Fashion goes on a road trip

South Mumbai boutique launches mobile store concept, revamps inside of a bus to take high-street brands to the masses.

Remember the adage —if you can’t go to the store, let the store come to you? A South Mumbai fashion store is
taking the line seriously, and literally taking their boutique on tour. Starting December 15, Trunk, a Colaba-based store, launches a unique mobile store concept, turning the inside of a 12-metre bus into an almost-identical replica of their store.

The bus, to be stationed at Bandra’s Carter Road, is fitted with changing rooms, has shelves and racks filled with clothes. “We wanted to create awareness about our South Mumbai store among shoppers from the suburbs,” says proprietor Pratik Sheth. “For the moment, we only have permission to be in Bandra, but once the other permits are in place, we’ll be travelling across the city.”

Sheth says that the inside of the bus, designed to accommodate about eight customers at a time, will feature at least one representation of every single brand that the physical store stocks, and you can hope to find high-street brands like Fornarina, Renee London, Blank NYC Denim and David and Goliath. “The collections are geared predominantly towards our female customers, but we do have some shirts and T-shirts for men,” Sheth reveals.

While the collections on board range between R 1,000- R 7,000, you won’t need to cash out at the nearest ATM because they’ve arranged for a credit card facility on the bus. “We provide trendy brands from around the world, never repeating a style and never stocking more than six pieces in each style. So you’ll be assured of exclusive pieces,” says Sheth.