As her multi-designer label completes 26 years, Tina Tahiliani reviews the wedding wear market in India. She speaks to D Kaushik about the positive changes and the vibrancy of young talent
It is widely believed that a genius brother would have an equally genius sister and so is true in this case. Meet Tina Tahiliani, the woman we know as the executive director of Ensemble and Tarun Tahiliani’s sister. She has set new benchmarks in the market with her multi-designer retail outlet that recently completed 26 years. To say that Ensemble started the trend of retail experience won’t be wrong. But around 26 years ago, things were not simple and sorted.
“Ensemble was started by my brother with help from Rohit Khosla and his wife. Tarun since beginning has been a very artistic boy — always drawing stylish women. He decided to be a fashion designer and realised that he needed technical knowledge to be in the industry so he went to FIT to study. I was then a banker in America and I had come to India on a leave. I started taking care of Ensemble temporarily. By the time Tarun came back he was sure he did not want to be in retail and I had fallen in love with this business. I decided to continue with the tradition of the store otherwise it would have shut down,” she said.
Initially the wedding wear market was very different than what it is now in India. “We opened in 1987 and everything was on consignment then. The term couture was not popular, it was the market for occasion wear as brides mostly preferred wearing traditional saris. It was only by 1995 that designers servicing the bridal market became a big thing. Trend of couture — designing as per your specific body time, personality and after understanding your requirements — came much later. It evolved because designers realised Indians spend most on weddings. Second, since every thing was custom made, there was no dead stock. Initially designers making wonderful clothes but everything won’t sell and since sale was on consignment stocks went back to designers. Smart ones realised they can grow business by going the bridal route. In the early 90s we went through chic phase when we were introducing designers like Abraham and Thakore and little later Rajesh Pratap Singh. Then everything was about the fabric, pleating, there was no embroidery, it was about textile and structure. Now we have gone full circle. Customers have evolved and market has grown manifold. With the opening of Ensemble many NIFTs opened and that gave us many young, talented designers,” she said.
Tina faced tough times too, especially when designers started coming up with their own stores. “But I realised that if you are offering the best and investing your serious efforts, you will succeed,” she said.