Anita Salwani was born in Bombay in Oct 1963 after Kishanchand Salwani and his wife shifted to Bombay to set up a business in textiles. Anita grew along with her six sibling — three sisters and three brothers. Anita, a second-born child, has the most creative steak among all children.
Anita studied Bachelor of Commerce from Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economic and later pursued a diploma in fashion designing at Premila Vithaldas Polytechnic SNDT College. At SNDT, Anita was mentored by Kaushal Pantakhy and Hemant Trivedi. Her mentor encouraged her to pursue her own sense of style. After completing her diploma at SNDT, Anita did her internship with the erstwhile royal family of Dhrangadhra, Gujarat, which ran a small high-fashion business. Later, she joined Melco Buying Agencies, a garment production and export house, which catered to several American brands.
Around 1989 or 1990, Dongre’s son, Yash, was born, but this did not slow her down. Instead, she began supplying large, reputable stores like Sheetal and Benzer, in Mumbai, and Big Jo’s, in Delhi. She contributes her success to the support she derived from her mother-in-law and mom.
Anita’s father had good connections in the textile market and introduced Anita to suppliers. During those days, defaulting on payments was a common act in the garment industry. Therefore, Anita chose to work only with a few of the retailers that were in their comfort zone. During this period, they began searching for a “gap in the market to set up our own brand.”
With liberalization in 1991, women entered the workforce gradually, this led to a shift in trend from traditional wear like saris to western apparel for working women. Recognizing the pulse of the market, Dongre put together “a modern, simple, clean line of blacks, whites, and beiges. Though her friends like her designs, the stores were not willing to stock and sale it. Undaunted by the rejection, Anita and her siblings — Meena and Mukesh incorporated AND Design India Private Limited (“ADIL”) in 1995.
Around 2000, modern retail was opening up, and Crossroads came out. After showcasing the AND design catalogue, Anita and her siblings were able to convince the mall owner to rent out space to ADIL. Another strategy adopted by AND was to set up shop-in-shops at department stores such as Shoppers Stop, where ADIL don’t have to pay rent but just focus on sales. Following in her mentor Hemant Trivedi’s footsteps, Dongre provided the entire casual wardrobe for all of the Femina Miss India contestants. She also designed the pageant gown and evening wear for Indian representatives to the Miss Earth and Miss International contests.
ADIL had a manufacturing unit in Santacruz, but as volumes increased, they began outsourcing production and only did samples in-house. They spent more time on design and quality.
Over a period, many rival brands were launched like Remanika by designer Seema Kakkar, Chemistry by Sunil Jhangiani, Sepia, by Dongre’s ex-employer Melco, and 109°F by Creative Lifestyles.
Between 1999 and 2007, a lot of brands had overleveraged due to the boom in malls. They began facing problem during the recession scenario of 2008 and started shutting many down stores. The whole retail industry crashed. As the mall business went down, owners were desperate for tenants; that’s when ADIL struck excellent 15 properties deals. ADIL’s prudence and ability to grab an opportunity at the right time not only helped it to expand at a lower cost but also, enabled ADIL to launch its new label, Global Desi, in 2007, introducing the concept of fusion.
Later in august 2007, Dongre launched another label, Grassroot, as “a new, distinctive line of organic clothing” comprising dresses, tops, tunics, and jackets. It encouraged the use of textiles made with environmentally friendly techniques and procedures. It also preferred to use of organic cotton and vegetable dyes, resulting in fabrics that are purer and softer. Once again, Dongre was thinking globally.
By November 2007, she launched her luxury Indian label, Anita Dongre Indian Soul, which used traditional weaves and silks from master weavers across India. In 2008, Dongre launched Inter Prêt, it mostly included tunics, kurta tops, dresses, linen shirts, and dhoti pants, for the contemporary Indian woman. The material used was such that one could crush a dress, stuff it into a duffel bag, unpack it, and wear it again without ironing. Following year, Dongre launched her first bespoke label, Anita Dongre Timeless, comprising bridal and occasion wear. It was also her debut year at Lakme Fashion Week.
In 2010, Anita opened her flagship and concept store in Bandra, Mumbai. During the same period, Danish apparel entered India and launched its brands ONLY and Vero Moda, Creative Lifestyles launched its Indo-Western label — Fusion Beats.
In 2013 or 2014, ADIL began retailing its ready-to-wear labels on its own website as well as on other e-commerce portals. The very same year, it launched Global Desi, at Bagatelle Mall in Mauritius, on a franchise model. Anita received a superb response to their fusion-wear. Within two years on, ADIL opened a flagship store in the beach country’s Trianon Shopping Park, which houses AND, Global Desi, and Dongre’s signature label.
An important trait that keeps a Brand ahead of the game is their habit of listening to customers and acting quickly. When ADIL opened in the North, they realized the need for winter wear, and in the South, especially tier 2 and tier 3 cities, sleeveless was not preferred. During the first six to nine months, they took a lot of feedback from the stores, heard customers, and translated it to the back end. They quickly learnt from their mistakes and came up with better solutions. When menswear store didn’t do very well, they were humbled to accept that they didn’t understand the men’s psyche. So, they decided to focus and just do what we’re doing better.
ADIL never took back much stock to their warehouse and believed in liquidating inventory. They’d sell it off at sixty to seventy per cent discount! But it saved them a lot of holding/operations cost and effort, which involves processing, refurbishing, and stacking.
In 2015, ADIL was rebranded to House of Anita Dongre (“HOAD”), to fairly represent the different brands under it and to clear the clutter created by numerous labels, like Inter Prêt, Indian Soul, and Timeless, that overlapped and became confusing. A simple parent Brand House of Anita Dongre to offer labels: Anita Dongre Woman, Man, Prêt, Wedding Couture, and Fine Jewelry (previously Pink City).
Though Anita got several movies offer, she preferred to support Bollywood celebrities’ personal wardrobes.
When Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, visited India in the summer of 2016, she wore Anita’s designed outfits. With this, Dongre became a global sensation overnight.
Anita assigns a day for each brand: Monday is for Grassroots; Tuesday, Anita Dongre Couture; Wednesday, AND; Thursday, Global Desi. Fridays are for review meetings. In the morning, she sits with designers on their sketches for the next season and checks samples to show the buying team. In the second half, she reviews what all’s going on social media, with the marketing team. Designers are expected to be ready with samples, send her pictures a day prior, and be present at the meeting, so we don’t have to repeat ourselves. She’ll get to the bottom of issues, call the master immediately, explain and ensure that the error is rectified. She’s that particular, and takes decisions there and then. Next day, she’ll check the progress. This kind of attitude is built into the organizational culture.
For store staff, they’ve launched a new buddy app that offers training tools and keeps them posted when celebrities walk-in at different stores. What a great way to teach, inspire, keep the buzz up, and generate word-of-mouth publicity.
Employee attrition in the apparel industry is high. So, Anita and her team focused on setting the right and friendly culture at HOAD. Dongre’s style of mentorship included setting the right principles, giving people responsibilities to learn on the job and have a framework for brands. The employees appreciate the freedom that they get in performing their roles and responsibilities enables them to perform the task at hand with peacefully.
Mukesh says, Life is not about today or tomorrow, but forever. We believe that to build something long term, it has to be solid. We don’t take too many shortcuts. Do your best and the outcome is automatic; therefore, we prefer to focus on what we’re doing and not looking at the outcome first.
This article is a summarization of a chapter on Anita Dongre in the book Intelligent Fanatics of India by Rohith Potti and Pooja Bhula.
