Park Avenue targets fast forward growth in women’s wear

Top lifestyle brand Park Avenue Woman, from the house of Raymond, has been successfully dressing up women for quite some time. Much like its menswear segment, women’s wear too has been recording a steady growth. Now, the company is looking at fast forward growth, by doubling the achievement each year for the next three years.

The growing demand for apparel offering higher comfort, better design, and trendy look at affordable prices is a worldwide phenomenon, with India being no exception. Additionally, technology and innovation-driven companies have started allowing casual wear in offices — the growing demand for knitwear apparel is one reflection of this trend. It is expected that in India, T-shirts and denim will grow at double-digits over the next five years, whereas the corresponding rates for formal wear categories like shirts, woven trousers, suits, etc, will be in the range of three to eight per cent.

Women power in boardrooms

Rajeev N Singh, General Manager, Sales and Marketing points out “In the last one decade, more women have joined corporate world. They are present in board rooms and head major global firms. As a result, the need to power dress has become essential. And this has led to more women now opting for western wear. This shift is prominently seen even in conservative markets where one could never even think of selling any other product other than traditional garments. Also, growth in this segment has brought in more international brands who were earlier operating in the menswear segment.” Singh says, “This segment of apparel market has ample growth opportunities, with the market remaining untapped with only a handful of brands. Trendy formal suits with band collar, stylish silhouettes, pockets, and classic lapels will see good market, bringing the wearer at par with corporate culture, and giving a good overall appearance.”

Challenges slow down growth

The western formal wear market is concentrated in urban areas, with major contributions from metros and mini metros. The size of women’s formal wear market is relatively low due to two reasons: skewed ratio of working women to working men; the strong competition from ethnic wear categories such as saris, salwar kameez, etc. The evolution of fusion wear, which combines the attributes of women’s ethnic wear with formal western wear, is emerging as an additional challenge for women’s western formal wear players.

Park Avenue women’s wear goes through stringent quality checks. What distinguishes the brand’s apparel from others is the quality of fabrics, trims, modern fits and latest technology used to make the garments trendy, stylish and high quality. So far, Park Avenue women’s wear is big in the North as fashion quotient is most prominent in this zone. Also, women are more willing to experiment here. Even the prominent winter season helps sale of high value merchandise.