This post is in honor of the busiest shopping day of the year. A fashion entrepreneur might do very well with a more desi-friendly Zara:
Zara is paradise for sexy men’s clothing. It’s my all-time favorite store…
- It’s one of the vanishingly scarce stores in America which do fall colors and deep jewel tones, like Indian formalwear, instead of those sickly pastels which look terrible on desis
- Its fabrics are beautifully textured, like sherwanis, so subtle details appear upon closer inspection
- It does dramatic tapered cuts rather than the shapeless American box cut; it’s the only non-designer store where I can get any semblance of a V-shape and waist…
The Economist compliments its speed:
Zara is the world’s fastest-growing retailer… Zara can make a new line from start to finish in three weeks, against an industry average of nine months. It produces 10,000 new designs each year; none stays in the stores for over a month…
Someone please clone this store, quick. The number of dark-haired people in the U.S. (black, Latino, Asian, desi) is enormous and growing. Zara with a more desi-friendly line and deeper supply chain could be an absolute gold mine…
Also focusing on the underserved dark-haired, olive-skinned market is fellow Berkeley grad Lubna Khalid’s startup, Real Cosmetics.
There are also whole cosmetic lines for Asians such as Shisedio http://www.shiseido.co.jp/com/ but I think this lady is thinking in the right direction.
ms. khalid is thinking in the right direction.
unfortunately for some of us, her products leave much to be desired. i found out about her a few years ago, drove to her charming apt in berkeley, bought several bits of paint for me and two others…and was truly disappointed with what i had paid a rather high price for.
i’m all for supporting entrepreneurs–desi or otherwise–who are trying to fill a need…but i’m not going to compromise my expectations of quality in order to do so.
ditto on zara, btw.
Fair enough. She was starting out then– what’s the quality like now?
Haven’t had any quality issues with Zara, whereas Old Navy stuff falls apart within weeks.
manish- as soon as i posted my comment, i realized that i was unclear and confusing…i’m sorry.
i love zara, and would welcome a “desi-friendly” version of it. i was saying “ditto” to your ode. 🙂
Awfully white (and pale) bunch of models in the Male Zara catalogue. It’s more like A&F than Benetton. And since it was only 9 pages long, I didn’t see much that fit your description at all … I’ll take your word for what’s in the store, I’m just saying that this is not what they showcase in their print marketing …
They’re dark-haired, they may be Spanish, and the clothing online is nothing like Abercrombie. But the site’s lame, check the stores.
the have a Zara’s in montreal, and prolly have one in NY and Toronto…..
but it is expensive…..but very nice stuff
The symbol of om is printed on undergarment which is a religious symbol of hindus if you don’t remove this picture from your site we start to damage this site by any way either wrong or right it’s only upto up that you can secure it by removing this picture …………………………………or i have to claim it under cyber crime for hurting a particular racism and religion.