Burnt Umber plans a women’s wear range for S/S’15

Chennai-based men’s brand Burnt Umber, launched in 2012, now is planning to a women’s wear range for e-commerce sites, as well as women centric stores in Spring/Summer 2015. Basically a men’s wear brand targeted at fashion conscious men in the age group of 35-45 years, Burnt Umber has subtle but classy fashion with shirts, bottom weights and jackets in its collection. Burnt Umber is the colour of gold as soon as it comes out of the oven. It’s the hue of pure gold.

Wooing women in style

The new collection for women, to be launched in Spring/Summer 2015, will be available in western as well as ethnic styles. The ethnic range will have a different name. It will have hand block prints and cotton fabrics, good silhouettes and prints. “We are getting inputs from traditional printers from Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. We are trying to incorporate a unique look from different parts of the country. The material will be retailed online but brick-and-mortar will be limited to women-centric MBOs. One such store is Kala Mandir in Ludhiana,” informs Kush Bhatia, Director, Burnt Umber.

The brand has two distinct collections. One is the imported collection with premium fabrics for linens and bottom weights. Linen shirts are priced Rs 2,600 to Rs 3,300. Trousers with imported base fabrics are available for Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,500. In the main collection it has shirts from Rs 1,400 to Rs 1,899. Those with indigos, normal cotton prints, normal yarn dyed checks, twill checks are priced at Rs 1,500 to Rs 1,600. Basic T-shirts cost Rs 1,999. Those with heavy embroidery and prints are priced at Rs 1,100 to Rs 1,200. Jackets are available in the range of Rs 3,500 to Rs 7,500 while sweaters and sweatshirts are for Rs 2,000 to Rs 2,200.

Highlighting the challenges in women’s wear category, Bhatia says, “As the number of silhouettes is higher in women’s design, options should be more. It’s better to have fast fashion than one collection for the entire season. Brands should keep introducing fresh designs to make customers curious. I don’t think Indian women are very price sensitive. In fact, they remain ready to spend but purely on designs,” he opines.

As the brand is going to launch the S/S’15 collection online first, it is not averse to discounts. “But, there would be two exclusive collections for both verticals, online and offline. This way customer will get the complete experience. One may get flat discounts online but they are time bound,” he avers.

Expansion on cards

The brand is retailed through 120 stores all in major metros across India. “We are with Bhatia Shaan, City Shopee, Madan Collections, Jade Blue, Kala Mandir, Pantaloon and Central. Our 60 percent revenue comes from large format stores. Probably in the next financial year we will have a couple of EBOs,” he informs.