Young Trendz

The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) is a hub of creative individuals, and continues to hone hopeful wide-eyed students into street-smart, confident designers making them ready to take on the real world. For Praween and Sindhuja, NIFT had more than just a rewarding experience in their four years of pursuing Knitwear Design; together, they created a fashion brand exclusive to the young millennials of the South Indian region. It was only apt to deem their venture, “Young Trendz”. “Why the ‘z’?”, I asked to which the couple replied, “When we thought of young people, we thought cell-phone jargon and purposefully misspelt words - I guess it just makes us cooler and ‘hip’”. And in a way, I believed it did.

“Young Trendz” was launched in November 2014, by Praween KR and Sindhuja Kandalam - two alumni students from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Chennai. Beginning from designing custom t-shirts for friends and family, “Young Trendz'' has grown to be identified as a happening apparel brand specializing in womenswear and customized clothing.

Founders of Young Trendz, Praween KR (left) and Sindhuja Kandalam (right)

How did you both decide upon starting this eponymous brand in 2014?

We were classmates & best friends during college. We had a great amount of mutual understanding & unbreakable trust. We officially launched our brand in November 2014, but we were already working on the idea since September! We decided to give it a go because we were still in our graduating year & could afford to take that risk without the fear of failure because there was nothing to lose at that time.

To add to it all, we shared a common thought of doing something on our own which raised the sparks for the start up in our graduating year. Hence we had an initial brain storming of all the possibilities & started up. As an individual, we have different strengths & skills which when put together helped us in establishing & managing our start up quite efficiently.

According to your profile, Praween and you seem to have graduated in 2015. How did you manage to balance this start up with school work?

We started with a small warehouse at the place where we used to live during college. It was hard because our rooms were always cluttered with designs and trial products. We used to take off time from college assignments & projects to invest time in our start up. By the end our graduation, our products categories expanded.

Our Institute offered a lot of support upon knowing about our start-up; they valued the time we were sharing to our personal venture and schoolwork. Our success would be incomplete if we didn’t mention how much NIFT helped us get where we are today.

Your brand has developed pretty fast. How has your journey been so far? What challenges did you face during the process?

It’s only been about a year and a half from the time we started, but it seems like we have surpassed leaps & miles of obstacles. We worked on real-time production, clashed with printers, and on many occasions, bit more than we could chew. We are only beginning to understand how big this journey is. Thankfully, we were getting good responses from our customers. We had initially started customized apparel merchandise services along with our online store and in less than a year, we were selling all our products on all major online market places in India and had supplied customized apparel for major organizations & events in our country. Soon we are going offline & launching our products in retails stores across major cities in South India & there is no looking back for us now!

On your website, your brand’s mission states “To effortlessly combine design and comfort for everyone”. What does the word “Design” mean to you and your brand, in that context?

Praween - A passionate designer is one with a creative mind and a distinguished ideology. Design, to me, is being able to utilize my imagination to convert my ideas into a concrete form as a new and purposeful addition to the real world.

Sindhuja - Design is hard work. To me, it’s all about knowledge, innovation, skill & hard work; the four key words I believe form the key words for success. My view of education & my work is a sacred job of art and passion. To research, explore, create, experiment & develop something new using innovative techniques & software is my primary motive - that is design.

What identifies “Young Trendz” as a fashion label?

To put in simple terms, we are the brand who sells international fashion at Indian prices. Our aim is to provide high end fashion products that are inspired by international catwalks & fast moving apparel brands. That’s what we want people to identify our brand with – a brand that designs exclusive fashion-forward products with best of quality at the best prices.

Who or what are your inspirations behind the collections you create?

We get inspired by the fast moving fashion brands, runway shows and from key fashion trends around the world. We analyze global high street wear, international catwalks & observe the past fashion trends that have found favor in India and abroad. We also study fashion forecast before narrowing down to the themes for our collection.

You cater to consumers online, mostly. What do you attempt to convey to your clientele through a virtual platform?

We believe in the products that we sell, it’s beyond fashion for us. It’s more of an experience, more of a lifestyle. That’s how we want our customers to connect with our products. They want the right fashion at the right price & we are here to satisfy them. If you notice, we limit our price range from Rs500 to Rs2000, which is an affordable rate.

From design to crafting to pricing, customer satisfaction is the primary goal. We want our customers to receive the best value for the money they paid for in terms quality, design & finish. We want them to feel that they got their money’s worth, if not more.

Are there any specific styles you follow in your brand? In terms of prints or silhouettes?

Currently, we generate winter wear styles which include floral printed bomber jackets, quirky printed sweat shirts & all over printed ‘treggings’. We like to combine winter and spring designs, making it accessible at any point in the year.

Our designs were fresh in the market & the styling we provided in our products was not available to the customer especially at the price we were selling. We managed to be the first to offer something new. Also, the categories we chose to sell weren't even available in the market, with the kind of prints that we offered. Soon, we plan to launch an Indo-fusion collection for this summer, in which we will definitely include traditional elements with a modern touch to them.

Could you briefly describe your design/product development technique? Are you known to use only specific fabrics?

It’s always trial and error for us. We love playing around with different printing techniques and styling details for our various creations. We use a lot of knitted fabrics such as brushed fleece & loop backs for outer-wear and viscose lycra jersey for our ‘treggings’. The fabrics we choose usually depend on the product category and its requirement. Though our favorite fabrics differ from category to category, we mainly use knits.

Your past collections are very intriguing. Though, if there was anything you could change what would it be?

Perhaps we could have included value addition in our previous womenswear collection to make it more suitable for the Indian market. As of now, we analyzed the trend for this season and we saw a growing demand for printed bomber jackets, trench coats and jacquard sweaters. We might add in some value addition to fix our previous mistake.

What can be expected of “Young Trendz” in the years to come?

Our brand is emerging as one of the best selling brands online &is selling across many retailers and boutiques in India, making it available to a larger target audience easily. We want people to identify our brand as a unique fashion brand which provides high end fashion at Indian prices. We want ourselves & our brand to be an integral part of the Indian fashion industry. Apart from online & offline, expanding our product categories, entering Lakme fashion week are a couple of goals we have for our near future.

Website - http://youngtrendz.in

https://www.facebook.com/youngtrendz.in/