Fashion

HOWRAH BRIDGE – By Anupriya

4 years ago
Read Time: 4 minutes
by admin
2 comments

E V E N T’s
In Kolkata, I only only only go to events just to meet a bunch of beautiful people in my life. Anupriya is one of them. We instantly connected when we met the first time as if we knew each other from ages past. Yeah, via Instagram we did. Oh, such a lovely soul more than that she is one creative person. From doodling to travelling to designing to managing her home, her business she does it all. She is based in Bangalore but she does visit Kolkata often just like I do. After all, It’s a safe place, it’s home, it’s Kolkata, the city of joy. @howrahbridgebyadg by @styleprism – oh, thinking of sexy blouse? Thinking of everyday casual easy breezy dress? Awesome shrugs? This is your destination.

1. Tells me something about you guys. Your life, career, family etc before you started your own brand.

After graduating from NIFT as a Fashion Design graduate, I worked with some of the biggest names in the Indian retail industry. I was working with Shoppers Stop Ltd. for a few years when the urge to start something of my own started tugging at my heartstrings. After years of procrastination, I realised that time was running out and it was high time I started my own thing if I wanted to establish myself in the industry down the line. I contemplated for a couple of years, before deciding to take the plunge one fine day.

2. How did you start this as a business?

As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. During a wild brooch-wearing phase of mine a few years back, I realised the dearth of good brooches in the local as well as online market. I got myself a couple from international portals like Etsy, but I was so not ready to pay more for shipping than for the actual product! That’s when I decided to make my own brooches out of fabrics & trims and slowly the results of my efforts turned into my first ever Howrah Bridge products!!! Over the years, the business grew into a fashion house that makes clothes, accessories, stationery & even home decor pieces! Today, Howrah Bridge is a brand that so many women from different places all over the world coming from different backgrounds & leading different lifestyles all like & want to wear.

3. What are your next plans?

Since social media is THE place for businesses to grow, right now; I’m aiming at making my social media game stronger and making sure my brand creates its presence felt on these platforms. I’m also planning to start working on finally creating a website for HOWRAH BRIDGE.

4. What lead you into this business? What brought forward this concept?

HOWRAH BRIDGE was born out of love for design and dearth of good products in the market. Eight years down the line, the market may have got its share of good products from many more avenues, but the passion for a design still persists. Today, I give you a brand which embraces contemporary quirk as gladly as it upholds tradition, ethnicity & the art of handmade! The sensibility of my brand is not limited to a particular style or craft, in fact, I want HOWRAH BRIDGE to flourish in the unadulterated glory of eccentricity & versatility.

5. What is your speciality?
My design philosophy has its roots in tradition but embraces modern ideas with open arms. Hence, Howrah Bridge is a brand that makes fun, contemporary products while staying close to its roots. We mostly work with natural fabrics and take inspiration from mundane elements to design pieces that culminate in an aesthetic amalgamation of the traditional & the modern, the old & the new, the crude beauty of handmade & the cutting-edge quality of technology.

6. Mention some interesting facts (Do you make things on request?)
We make loads of custom orders – for women of various body shapes & sizes, for women who want unique pieces customized just for them, for women who want to have their own li’l two cents of specifications in a product, and even for women who have their own style statements!
We try to do out little bit to help the environment and be a part of the sustainable fashion industry – scraps from our clothing collections are used to create fun accessories for our Zero Waste Project line, we pay fair wages and provide proper working environments for all our staff, and we enjoy using handcrafted weaves, embroidery by local artisans that help us celebrate our country’s tradition in a contemporary way!

7. Future plans.
I want HOWRAH BRIDGE to reach the inner sanctums of small towns.
I want HOWRAH BRIDGE to scale the highest skyscrapers of world capitals.
One baby step at a time.

8. The different price range and Products availability?
I’ve always tried to keep my brand at an affordable price range so that sustainable designer pieces can be made available to more women out there, even ones who cannot afford the expensive sustainable labels all around. So we have a whole wide range of products at very competitive prices. Accessories & stationery are available in a range of 100/- to 500/-, while clothes start from 1000/- & go up to 5000/-
We are forever striving to create newer products, and we make loads of exciting stuff – from hair scrunchies & bow-ties to tops, dresses, pants, jackets, sarees & blouses!