Octave gaining popularity beyond Indian shores

Ludhiana-based Octave Clothing, a multi-product garment company realized way back in 1991 that there was a gap in the fashion segment for the upwardly mobile Indian youth. And it swiftly moved in with their line of smart and trendy casual garments.

The idea behind the brand Octave was to inspire people to embrace casual wear and express their sense of fashion without compromising on comfort. What keeps the brand edgy even after 20 years is that its design team is constantly picking up international trends and translating it into Octave wear almost immediately. Octave’s popularity with the youth led to its equity spreading to the Gulf countries. Today, Octave can be purchased in the UAE (Dubai, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Al Ain) and Bahrain.

It offers trendy flat knitted T-shirts, sweaters, coats, jackets, shirts, full sleeved T-shirts and accessories like socks, men’s briefs and footwear and of course, jeans. Positioned as a mid-segment brand, Octave’s prices start from Rs 99 for a pair of socks and move up to Rs 4,999 for coats and according to Harsh Kumar, Director, Octave Clothing, “The brand is now focused on a creating a new line for women, starting this winter. It will be a trendy collection of Octave sweat shirts.”

Priding themselves for their trendy T-shirts that continue to be the brand’s hottest selling item, Kumar says, “We are totally into fashion T-shirts. We use color combinations that complement each other like black, white, red, magenta, purple, maroon and olive. What matters is how delicately you mix and match them.” Kumar adds. “Crew and round necks are the same, but the young opt for round necks while older people go for polo neck T-shirts. But on the whole the masses love polo neck T-shirts.” Octave also prides itself as being a fashion brand that avoids all the new fangled fabrics and sticks to 100 per cent cotton. There are also polyester cotton, polyester viscose and cheaper yarns in the range, but pure cotton t-shirts is their main thing. Kumar says, “We use only domestic fabrics.”

Success has paved way to 100 per cent growth year-on-year for this trendy casual wear brand. Today, Octave has 62 exclusive stores and 380 MBOs. The exclusive stores range from 380 sq. ft. to 6,000 sq. ft. in size. While some of the stores are franchisees, the others are company owned. According to Kumar, “Outright sale, consignment basis, commission basis — we use all models and opportunities for our business. Octave is also with Shoppers Stop”.

While many brands and manufacturers appear to find the T-shirt business a bit daunting, Kumar does not think the business is complex at all. “T-shirts are a non-technical product where there isn’t much involvement of machines or technology.” He adds that T-shirts are gaining ground in India with the casual trend becoming huge. And the knitwear world has changed dramatically, being instrumental in bringing in this change.