Top 5 Female-Founded Fashion Brands in India in 2021

There are startups budding everywhere. Great companies that started just from an idea and now are building their empires that are huge and vast. With their growing consumer base and stand undistinguished in the market with their offerings promising consistency as brands.

Mostly, women are just stereotyped into being homemakers. And are often not associated with terms like business entrepreneurs. But here are some women defying the odds and stereotypes created by society and are also running successful startups in the fashion industry.

We have curated a list of Fashion startups that are run by women with their stories. So if you are looking for that little spark of inspiration to get you some motivation.

This is the sign to stop doubting yourself and start that business that you are wanting to.

There is an integration/fusion of cultures in this age. People have embraced the idea of a kaleidoscopic approach which has been possible with the help of globalization. With sustainability playing a new and important role in this industry. The industry has a wide scope and a lot to offer trends and styles. Let's browse through how female entrepreneurs are changing the game with their ventures in the world of fashion.

Nykaa
Chumbak
LimeRoad
Zivame
Baggit
FAQ

Nykaa

Founded in: 2012

Founder: Falguni Nayar

CEO: Falguni Nayar

The wealthiest self made Female Billionaire in India

Nykaa is everywhere and the brand just got its Initial Public Offering (IPO) and has attracted 32.59 billion dollars worth already. Describing itself as India's one-stop online cosmetics and beauty store, having forty six locations across India and is associated with over 2400+ brands. It is India's largest online shopping beauty store for cosmetics, beauty products, health products, and more.

Nykaa has four apps on the Play Store: Nykaa Fashion- Online shopping app; Nykaa - Beauty Shopping app for buying makeup and cosmetic products. It has a different segment that caters to men too, and those apps include: Nykaa Man- men's grooming store and superstore by Nykaa, which is a business to business (B2B) shop.

The e-commerce platform provides seamless shopping experience providing premium as well as affordable products through its omni-channels. The founder, Falguni Nayar, who has completed her Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance, a student at Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, after joining the Kotak Mahindra Bank and serving for almost eighteen years, quit to go after her dream to start the venture. P.S. She has also been the managing director at the bank.

Chumbak

Year: 2009

Founder: Shubhra Chadda and Vivek Prabhakar

CEO: Shubhra Chadda

Sold home with her husband to start their own venture

With a collection of fashion and home products, Chumbak is an e-commerce store for everything. According to reports of 2020, Chumbak has established forty four stores across India and has its presence in at least twelve cities.

Have you ever worried about what could be the perfect gift for someone's special occasion? Or been crazy about quirky things? That integrates culture, uniqueness, and funk all in a cool way. Chumbak has got you! People who travel often love to get things back as mementos from their trips, to look back, and remember the precious times. But there is no particular place in the Indian market made exactly for this purpose, nor exactly on the web platforms back then.

There are many gaps in the Indian market that need bridging and usually go unnoticed by the people. Shubhra realized this and took notice of the fact that many people were looking for things to take back after a trip to India.

Here begins her story of Shubhra after being a mother for a year who wanted to do something and embarked on her journey to being an entrepreneur. The couple sold their home to set-up their venture: Chumbak. Their home decor & fashion stores have a ranging variety of products selling perfumes, laptop sleeves, bags, water bottles, other home decor items, apparels for women and more.

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LimeRoad

Year: 2012

Founder: Suchi Mukherjee, Prashant Malik, Ankush Mehra

CEO: Suchi Mukherjee

Rising above the mundane

Having led many organizations like Lehman Brothers Incorporation, Virgin Media, eBay incorporation, Skype, Gum Tree and driving them to success with her potential, brilliance and skills. Sachi Mukherjee wows you with her knowledge graduating from the St. Stephens College in Delhi she holds a BA degree in Economics with Math's  from University of Cambridge. She is also a Cambridge Commonwealth Trust Scholar and Fellow, a Chadburn Scholar who has completed her master's from the London School of Economics in finance and economics.

Having received the Unicorn Startup Award in 2016 by NDTV is just one of the accomplishments among many for Lime Road. Lime Road is an e-commerce platform that in the initial stages only served as a platform catering to women, only now it has extended selling clothing and accessories for women, men and kids.  

It started with the aim of creating a shopping experience that people find mesmerizing. Engaging users allows them to create personal looks and collections and have the option to share it with your friends.

Zivame

Year: 2011

Founder: Richa Kar

CEO: Amisha Jain

Going beyond just lingerie

Think outside the box and the whole society calls you crazy. The story of Richa Kar is somewhat the same; she dared to do things differently and do it anyway, even though she did not have her parents supporting her idea of starting a business of selling lingerie online.

Her mother was embarrassed by the idea and had no support from her father. Zivame has both online and offline stores with new launches. The inspiration for starting Zivame that struck Richa was derived from tracking sales of Victoria's Secret, and she realized that there was no such market in India.

Started with her savings and borrowing money from her friends with the vision to help women shop for intimates online. After going through tough times with receiving criticism came the positive feedback. Dedication and hard work got Richa through her journey to getting investors and later receiving funding for her venture. The story on the official site describes it as going beyond just lingerie. Driving with innovative ideas that were not given much thought about before, influencing women in different ways.

Baggit

Founded in: 1985

Founder: Nina Lekhi

CEO: ‎Nina Lekhi‬

Fueling the road to success with failure

Home-grown premium brand: Baggit, made and designed in India. Which provides bags and accessories made in a vegan, sustainable, and cruelty-free way for women, was started by Nina Lekhi back in 1985 with her hardwork and following her passion. She started Baggit with only seven thousand rupees, which was borrowed from her mother. Now Baggit has one thousand retail stores in India, two hundred and eight employees, and the brand is worth Rs 111 crores.

A student who did really well until the eighth grade and an role model for others, things changed for Nina Lekhi when she neglected much of her studies, not putting much work and having fun in the world with her  perspective of how college should be like she flunked in her first year of college at Sophia's Polytechnic, Mumbai.

Giving failure a direction to feel the sense of purpose after being called with labels like "duffer" and "stupid" she tackled them by proving herself. Nina's parents were very supportive and encouraged her to build on the lost self-esteem and confidence.

With a head full of curiosity for the world of the retail industry and parents that stood by her. She took up two part-time jobs, for Mike Kriplani Fashions in the retail sector and at Shyam Ahuja, selling carpets at the age of seventeen, getting first hand experience.

Having people around her who were into businesses and an environment that cherished entrepreneurship starting her own venture felt like a natural move for her. Doing exhibitions and marketing her products at the retail stores where she worked and word of mouth getting her clients, setting up her first store at Kemps Corner with her brother to the slowly climb to the hill of success made it all work.

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Conclusion

With a hint of inspiration, passion and courage, you can do it all. Quit that job, dare to dream, believe, fail, and break for, and stand out when the world asks you to fit into the box. Start small, start somewhere if you believe in what you do. There will be setbacks and a lot of society doubting you. Take it from these women, defy the odds, and do it anyway.

FAQ

Who is first woman entrepreneur in India?

Kalpana Saroj, CEO of Kamani Tubes is known as the first women entrepreneur of India.

Who is the richest female entrepreneur in the world?

Oprah Winfrey, Jenny Just, Michelle Zatlyn, and Katrina Lake are some of the richest female entrepreneur in the world.

Who is the first woman entrepreneur?

Madame C.J. Walker is the first woman entrepreneur in the world.