From bank vaults to fabric fortunes: Banker turns fashion queen, weaving Indian glory globally

A senior banker-turned-fashion entrepreneur, she is now the flagbearer of Indian ethnic fashion in the UK and many other parts of the world. With exports to almost 40 countries across five continents, her Indian clothing brand Myosutra is on its way to becoming the most prominent ‘desi’ brand in Europe. An alumnus of the British Academy of Fashion Design, the quintessentially Bengali woman, founded Myosutra in 2017 with the aim to present the brilliance of Indian arts and culture with improvisations to suit modern sensibilities.

Speaking to Bizz Buzz exclusively from her London home, Roshni Mukherjee, Founder, Myosutra, attributes the economic success of Myosutra, the twelve yards of rare creative brilliance on fabric, to her sixteen years of experience as a banker and charts out her future roadmap to redefine Indian ethnic fashion in the West.

What was the trigger behind floating Myosutra, leaving your decent investment banker's job?

I didn't leave the job. I'm still a banker, and I love my nine to five. That gives me a different kind of satisfaction, interacting with the professional world, with my banking colleagues. The trigger for Myosutra was only one. When I saw that fashion in the West, especially with the NRI Indians in the UK, was very, very static in the year 2017 or before. People used to get all their ethnic wear from India whenever they used to visit, and throughout the year, they used to carry on with the same styling, with whatever they had bought, maybe a year back or maybe two years back. Because it was not every year that people used to visit India. There were not too many places where one could actually buy decent Indian wear or Indo-Western wear. And hence, I saw a huge potential, a huge market, because not only this would become a platform for the weavers to do trade with the UK at an international scale, but it would also generate employment for a lot of people. So when I started, it was just a passion, because I started it with my father, who is a retired banker, with just one thing in mind, that whatever I'm going to deliver to my clients, it has to be unique. It will be suited to their needs and their service will be professional. But over the years, I have seen humongous growth. I have seen that my followers, or the people who like my work, they also appreciate the fact that the core value of Myosutra is not about selling any kind of products, but it is about uplifting the heritage and the culture of India, whether it is in a form of women's attire, men's attire, kids attire, and making it accessible to any of the British occasions.

How has been the journey so far, over the last six-seven years?

I never started Myosutra with a business goal, with a business agenda or a business plan. So, for me, it was more of interacting with the people, giving them the best. So I would say there were tough moments, but when the going gets tough, the tough gets going. So, for me, I have always seen this as my passion project. Every day, I wanted to learn something from it. Whether it is customers who are happy, whether customers who are not happy with new innovation of the designs, thinking outside of the box of how can I cater more products and services. So, it's always been a learning process for me, but I can only thank God that the response has been humongous. We started only with the UK. Now we ship globally to over 40 countries. We have a unit now in Kolkata that makes sure that the quality of each and every product is taken care of, before it's shipped to the UK, the US, or anywhere in the world. So, I think it has been a bumpy ride. But I have got no regrets, because all I can say is, I'm just starting and there are miles ahead.

What was the market you had initially targeted?

My initial target market was, of course, the UK and Indians, especially the second generation Indians. So I divided my attention, or the way I used to pitch with the products, in two different ways. One, I wanted to give a platform to the weavers of India. Most of the states have their own weavers group, where I got enrolled and I started interacting with them, and I started sourcing sarees from them. After that, I thought that, well, it is not going to be the people like me who can wear sarees. It has to be my colleague Christina, or it has to be my neighbor Gemma, who do not wear sarees. It is not easy to wear saree for them. I have to make sure that they start appreciating our Indian weaves. So, for example, I started creating the Ikkat jackets, I started creating Baluchori jackets, I started creating jackets made out of fabric, out of Madhubani paintings or Kalamkari paintings. So I had to start thinking outside of the box, when I was sourcing.

I'm still sourcing these materials from the weavers or the artisans, but I'm giving it a different shape and format, from which I'm not only benefiting the weavers, but also making a story out of the textile, a story that my colleague Paula will be able to appreciate and tell. That’s why she's wearing a Baluchary jacket. And what's the story of Mahabharata is. So I started telling those stories through fabrics in different formats, whether it's stoles, whether it is with any kind of kids wear, whether it is through dhoti kurta. So, our London skyline sari is extremely famous, which we launched in 2019, which has got a skyline embroidered through the border of the sari, and it has got a beautiful red border, which symbolizes the kind of the Bengali woman that we are.

