Thrift shopping

City boutique hosts monsoon promo, sells one-of-a-kind garments by leading designers

It’s raining affordable fashion this season. As incentive to those with big dreams and small wallets, a city designer store has launched a weeklong promo called Styles for Less, offering customers high-end designer names, all for under Rs 10,000.

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The event features names like Tarun Tahiliani, Gaurav Gupta, Rajesh Pratap Singh and Cue by Rohit Gandhi and Rahul Khanna, whose garments usually retail at Rs 12,000 onwards. Tina Tahiliani, owner of Ensemble, is hoping the masses will see this offer as a steal. “Most of the collections offered by these designers fall into higher price brackets. We are promoting designs that are all priced under Rs 10,000, and without compromising on quality and aesthetics.”

The designs on offer include ethnic embroidered kurtas and jersey blouses sharing rack space with draped evening dresses. The offer is available only at the chain’s Kemps Corner store, starting June 10 onwards.

While Tahiliani refuses to cite the criteria on which the participating designers were chosen, she adds, “None of the garments are curated from past collections, they’ve all been specifically designed for this exhibition.”

Designer Pankaj of Delhi-based duo Pankaj and Nidhi has created a line of about 15 garments which are similar to their existing spring summer collection, which is based on a floral theme. “Our prêt line retails between Rs 6,000- 18,000. So when Ensemble approached us, we picked out some pieces that were under Rs 10,000 and made modifications to the rest to suit the budget.”

Given the popular notion that designer garments are heavy on the wallet, designer Gaurav Gupta, whose cleverly draped jersey dresses are a hit with the city’s party animals, is glad for the chance to prove otherwise. “Most people will walk into a high street brand store and buy a garment, because it’s easy. They don’t realise that they can get bespoke garments from Indian designers for a similar price.” He adds, “Even our regular collections have different price points depending on the amount of construction and fabrics used.”