The Mumbai-based brand’s core concept revolves around the identity of a woman
Bengaluru: The lack of high-quality, well-made, minimalist clothing in premium fabric and appropriate fits inspired Founder Dipti Tolani to create Salt. The brand’s core aesthetic is inspired by Japanese ideas; minimalist and clean. Minimalist and effortless clothing in premium fabrics and classic detailing is what they set out to make.
Getting the trend on-point
An absence of stylish workwear that appealed to the new-age women pushed Dipti Tolani, founder and chief executive officer of Salt Attire to launch her brand. With Salt Attire she intends to offer a wardrobe solution for the contemporary woman and all her professional needs.
The brand imports most of its fabrics, which makes the construction of the garments more appealing, and clubbing customised tailoring with it, they are able to present a classy collection to the women of today. “Importantly, our fits are those that adhere to the Indian body sizes. Since India is a big export hub for the garment industry, everything from the measurements to sizing is based on western proportions (mostly UK/EU). Items produced for consumption in India are sized and fitted by leveraging UK size charts. We have created our own body measurement ratios based on research done on Indian body shapes and sizes,” Dipti highlights.
Growing with power
The women’s western wear market is expected to grow year on year and reach $625 billion by 2024. Dipti and her team look to capture a bigger fraction of this market. The core concept of the brand revolves around the identity of a woman. The name Mimoto, which is also the name of the parent company, stands for “identity” in Japanese. True to their designing prowess, Salt Attire clothes ensure they let you express who you really are. So whether you’re a banker or a designer, Salt has something that lets you exude your personal sense of style.
Salt is a completely customer focused brand. From understanding the pain points the customer faces to making sure that every customer feedback is taken well, the team stays as close to the customer as possible. The brand also has a focus group whom they rely on for their input across multiple factors. Another important factor would be to take feedback on a continuous basis.
Taking the big leap
Dipti when reminiscing the brand’s journey shares, “I think the lowest point for most brands and companies including ours was when Covid hit. The market was very unpredictable. The sense of fear and uncertainty took over. Business-wise, it was a sluggish few months, and took a while to get the momentum back. The highest point in our brand’s journey was opening two stores in Mumbai- Phoenix Palladium and Infiniti Mall, Malad respectively. Mumbai has always been a dream destination for us.
Considering over 25% of our Online Customer base is in Mumbai, an offline experience store in Mumbai was the obvious choice”. On the business front, Salt wants to always focus on unit economics and the path to profitability. The team is extremely prudent with its finances. “Having said that, we do not rule out external funding whether debt or equity as funding in the future, it is something that will be needed to increase the pace of growth,” Dipti adds.
Salt understands the need for functionality without compromising on aesthetic appeal. In order to achieve the highest level of appeal, they use technology across all nodes right from design and manufacturing to fulfillment. At the manufacturing level, Salt offers bespoke clothing, tailored to customer measurements and this is possible only with the help of on-demand manufacturing.
To enable on-demand manufacturing at scale, they have built a robust tech backend that auto-populates manufacturing details based on customer measurements and preferences, without the intervention of any designer or human in between. At the design level, they have a dashboard that analyzes past data, predictions, and customer preferences to predict the hit rate of upcoming designs. In addition, by expanding its omnichannel retail model effectively, the brand has proved to be a one-stop shop that provides high-quality wardrobe solutions for all women. The omnichannel experience is largely powered by technology tools.
Brownie points
- A significant milestone for the brand was in fact 2020, when Covid hit they started experimenting with a wider range of designs, and not just making crisp formal wear.
- Salt started out by launching a Work From Home Collection and also launched products that work through the day from AM to PM, which is now core to our product catalog.
- An important milestone for the brand is when it started to experiment with its offline retail presence by opening a pilot store in a neighborhood mall in Gurgaon.
- Another major milestone was in April 2022 when they launched two stores in Mumbai, one at Phoenix Palladium and one at Infiniti Malad.
First appeared in The India D2C Yearbook 2022