We are aware what red and white sari means to us. I wanted a London skyline sari, and in a similar way, I created the London skyline doti. So I had to start innovating. I had to start thinking out of the box. It was just not a Benarasi sari. It was just not a Kanchipuram sari. It was just not a Pashwina kani silk sari. It is beyond that, where people will be able to narrate the stories, what they are wearing.

Did you have to tweak your strategies in between?

Yes, I did. From the conventional pattern of just not giving the customers or the clients only one sari, which is a handloom sari from the weavers, I started targeting the second generations or even the third generations of this country and worldwide, and trying to narrate through the different weaves, different things, different formats. I have done, like Ikkat blazers or Quad sets, which are very famous right now for teenagers. They don't prefer wearing a sari. They find it too cumbersome to wear. So for them, I have upcycled their mother's sarees into a blazer and a trouser. So it's much, much beyond. It's about upcycling, it's about thinking about the environment, and it's about repeat wearing as well. So there are certain culture, there are certain things that we were not doing in the fashion industry. We are now trying to get those done. So definitely, I had to tweak my strategies with the demand. And also I wanted to not only to target the people who wear sarees, I wanted to target the British Asians, I wanted to target the British people as well as the people of the West.

Do you work on the designs yourself?

Yes, I do work on my designs myself. Of course, not the weavers’ collection, because I believe in keeping our handlooms, our traditions, our traditional sarees. The way it is where I tried to design myself is, of course, if the customers wanted some basic things, number one. Number two, we always try to create two or three in-house products in a month. Like the London skyline was my brainchild. Where, you know, all the London Indians or the London Bengalis can wear a London skyline, lal-par saree on an Ashtomi anjali, or maybe on any of their pujo days, depicting their love for London, as well as keeping their traditions alive of Lalpar saada saree.

Similarly, we have created our Bengal weave saree, which is basically a saree that is cut, which is made out of five different Bengal weaves, like Dhakai, Baluchuri, Taant, Gamcha and Kaatha. So that's an ensemble, that's in one saree, you get all the weaves displayed. Similarly, we created a South-weave sarees, which is, again, a mixture of different types of South-weaves. We have our Harry Potter saree, which was targeted more towards teenagers. Later on, we created jackets and other versions of it. We have our Tintin saari, which is also very famous. We have got Tintin blouses and the entire. We have an entire range of Kolkata series. We have an entire range of Sukumar Ray series.

So, there are so many things that I'm creating. And at times it can be as simple as making a dress out of a Dhanekali saree or making a jacket out of a Baluchori sari, which we are upcycling it. So there are simple innovations. There are innovations, which has a story to say. And there are innovations, where I find deeply connected to my childhood. I'm a big Bollywood buff as well. So we have our Bollywood saree as well. Whatever, I feel that I will be able to explain the story to my audience is the source of my creation.

How many weavers do you work with? This number must be growing...

Well, I'm working with more than twelve weavers right now, to be very honest with you, and two big manufacturers, because they are the bigger suppliers for materials and stuff, the numbers are definitely growing. But saying that, as I mentioned in my initial statement, that I am a full-time banker and I only try to do work which I can do justice to, so I have to try to balance everything. And as you know, in the West, it's not very easy. We have to manage our households as well. So definitely there is a big expansion plan in the pipeline, but I'm going to take slow steps.

What are the types of sarees you currently make? Are you thinking of introducing anything new?

We try to include at least two different collections or two different designs every month, which is like around 24 new designs every year. So this month, we will be launching our Frida Kahlo saree. The entire image of her with some of her writings on Vatik. So we worked with the people who are in Mushidabad and they completed the Vatik designs and everything for us. So the shoot is pending. I was a little under the weather, so I could not complete the shoot. But we are going to do the shoot very soon and that should be there by the end of January. We'll be launching together. So our first drafts are done. We have other handloom sarees from different weavers. Those go constantly. We have designated tailors who take care of all the upcycling from sarees and everything. So everything is going parallel. But when it comes to our in-house Myosutra designs, we make sure that we are doing at least two in a month. So definitely, Frida Kahlo is one which is there in the pipeline. This year, the motto of the brand is to twine our or display our or do our creations mostly around the festivals. So, this year we have already started with Makar Sankranti. But in Makar Sankranti, of course the tradition is that mostly people wear black sarees. So, we promoted a lot of weavers collection from having black or anything which is dark in color, again narrating the story to them.

