Deal, a Mumbai-based brand of women’s apparel, has the distinction being the first designer denim brand for women. Even today, it continues its innovative strategy and has a cool and trendy line called Deal Girls which caters girls to girls in
the age group 12 to 16. Apeksha Patel, Director, Deal Clothing Company says, “In 2006, we noticed that many B category children’s brands were just imitating our designs. So we thought of stepping into children’s wear since it was just a matter of size for the designs would be the same.” Patel elaborates on the Deal Girls concept, “Initially, we thought the designs would be the same and we just would give different sizes. But being a creative brand, we thought we shouldn’t give the same designs in both categories. So we decided to do it differently. Right now in women’s the trend is only for washes. But in children’s there is a strong need for prints, a little bit of embroidery, thread embellishments etc. Children’s wear brands go for garments with Barbie prints etc, which is liked by the 4 to 10 years old. So we decided to keep clear of typical kiddo wear.”
Deal
Girls extended its range recently to include younger girls, thereby creating a diverse range for the 6 to 16 age group. It works principally with mature designs. Lightweight fabrics are used as are textiles, which is departure from other brands catering to this age group as they keep it to knits. Knits are only 40 per cent of the line, the rest being fabrics. This is also the trend retailers seem to follow since last season, according to Patel. The attempt is to give the consumer the “feel” of college wear. However, V necks that are popular with adult women are avoided and replaced with more comfortable necklines keeping in mind that the end users are in their formative years.
Patel says, “Deal Girls is inspired by adult clothing ideas. And this is more or less true internationally too. Deal is at par with international brands. And more than 50 percent of brands watch what we are doing”. Deal features eight sizes, from 24 to 38 and a hundred styles every season with at least two or three new styles being added every fortnight.
Currently focused on designer glad rags because of its creative flair, the company is looking into designing and manufacturing basic lounge and casual wear to tap into the lucrative market that segment represents. Present in about a 1,000 MBOs across India and Deal is also retailed through Globus and Pantaloon. By 2013, the brand is keen to establish its EBOs across the country, starting with home city Mumbai. Whilst it has established itself in the north and west, south India is relatively a new territory, currently it is only in Andhra Pradesh. Karnataka and Kerala are on the radar and plans are being made accordingly. Out of the box approach and a great set of designers, this is a brand to watch out for as they could be the real deal in the near future.
