The Indian fashion industry took a huge blow when COVID-19 resulted in the shutdown of thousands of apparel factories.
As per the reports of the Apparel Export Promotion Council, about 83% of export orders were partially or completely canceled during that time.
In 2022, the total revenue of the Indian fashion industry was almost 2% less than the total revenue in 2021, i.e., $14.08 billion in 2022 as compared to $14.35 billion in 2021. However, the fashion industry bounced back, and the revenue is expected to reach $15.63 billion by the end of 2023.
Now, the Indian fashion and clothing industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 13.48% and reach a market volume of $25.92 billion by 2027.
Startups played a significant role in improving the current status of the Indian fashion industry.
In this article, we will look at the top 10 Indian fashion startups that are leaving a mark and contributing to the industry’s growth in 2023.
1. Aastey
Founders – Jeevika Tyagi and Kanupriya Mundra
Founding Year – 2021
Headquarter – Mumbai
Products – Women coord sets, bottomwear, topwear
Aastey is India’s first & largest size-inclusive athleisure brand. The brand’s core values revolve around inclusivity and sustainability. They realized that women in India still face body image issues, and they also noticed that most fast fashion brands are not environmentally conscious.
Aastey solves both these issues by offering size-inclusive wear to all women. And they focus on sustainability by ensuring zero carbon emissions. They have built a community of more than 250k women across various platforms.
2. The Mad Dresser
Founders – Tanvi Gupta, Vanshika Gupta, and Prachi Gupta
Founding Year – 2020
Headquarter – Gurugram
Products – TMD Box with personalized clothes
The Mad Dresser is an online personal styling and shopping service provider. Founded by three sisters, Tanvi, Vanshika, and Prachi, TMD quickly gained recognition as a unique fashion brand.
They do not promote apparel and accessories on their website, just like others. They actually deliver a personalized TMD Box to your doorstep. This box contains clothes curated by their stylists based on your preferences.
3. Hilo Design
Founders – Mouna Gummadi and Sahith Gummadi
Founding Year – 2019
Headquarter – Hyderabad
Products – Men’s shirts, kurtas, nehru jackets, blazers, sherwani
Hilo means ‘thread’ in Spanish. As the name Hilo Design suggests, they are a design-driven brand focused on creating stylish garments for men. They offer inclusive sizes and styles for all body personalities. Their goal is to revolutionize the men’s fashion industry in India.
Their products include shirts and traditional garments for men, such as kurtas, sherwani, etc. Hilo Design aims to provide luxurious designs and quality at affordable prices.
4. Snitch
Founders – Siddharth Dungarwala
Founding Year – 2018
Headquarter – Bengaluru
Products – Trendy Men’s apparel
Snitch is a men’s online clothing brand dedicated to providing design styles as per the latest trends. Snitch founder Siddharth Dungarwala also appeared in Shark Tank India season 2 and received funding of INR 1.5 crore at a valuation of INR 100 crores from all sharks.
Snitch has grown its user base to more than a million customers. They are one of the few brands to achieve INR 100 crore ARR in just 2 years.
Other than being profitable, Snitch also has received multiple awards, such as ‘Brand of the Year’ at Men’s Fashion 2022 and ‘Fashion Startup of the Year’ at Entrepreneur Startup 2023.
5. Abros Shoes
Founders – Anil Sharma and Pramod Sharma
Founding Year – 2020
Headquarter – Gurugram
Products – Footwear for men, women, and children
Abros Shoes is renowned for producing high-quality shoes at a reasonable price to meet the demands of India’s increasing consumer base. Both founders are veterans, as Anil Sharma has 30 years of experience in the footwear industry. On the other hand, Pramod Sharma has about 25 years of experience in sales.
They manufacture products for both men and women. They also target boys and kids. In FY 2021-22, the company sold more than 40 million pairs. They have also conducted more than 100 roadshows so far.
6. Flyrobe
Founders – Pranay Surana, Shreya Mishra, and Tushar Saxena
Founding Year – 2015
Headquarter – Mumbai
Products – Fashion Rental Brand
Flyrobe is the brainchild of IIT-Mumbai alumni- Pranay Surana, Shreya Mishra, and Tushar Saxena. They wanted to create an online on-demand fashion wardrobe that does not burn a hole in the customer’s pocket.
To tackle this, they founded Flyrobe, an online fashion rental platform. Flyrobe allows users to rent designer clothes, jewelry, bags, and many other products. They also offer in-store trials before you rent a dress, and their pricing is usually 1/10th of the actual price of the product.
7. Relove
Founders – Kirti Poonia and Prateek Gupte
Founding Year – 2021
Headquarter – Mumbai
Products – Fashion Reselling Platform
Relove is a resale technology for brands to reduce their carbon footprint. Brands that integrate Relove in their stores allow customers to resell their pre-purchased products on the brand website.
Relove works on the ‘Go Green’ principle and aims to reduce carbon emissions. They focus on sustainability and enhance customer loyalty. Snitch claimed 8.4X ROAS since they started using Relove in their store.
In 2022, Relove received seed funding of $700k.
8. Benditaa
Founders – Richa Thakker Desai
Founding Year – 2021
Headquarter – Mumbai
Products – western clothes for women, men, and kids
Benditaa is a retail apparel and fashion brand that focuses on leaving thoughtful messages with their clothes. The founder, Richa Thakker Desai, believes that if a child sees something multiple times, it has an impact on one’s mind.
Being a mother herself, she wanted to send positive vibes into the world, especially to kids. Benditaa promotes values like girl power, sisterhood, friendship, and kindness through messages on their products.
9. Blissclub
Founders – Minu Margaret
Founding Year – 2020
Headquarter – Bengaluru
Products – Tops, tees, bottom wear, sports bras, accessories
Blissclub is an activewear brand for Indian women. They focus on creating products that are super functional, technical, and innovative. Minu, the founder of Blissclub, faced the challenge of finding an activewear brand that caters to her needs. Eventually, some were comfortable but not stretchable, and vice versa.
To fight this issue, Minu founded Blissclub, and today they have an omnichannel following of about 300k people. Minu’s vision is to provide the best products and experiences to every woman in India.
10. HE SPOKE
Founders – Prem Shah and Sonal Jain
Founding Year – 2021
Headquarter – Bengaluru
Products – Trending shirts and kurtas for men
He Spoke is an AI-enabled fashion brand for fashion-forward and young men. They leverage AI to design and render their styles to avoid sample wastage.
It claims to be the only fast fashion brand that introduces a new collection every 100 hours while remaining sustainable. He Spoke believes in bringing new styles constantly for its users.
Conclusion
So, here comes an end to our list of fashion and clothing startups based out of India.
As you have seen in the article, fashion has evolved with technology. Despite facing setbacks due to Covid, the fashion industry is looking promising in the coming years. Due to the efforts of these startups and similar others, the fashion industry bounced back.
With technology involved now, there are more opportunities than ever. New startups can leverage AI, VR, and AR to offer a store-like experience to their customers without leaving their homes.
The combination of tech and fashion is yet to be explored further. However, there is no doubt that the future of the Indian fashion industry will be dynamic, serving opportunities to both thriving startups and established players.
