Can the MBAs behind Numari fix fashion’s fit issues?
umari is a new fashion startup, and perhaps it is because its founders are coming into the industry not as insiders but as outsiders that they seized upon an obvious problem for anyone who has felt deflated inside the dressing room: fit.
“We did some market research and realized how many women really long for great-fitting apparel and yet everyone has a fit issue,” co-founder Komal Kushal Raj told me. “For me, it is that I’m short and petite.”
But she’s heard the same gripes about fit from women who are tall and thin, or who have curvier body types. That’s when she and co-founder Arti Anand realized that with the rise of women’s e-commerce sites like Gilt Groupeand Rent the Runway, there was a need for a counterpart to men’s custom clothing sites like J. Hilburn and Indochino, one that offered affordable options.
So they decided to build one. The result,Numari, is a custom-fit dress concept for women, that is based in Washington,D.C., and gained early press attention in the Washington Post, even before the site launched out of beta last month.
Now, as they roll out nationally, Raj, 33, and Anand, 30, join a fashion tech startup community populated by founders who, like them, found that fashion credentials are not required. The two women, both MBA graduates, were working at consultancies when they met socially about five years ago and realized they had similar backgrounds, and entrepreneurial ambitions. Neither had worked in fashion professionally, but they noticed that many e-commerce startups were launched not by fashion types but by smart MBA grads with savvy marketing skills and user-friendly technology platforms, Raj said.
Numari lets users choose from a selection of dresses, customizing each selection with a desired hemline and sleeve length. It then asks users to submit a measurement profile, walking them through a 15-minute process in detail before they can place their order. The dress is handcrafted for the customer and ships within three weeks. Retail prices range from $160 to $285, with free shipping and free returns.
As Tech Crunch points out, there are already several notable startups offering custom clothing for women, including Bow & Drape, and eShakti, but Raj says they differentiate themselves by focusing on work apparel.
The two women bootstrapped the company, investing about $75,000 of their own money and spent about two years doing market research and weighing their manufacturing options. Although they initially wanted to have the clothes made domestically, they settled on a factory in Asia that had the capabilities and resources they needed. Raj, citing competitive reasons, would not disclose where exactly in Asia the factory is located.
“We had to figure out the right price for our consumers, the right type of (merchandise), and make sure that we would also enjoy the right margins as a business,” Raj said.
Their company’s preview collection, launched while it was still in beta was designed by Los Angeles-based Bert Keeter, a Project Runway alum from Season 9 and included just four pieces. Two of them are still being sold: the Diagonal Block Sheath and the Drop Waist Shift but the rest are made by unidentified “ghost designers,” says Raj.
The site, which launched out of beta last month, targets consumers who are professional women in their mid 20s to late 40s seeking work staples that they can wear over and over.
How they find the women? Like other e-commerce brands, they’re doing some face-to-face marketing, including home parties, pop-up shops and trunk shows that allow potential customers to check out the fabrics and dress samples.
Numari has partnered with complementary businesses, such as jewelry or shoe stores, and with men’s custom clothiers to introduce their own brand for women. In the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area only, they also offer the opportunity to have a stylist meet them at their office or home to walk them through the process and help take their measurements. They may roll that [service] outside of D.C. as the site grows, Raj said.www.queenieaustralia.com/unique-formal-dresses | www.queenieaustralia.com/black-formal-dresses
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