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Fashion Talk

Niti Singhal

Fashion Designer & Owner
Twee In One

Our reversible clothing target every fashion-conscious female

Best known for convertible clothing, Indian brand Twee In One by designer Niti Singhal recently showcased and launched its sustainable collection at the New York Fashion Week (NYFW) 2019. With its reversible clothing, the brand aims to promote the concept of getting more out of less in fashion. Singhal chats about what led her into designing reversible clothes and her experience at NYFW.

Fibre2Fashion: Why did you decide to take part in NYFW? Is there a growing interest from customers in the West?

Niti Singhal:

I have explored the Indian and the UK market as I have been showcasing and selling my collections in these regions. But when I visited New York last winter for an event, Twee received a tremendous response. That is when I decided to take another step ahead and showcase my collection at NYFW.

 

F2F: What excites your clientele abroad the most about your clothing?

NS:

People are always busy in the hustle and bustle of their daily routine. They want to look perfect for every occasion throughout the day but cannot go home or carry a change to office every day. Plus, space being another constraint, they totally relate to Twee as a solution to all their problems.

F2F: Tell us a bit about your latest collection.

NS:

Power comes with great responsibility, but we humans often forget it, which is affecting the planet. The nature offered us a colourful and pleasant environment, but with time, we adulterated it and made it dark and gloomy. 

Today, we have technologies that produce astounding quantity of ready-to-wear clothing, which appeal a lot to fast-fashion brands which brings down the re-usability of garments and increases the number of clothes being disposed. Hence, fashion has become the second largest pollutant on the planet.

We are not against fashion or technology. We are just asking to be mindful of the usage. Twee In One believes in 'less is more'. Our collection is called 'there is no planet B'. It is all about transformations that we are facing in the real world, from vibrant colours to darkness, from beautiful flowers to dry branches, from positive to negative.

F2F: How different are fashion weeks abroad from the ones in India?

NS:

Having the experience to participate in fashion weeks in India, London and now New York, I feel every country has its own ways of doing these events. They all follow different aesthetics and rulebooks. But I still love to explore more, as each fashion week teaches me a lot about how different cultures play a different role in the mainstream.

F2F: Tell us about the fabrics and trims used in these collections.

NS:

I am very fussy about the quality of fabrics and trims that I use. For this collection, the fabrics are crepes, satins and wrinkled polyesters. 

I had designed all the prints and embroidery for this collection. The printing was done by the Colorjet Group. We used the techniques of sublimation and disperse, which was again a sustainable way of doing it, as we used 40 per cent less water than usual printing requires. The turnaround time was very quick and the sharpness in the prints and colours was outstanding. 

F2F: How did the idea of creating reversible and convertible clothing pop up in your mind?

NS:

When I was working in Italy as an embroidery designer, my company had provided me with a small room, which was barely enough for me, leave alone my clothes. In a foreign land, I would make use of every weekend to travel around. And each time, I packed my bag, I wondered that life would be perfect if I could carry and store less yet have more. The only way this was possible was to optimise the space that one garment took. That was when I developed the concept of reversible and convertible clothing.

I observed most females face in one of these situations quite often: I have nothing to wear, why do I always carry excess luggage, I don't have space, or I hate carrying a change! Considering all these, I developed the concept of reversible and convertible clothing under my flagship brand Twee In One. What makes our concept unique is that these clothes not just have different colours or prints on the two sides, but have a completely different look and feel. One can wear the same garment for an entire day and go from a causal look to a formal one by simply flipping sides.

F2F: How popular is reversible clothing in India? Are people lapping up the idea? What do your sales say?

NS:

Reversible clothing is getting popular in India and people are accepting it very quickly. With the distances making it difficult to travel back and forth and the hectic routine that everyone is dealing with, people are more than happy to see that clothes can be a problem solver.

F2F: Do you have your own weaving workshop or do you outsource the fabric work?

NS:

I don't own a weaving workshop, so the main fabrics are all outsourced. But when it comes to embroideries and stitching, that is all done in my own manufacturing unit.

F2F: How is the market for garments made for sustainable clothing in India and abroad?

NS:

The awareness towards sustainability is immensely growing these days, whether it is in India or abroad. It makes me feel very happy that Twee is also contributing a little towards sustainability in its own way, where we are reminding people that less is more.

F2F: What is the cost of participating in a prestigious fashion week outside the country? Did you get any sponsors?

NS:

I did not get any sponsors for my show. It was completely self -funded. The costs always vary for different shows and countries.

F2F: What do aspiring designers need to do to be able to make it this far?

NS:

Believe in yourself. There are no rules in fashion, and if you believe in your work, nothing can stop one from flying high.

F2F: Who is your target audience?

NS:

Our customer is every female who is mindful about fashion, who loves to dress up well, who loves to travel and who is very outgoing. To our surprise, our youngest one is a 6-year-old, who wanted to do the magic! And our oldest is a 62-year-old, who wanted to travel the world in style, but with less luggage.

F2F: Premium, luxury or mass, which of the markets is your clothes targeted at?

NS:

My clothes are targeted at somewhere between mass and premium, as it for all those women  who love to travel, are very outspoken, and have an individuality.

F2F: What is next at Twee In One?

NS:

We are still celebrating the success of NYFW, but we promise to bring in more styles to the NYFW collection, so stay tuned.

F2F: Among fellow designers, whose work do you admire. Which of them are competing with you in your genre?

NS:

Fashion industry is no more a rat race. We are all doing a great job in our own ways and following our dreams and goals. It is all about teamwork and growing together. (HO)

Published on: 03/10/2019
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