Rameez Makhdoomi
Sumedha Ramanan, is an absolute trailblazer; an emerging name getting harder to ignore, in the Indian Fashion Industry. She is an upcoming entrepreneur and fashion designer who is making waves in the fashion e-commerce business. For the first time in India, she brings the Haute-couture experience for men and women to the online world in the quickest delivery time of 4 days.
She has multiple roles to her credit. Currently working as the Founder & Executive Director at Streetap, Bangalore, she has an avid background in e-commerce companies in India and overseas. With most of the fashion e-commerce sector having seen domination of Male IITians in the past decade, Sumedha shows up as a refreshing contestant with a background in fashion. She is an alumnus of the prestigious university, The National Institute Of Fashion Technology, Chennai which ranks 9 in the world as of today. We at Only Kashmir were curious to find out how her unique background is helping her in making a mark in the said industry.
On being asked about the impact of the Pandemic on the fashion sector, she shed light on the fact that both, the online and offline industry suffered; the former suffered due to lockdowns and slacking footfalls, whilst the online sales plummeted as people grew expeditiously fearful of receiving packages.
Furthermore, Sumedha also stressed that while the online sector gained momentum in the second half of the pandemic, only 3% of fashion sales in India happen online and it is important to improve the online representation of Indian retail brands.
Interestingly, despite being a young woman she has an extraordinary knack for menswear design. To which she elucidates, “Personally, I found my enthusiasm for menswear design because it is very minimalistic and creatively challenging in nature. Unlike womenswear, which is very varied, designing menswear is all about changes we can make in the tiniest details. For example, I cannot change the way a shirt looks, but I can certainly give you a contrasting placket or accent button” She also told us that she is currently teaching Italian Couture to the unorganised sector and bringing the Bespoke Suiting experience to her users at the comfort of their homes. ” I love designing for men because they usually come to us at the last minute with aggressive deadlines” she chuckles, “as a strategy person I enjoy being on my toes and enabling quicker deliveries. At Streetap, we’re currently delivering customized tailored suits in four days.”
She observes while reflecting on her goals that the unorganized sector finds itself underrepresented in the online world and considers it to be her primary mission to bring them to the forefront of the e-commerce industry and increase their sales without charging them commissions.
Startups are known to be a major cause of stress and financial drain for young entrepreneurs and so when we asked her, what keeps her motivated, she recollected, “While I have just started, I’m happy to note that a vendor of mine who was previously dependent on footfalls has now completely moved to the Streetap model and was also been able to take a vacation with his family after a long time, due to better margins and sales. Even though startups can be challenging, these little wins keep me going.”
Undoubtedly, Sumedha Ramanan looks like a promising entrepreneur in the world of fashion Designing and e-commerce in India.
