House of Anita Dongre: How India's largest fashion brand is getting future-

ready
Perhaps it was the rains, the scent of the frangipani trees overlooking her office or viewing the
lush green hills surrounding her 2-acre headquarters in Navi Mumbai, Anita Dongre felt a
strange sense of déjà vu since morning. She recalled a design detail she did more than three
decades ago while interning with the erstwhile royal family of Dhrangadhra, Gujarat. 
They ran a small high-fashion business from their house at Carmichael Road, Mumbai, that
produced bespoke “Indian craft with western designs” clothes for Washington’s diplomatic elite.
Quickly, she drew it out on her iPad for the design team and contextualised it during the weekly
brainstorming session. “You will see it in our next collection,” she said mischievously, without
revealing much else. After breakneck growth by adding 100 stores across five brands in FY17 —
that’s almost two stores a week, including a flagship in New York — Dongre wants to breathe
easy. “This year, we will just consolidate. Focus on community and sustainability … If we can
fuse that with design thinking, then it’s a life well-lived,” she says. Having stitched up the
biggest fashion empire in India — straddling highend couture and trendy prêt lines with equal
ease —Dongre’s journey seems a glitzy fairytale from the outside. But in reality, she’s broken
gender prejudices and stereotypes, disrupted the tradition

BOUTIQUEWALLI TO BIG LEAGUE

“We live in a patriarchal society, where women are traditionally considered homemakers and not
businesswomen,” says Dongre, chief creative officer at the House of Anita Dongre (HOAD), the
company she originally founded as AND Designs India, but rebranded a decade later. Today,
AND is one of the five brands under House of Anita Dongre, which is a Rs 680-crore company,
as per latest FY18 numbers. The others are Global Desi, bridal couture and prêt (including
menswear); Pinkcity, handcrafted jadau jewellery and Grassroot. 

In the 1980s-90s, people would gawk at me when I visited the cloth markets. I was the
boutiquewalli. But after 30 years in the fashion business, it is these little things that stand out,
shaping me both as an individual and an entrepreneur. I remember my initial struggles with mall
owners regarding store space, or even, for that matter, to be taken seriously by everyone at work.
That has changed significantly over the years,” says Dongre. 

She started out from her bedroom and balcony in suburban Khar with younger sibling Meena
Sehra and just two sewing machines! Soon, though, Dongre was the most sought-after supplier
for department stores such as Benzer, Roopam and Sheetal, and stayed this way for over a
decade. In the late 1990s, she was the best performing store per-square-foot in the Crossroads
Mall, after being refused space there in the first place. 
2016 saw Dongre handpicked by Kate Middleton, Duchess of Cambridge, who wore her floral
tunic during an India tour. Already on the global map, Dongre was endorsed yet again this year
by the Canadian Prime Minister’s wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, who chose her yellow
chanderi salwar suit for a visit to the Sabarmati Ashram. Now attracting investors such as
Kishore Biyani and General Atlantic (GA), Dongre, 52, is truly the poster child of a liberalised
economy. 

She’s getting ready to face the next best disruption in fashion – ecommerce, big data and the
shared economy. That’s where GeNext too comes in. “Ecommerce is a reality today. It has
changed accessibility of fashion to zip codes that we would have never ever been able to reach,”
admits Mukesh Sawlani, Dongre’s brother, a former banker and now HOAD managing director,
overseeing operations, HR and finance. “It’s 7% of our sales today and growing. But we will not
be in the game of burning cash andand discounting. That has destroyed so many brands. So even
while spends on fashion and cosmetics are going to go up online, we have limited our supplies.” 

No one’s complaining in ecommerce. Bindu Mendonsa, senior vice-president and head of

women’s and men’s business, Myntra, says, “Both AND and Global Desi has been associated
with us for over four years now and have been growing exponentially on our platform... With the
growth of online fashion, we expect the House of Anita Dongre to cater to women across all
corners of the country.” Dongre’s nephew Deepikesh now heads digital strategy, after five years
of managing the leasing division, while son  Yash is in charge of global operations in New York and
Mauritius after finishing management studies 

It’s always been a close-knit family and now, four of the six siblings work together. Other than
Anita and Mukesh, product head Meena oversees buying, innovation and merchandising while
elder sister Priyanka Hira, a special education specialist, is in charge of customer relations.
Barring Priyanka, all have company equity. “Mukesh and Meena are rock solid. 

They convert my dreams and vision into reality,” admits Dongre. “Fashion, globally, is always
about partnerships.” Today, the partnership has translated to a pan-India network of 300
standalone exclusive stores in 76 cities and over 915 multi-brand large format outlets in 176
cities, employing 2,800. To put this in perspective, consider retail peer W, including Aurelia,
which has 408 stores. Biba has 250 stores while Zara and an H&M would, at best, have 21 and
32, respectively, though size may be a consideration. Financially, too, designers such as
Sabyasachi and Tarun Tahiliani would be clocking 1/13th of HOAD sales, though to be fair,
most have a single brand as against HOAD’s five. HOAD clocked net revenue of Rs 680 crore
for 2017-18, against merchandising net sales of `590 crore in the previous year. Profit after tax
was Rs 20 crore in FY17. Figures for FY18 have not yet been audited. 
“An understanding of the Indian consumer and what they want has helped Anita scale up and tip
over into being a large retail house today. Each of her brands stand out distinctly and have
created a niche,” says Jaspreet Chandok, fashion head, IMG Reliance. 

