idea of EthnicShack flourished?

I would say my passion for doing something different, love for handmade products and certain tough circumstances made me realize this childhood dream, to become an entrepreneur. And that’s how EthnicShack was born.

We started working on the Brand EthnicShack from August 2013, with our maiden exhibition on last year Independence Day, with a mission to bring the old glory of our forgotten rural arts and crafts back in our daily life.

We launched our online portal, www.ethnicshack.com in September 2013. Since then it has been an overwhelming journey.

• What is the USP of EthnicShack?

EthnicShack is a brand that produces and markets Fashionable Handmade products. Our USP is our design . We design our products in-house. We work with artisans directly on these designs and work on collaboration to bring out these products. Our products are appealing to the youth and at the same time affordable.

• What is EthnicShack doing differently to increase its market share in India?

Well, we believe in co-existing and growing together. For us the concentration has never been outsmarting the competition, rather to concentrate on our strength.

Therefore it is difficult to answer this question, as we are not really looking at gaining the market share, instead focusing on producing awesome stuff.

• Do you plan any significant market expansion in near future?

With an over-whelming demand and acceptance, we are currently spreading our presence and being available at all leading marketplaces. Coming days seems to be much more exciting, and we are excited and optimistic about the outcomes. We are planning to extend our collaboration with more artisans/craftsmen, increase our product offering and obviously looking at generating 3 times revenue than last year.

Presently we are helping the small scale and grassroots level artisans in rural areas of Andhra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, West Bengal etc. by working with them directly. In the coming days we would like to touch lives of our artisan friends based in North Eastern States, Far South, Up North etc, by increasing the number of artisans we work with and widening the spectrum of our offerings.

We are also looking for people with similar interest and passion to join us in the journey.

• What are the current trends in the online website for handcrafted accessories and ethnic apparels?

The recent trends show the inclination towards Minimalistic Fashion. People are moving away from jazzy colors, patterns to mild, shooting colors and patterns. People are back to giving more importance to comfort over style. Therefore the likes of Palazzos, crop tops, breezy danglers have made a come back.

It is very interesting and challenging for us to cope with the newest trends and bring out the products that excites the consumers. We are working towards it.

• Would you please reflect upon your R&D work?

We do a lot of Research before taking up on any crafts and arts. We generally visit the crafts hub, understand the craftsmen and their lifestyle, their passion and the crafts.

On the other hand we study the indian and international fashion and style trends, colors etc before starting to work on a certain collection. We generally begin our research work at least 6-8 months in advance before getting onto production for a certain collection.

• Your message to the IT and Tech community…

As we are seeing a lot of innovative ideas and initiatives been taken up by the IT and Tech community, I would just like to say; keep this gusto going folks. We need more and more of these initiatives to make Bangalore (why alone Bangalore? Whole of India) a hub for innovation and Next Exciting thing.