We are publishing an interview of Ms. Sahiba Joher, Founder, Crosstitch.
About the founders
Sahiba Joher, the founder of delhi based women’s apparels label Crosstitch is a masters of commerce from delhi university. After graduating from college she worked at Ernst & Young as an assurance associate wherein she realised the lack of formal wear in the market. From her early years at college she realised a strong passion towards fashion and when she saw an opportunity to explore this passion she couldn’t turn it down. Soon she quit her well paying corporate job and decided to follow her dreams of being in the fashion business. Besides, this she is also a singer with a Visharath in hindustani classical music.
What is the problem you are trying to solve? Can you share with us any insights that led you to believe that this is a big enough problem?
The problem we are trying to solve is affordable high quality women’s apparels. Its often rare to find clothing which is “value for money”. The bigger brands with established names provide clothes which are overpriced and clothes which are cheaper are not standing upto the basic quality standards. Being an avid shopper myself, I often found it difficult to get affordable quality clothing. Besides that work in a corporate firm made me realise how staple work wear attire is, basic colors and basic cuts which motivated me to make a formal clothing collection which included colors and cuts which were different from the usual formals available. The choices available for good quality affordable AM to PM clothing are very less and with crosstitch we wish to create a fashion forward label under which the articles bought don’t not create a hole in your pocket.
What is the uniqueness about your Startup?
Our Brand vision is to have a label dedicated to Formal Wear. There are tons of Formal Wear brands in the world but what sets us apart from the rest is our mission to cut through the monotony of basic workwear. With high levels of inflation and large number of middlemen affordable luxury has become a forgotten term but we at Crosstitch swear by providing the best quality products at affordable prices. We firmly believe that the productivity of a person at the workplace is influenced largely by how they look and feel and through our Contemporary Clothing we wish to spread confidence and happiness.
What is the revenue model? Explain your thought process.
Currently we are selling through various leading e-commerce portals like Flipkart,Snapdeal,Jabong,Tata Cliq etc. Besides that we are also selling directly to consumers using our own website www.crosstitch.in hence eliminating the unnecessary cost burden of middleman on the consumer. With Crosstitch, we wish to follow brick and click business model hence we are tying up with leading retail stores so as to have more reach.
Who are the consumers that you are targeting? How is this going to affect them?
We are targeting the metropolitan working women who find it difficult to procure good quality clothing at affordable prices. We wish to provide women with formal wear that is colorful and bold and breaks through the monotony of basic workwear. With Crosstitch,we wish to break the myth surrounding the fact that high quality products can’t be pocket friendly.
What is the big picture of your startup? Will it lead to something bigger? If so, how?
In the coming year we are targeting to tie up retail chains for reaching out to women in more cities. We want to focus on customer acquisition is tier 2 and tier 3 cities and hence want to tie-up with retailers and distributors in those cities. We are looking to collaborate with more online retailers and carry out extensive marketing activities to convert the traffic onto our website into actual sales.
What is the success story of your startup in your own words?
Please write about the challenges that you or your startup faced and how you overcome them to achieve success. Make sure it should inspire others.
The success story of Crosstitch is seeing an idea that came up while sitting at an office desk turn into a reality. In just a year of operations we have seen a great response from our online retailers. We measure the success of Crosstitch by seeing how far we have come, even though there is a long way to go seeing all the things we have accomplished in just a year of operations is very encourage and helps to keep us motivated.