GLOBAL DESI
Staying fluid across genres, Dongre has set herself apart. Then there’s her unique business
strategy. She started with AND in the 90s, filling a gap for weather-appropriate cottons and
linens, and culture-appropriate cuts and silhouettes at a time when the only westernwear options
were international. “It coincided with women like us looking beyond the sari for formal
officewear. There was none available. Design is about wearability and not just about the
beautiful bodies on ramp,” she argues. 

Then came sizes and a bottom-up approach, as against the luxury-first canon. Dongre was among
the first in India to have sizes from 8 to 18, start selling ensembles as units and even design
bridalwear keeping in mind contemporary lifestyle — lighter lehengas for the bride to dance at
her wedding or pockets to keep her phone in. 

Global Desi, an essentially westernwear line with Indian colours, patterns and silhouettes that
she launched in 2007, is a reflection of her chic college fusion fashion from her SNDT Women’s
University days. “AND and Global Desi are most likely the first fashion brands in a woman’s
wardrobe,” says Dalip Sehgal, independent director on the HOAD board and former managing
director of Godrej Consumer Products. “I see the brand portfolio pioneering the fashion journey
of the Indian women — a role it  .. has played right since launch.” The inspiration clearly comes
from Zara, the global fashion house Dongre and her brother admire the most. The Spanish
retailer straddles the affordable luxury space – in between highend chic and mass market, much
like Armani Exchange, Tommy Hilfiger or Calvin Klein. Dongre noticed the upwardly mobile
aspirationals and, in targeting them, her approach has been a runaway success. 

After firmly setting up base, Dongre has moved up to couture to cater to the premium end of the
spectrum. “We think Zara is a fantastic brand and would love to emulate that success story,”
quips brother Mukesh. Dongre too recalls her one-on-one brainstorming with Hilfiger, facilitated
by GA, to understand the importance of accessibility and ease in fashion. 

Possible brand extensions into footwear and accessories such as perfumes may be next, though
any geographical expansions to Dubai or London are on hold for the moment. “Scaling up has
been accomplished through unyielding focus on concepts that are central to a growing lifestyle
business — design, heritage and consumer,” says Milind Sarwate, another independent director
and former finance chief of Marico. 
Both Sehgal and Sarwate – part of the GA-led reconstituted board — are helping sharpen the
product with brand extensions and become a scaled retailer in a small box format. If Biyani
helped Dongre with initial growth capital and a toehold in malls in 2008, GA, as Sawlani puts it,
“is helping build a sustainable organisation with professional talent and business processes.” “In
our first meeting itself,” Dongre recalls, “much to everyone’s surprise, the discussion included a
long monologue on the shape of an Indian woman’s body and why copying global design
templates blindly would be counterproductive.” Such fashionspeak from financial suits may
have, in retrospect, swung the needle. 

SHE, THE PEOPLE

The core of Dongre’s inspiration for her couture brand comes from the women of Rajasthan. “It
is amazing how they continue inspiring me with each visit. Every time I am there, I see
something and feel something new that rejuvenates my creativity.” Age old craft like gota patti,
therefore, is revisted in her every collection, “to bring life to our different ensembles, including
tunics, kaftans, lehengas, bundis and jackets.” Gota patti as a design creates a  luxe look fit for
royal occasions and yet is surprisingly light and easy to wear, Dongre explains. It’s perhaps
going back to the basics. 

Jaipur, where her grandparents stayed, was always second home. And that’s where Dongre’s first
brush with fashion would take place. “My grandmother would take me to the Hawa Mahal
market, where I would try my hand at making lac bangles with the local artisans and would
watch the elegantly dressed Rajasthani women in awe. I loved the way they mix and match
vibrant choli and lehenga.” It has been a dream to see Indian craftsmanship celebrated on a
global platform. “When we launched Grassroot in New York, it was gratifying to see women
from different walks of life admiring the intricate work that had gone into every garment.” 
Grassroot, launched in 2015, underscores the revival of handcrafted textiles in India. She is also
working with the women of the Self Employed Women’s Association (Sewa), based in
Ahmedabad and has now adopted villages to promote sustainable economic growth across
villages. “I was surprised to see the level of interests in women… economic independence is
very important and when women work in villages, villages remain sustainable units. They
shouldn’t have to migrate to cities. I always wanted to  work with craft clusters to get
employment back to the villages.” 

Currently, she partners around 1,200 women on ari and kantha embroidery, ajrak printing,
chikankari, dabbu block printing and bandhini, among others. “We also work with various
clusters to make different handloom weaves, such as jamdani, ikkat, chanderi, maheshwari
phulia, Murshidabad and Bhagalpur handloom fabric,” says Dongre. 
Chandok of IMG Reliance says, “We see HOAD as a leader that can make a substantial impact
and in the next five years, as the consumer becomes more aware, and scale up based on that
narrative alone.” 

After all, a fashionista with a conscience would be quite a showstopper. 

Discussion Questions:

1. Explain the retail formats of various brands of House of Anita Dogre?

2. Explain the various element of Retail mix deployed by HOAD?

3. In context of AND, do you think E-Commerce is real challenge for brick and mortar
retailing?