You have also introduced the concept of storytelling on the sarees. How is this concept picking up? Normally what kind of stories do you prefer?

This is the first time somebody has actually asked me this question. Yes, of course. It's very, very important. Even when it is a weaver's collection, there's a lot of stories to be told. It's about the weave. It's about why we select a particular colour during a particular occasion. Like I told in Makar Sankranti, we see an absolute increase in the number of black sarees that people buy during this time. I was also not aware of that, like, three, four years back. But then I know May to December, I have to stock up with a lot of black sarees because Makar Sankranti is coming. So it's amazing that how people get attached to the storytelling more than at times just buying the saree. And I think in the West, what happens is, of course, you do not wear sarees every day, or you cannot wear a Baluchuri jacket to work. Right now, it's minus one, and of course, people need their puffer jackets. But what is important is, like, the purchase that you are making has to be a little more than that garment. So if I do not tell the story, I'll not be able to connect with the people. And as I mentioned, the motive of Myosutra has never been just selling a product. It is about education. It is about definitely telling the story. It is about making aware what India has and what the country can offer to the rest of the world.

How do you position your brand/label- in premium/super-premium segment? What are the price ranges like?

I would say, it will be in the premium level, not in the super premium level. So I would say it will be high-end to premium. So not like medium, but high-end to premium. It is because, you have to understand that there is a lot of logistics which are involved. When you ship a saree to the US, the minimum courier cost is like around Rs 1,800. So the overall price of the saree always shoots up. But saying that, I feel that I can still proudly say that I am very reasonably priced when it comes to many high-end weaves as well, like a Begampuri saree or a Dolabedi silk saree, or 1 gram gold Kanchipuram silk sarees. I have seen people, in the West, wherever they are, selling that, sold in extremely high price. I don't find any reason for it. And number two, I feel that that's not how Myosutra would like to operate, even in future. We would like to maintain the balance of quality. Definitely quality and the price, and place ourselves always into the high end to premium. Definitely not super premium.

Currently you only sell your products online, right? Do you have any plans to go for physical retailing, maybe to have atleast one or two flagship outlets?

I do sell products online only, right now. Of course, it is via the social media channels as well as via the website. Physical retailing?- Not at this moment, because of my other commitments, but yes definitely, I see flagship stores coming up in London, sometime maybe in five years time. I would definitely like to do a physical store but the world is moving towards online. In a city like London, if you are even renting a place, of course with those overheads, the cost of the actual product will go very high. If I can reach that level where I have that kind of customers walking in, then definitely, why not? It's such a cosmopolitan city and people have started appreciating, even the Britishers have started appreciating the pure fabrics now. So maybe five year down the line, when the market is right, I'll definitely see what options are available.

You have already forayed into mens and kidswear segments. So what’s next?

We already have our men's and kids wear segments, but last year we launched our home section as well. But we are doing very specific, very limited and specific number of cases. Well, we are serving to clients’ requirements only. The reason being is like whatever we want to do, we really want to do well. So there you can definitely quote us as a premium brand because I won't say even high end premium brand. The reason being we are doing things like we are doing Baluchuri curtains along with the entire home section with Baluchuri. We are trying to do in the same fabric, we are trying to innovate, maybe. We are doing like weaves, photo collages, we are doing lot of lamp shades work and we are doing a lot of work on duvet covers. So there's a lot of energy and lot of involvement, that are required- with measurements, with the colour scheme, with how the interior will look, with talking with the architect. So there we are only doing one-to-one approach and we are pricing it in the premium category. But there is nothing on the cards this year, to be very honest with you. Our plates are quite full, and we just want to work to the maximum potential in all this, whatever we are doing.

Do you have any plans to raise funds to scale up and geographically expand from here?

I'm based out of London and we ship worldwide. So now, geography wise, I think I'm quite sorted, because we have a unit which is taken care of my retired dad (he is very active and he's equally a part of this entire project). We have a team of around 15 people now who look after various things- the website, orders, the tailors, the courier person. Everybody is a part of a very close Myosutra family. And we make sure that we work as a team, not geographically, but, yes, scale-up is something very important as we are trying to be visible in more online portals. We are upgrading our websites big time. We are doing various marketing campaigns. And, yeah, to be very honest with you, we think that 2024 is going to be a year where we will be blooming in our full potential and a lot of hard work to be done. And I know I have to come out of my comfort zone for doing this. In 2024, we are thinking that we will be able to scale up the entire thing to a different level.