Launched Ethnic Wear Brand Indian Ethnic Co. Reached 10 Crore Turnover: Story of a Mother-Daughter Duo

The Indian Ethnic Co., a Mumbai-based enterprise, has bloomed with a force of 1000 craftsmen from across India, working in the firm’s three offices. The ethnic brand is setting apart itself by rejoicing its dance marketing reels.

Here’s to strong women; may we know them, may we be them, and may we raise them! Don’t we love to hear stories of women entrepreneurs making a mark in their respective fields and grabbing their share of well-deserved success?

Similar is the story of a mother-daughter duo, who started off with their ethnic apparels brand in the comforts of their home in Mumbai. Hetal (mother) and Lekhinee Desai went to a handloom exhibit in 2016 for a shopping bash and came back with 50 meters of ajrakh print fabric and a bounteous business plan.

Putting Hetal’s natural sense of design to work, the fabric was converted into beautiful Kurtis of various designs and sizes with the help of their neighborhood tailor. Creating a Facebook page for displaying those Kurtis, Lekhinee did the thing!

“My mom has great design aesthetics and a natural eye for silhouettes and fabrics. So I nudged her to do something about her talent. We started with an initial investment of Rs 50,000.” says Lekhinee.

Time to Boom!

The wind was blowing in their direction and they couldn’t believe their luck! The company started getting orders from the next day of distributing links in their circle.

“Social media was the genesis for our brand, and I am good with that medium. However, I was not too sure my mother would be as comfortable with it, so we decided to launch our own website to streamline the process,” says Lekhinee.

Building a website for their brand changed the game and since then, the brand just went upwards on the graph. The Indian Ethnic Co. hit the 1 crore mark in revenues within the first year of the inception of its website.

It was then, Lekhinee quit her corporate job and joined the booming business towards the end of 2019.

What contributed to the downfall of the economy in many sectors, uplifted the sales of The Indian Ethnic Co. and the company saw three-fold growth in revenues in the year 2020.

It was time to take the operations to the three offices that came up in the second half of 2020 in Mumbai. The neighborhood tailor is working full-time with the company, leading an entire team of designer tailors.

Hatel networked with artisans like Abul Jabbar Khatri, over a WhatsApp group – ‘The Craft Channel’ where business owners connected with artisans.

“When we founded The Indian Ethnic Co., we just had one goal – to make Indian fashion responsible, sustainable, and truly handcrafted. What we mean by “truly handcrafted” is that the fabric is handwoven, the dye is handmade with organic and vegetable dyes, the print is hand block, and the final product is hand-tailored,” Lekhinee said.