Why should designer outfits only be monopolized by well off and affluent people? Can middleclass and upper middle class women buy designer cloths without having to think twice about their monthly budgets? These thoughts cluttered Malvika Gupta’s mind back in 2016, eventually laying the genesis for her highly successful startup Purple Panchi.
Stared with the idea of offering high quality designer clothes in affordable price range, today Purple Panchi clocks annual revenue of Rs 1 crore and processes almost 500 orders every month. Company’s outfits are sold across popular e-commerce channels like The Loom, Jaypore and Indian Roots. It has also made exclusive tie ups with several stores for offline sales.
However, as is the case with all startups & entrepreneurs, success did not come easily for this young Delhi based woman. She predictably went through trails & tribulations and seemingly impossible odds during her two year old entrepreneurial journey.
Running business from her car
Malvika learnt great deal about entrepreneurship by driving through bylanes of New Delhi in her car. The car, which she borrowed from her beloved husband, virtually became her office during her struggling days.
“I had no resources at all, I would drive around Delhi and Gurgram in my car, find karigars, spend a lot of time with them to learn their art. Procuring the raw material for the clothes was a lot of hard work,” Malvika says.
This, however, was only the beginning of her long drawn struggle. Her true litmus test began when she and her small team individually designed each and every piece. This is something that she does it even today with as much passion as during those initial days.
As matter of fact, Malvika proudly claims that there hasn’t been any let down in her passion ever since she embarked on this journey in 2016. This was the same year when this young graduate from Amity University decided to put her philanthropic services to background and make entrepreneurship her full time career.
It is all about colours and inspirations
For Malvika colour always play an important role in shaping our personality. Hence she could not help but associate her startup with her favorite colour ‘Purple.’ “Purple stands for vibrancy and creativity,” Malvika claims. However, apart from Purple, one would obviously find extensive and wide range of colours in all Purple Panchi collection.
Malvika says that her team has worked immensely hard to ensure that all colours reflect positivity and exuberance.
Shedding light on her collection, the Delhi based entrepreneur says that it is eclectic mix of traditional Indian motifs and some of the interesting and uncommon colours that one can find. She adds that Purple Panchi collections are little non-conventional in nature & quirky yet classy in design.
As for inspiration, she claims that her collection draws lot of inspiration from elements found in the world of flora and fauna. Her fascination for flora and fauna is well signified by using the word ‘Panchi (bird)’ in company’s name.
Today she also takes lot of pride in the fact that her label is one of the trendsetters in gold foil printing, a style that today has become rage in the industry.
Being a Self-taught designer is not easy
Malvika makes no bones in admitting the fact that being a self-taught designer is a challenging task. It was challenging when she started afresh two years back and still continues to be a great challenge even today, she adds.
Malvika now remembers how much she had to believe in her abilities during the initial days as she kept meeting karigars after karigars to perfect the art of designing a good outfit.
Fear of failure, of course, plagued Malvika’s mind as she tried to traverse through unknown territory. But she did not allow her destiny to surrender to these fickle doubts and eventually rose to the occasion to overcome all the challenge.
Today Malvika along with her brother Shreevar Goel is trying to steer the company towards more rewarding future. Their immediate plan is to expand offline presence through more collaboration & tie ups with well-known stores.
Malvika and her team’s task is certainly cut out, but if one goes by their past achievements then it seems that Purple Panchi is heading towards bright future.