Women, when getting ready for office, often complain that deciding our attire for the day takes most of the time. Conforming to the “list of clothes to wear” at work, can be constricting to one's personal style. Ayushi Gudwani, founder of FableStreet, an apparel brand which offers tailor fitted versatile, timeless and quality work-wear talks about her jouney and perspective on understanding the need to dress women professionals in the most stylish and comfortable attires.
How would you describe Fable Street?
FableStreet is a Premium work-wear brand, catering to apparel needs of professional women. We understand women, what they need and what they value. Our clothes are thoughtfully crafted with timeless styles, functional details and fabrics- which not only make you look beautiful but feel comfortable all day long.
How was the idea of building Fable Street incepted?
Like most entrepreneurs, most ideas begin with your own pain points. Being a consultant with McKinsey, I never found good office clothes which fit me well and looked good on me. Everytime, I travelled outside India, I would buy lots of clothes as the quality and styles were great - I would get them altered to my size back in India. All my peers did the same, so the idea of building FableStreet was born! The launch for FS became viral as so many women related to it! Ever since we started FableStreet, women have written to me personally - how this was much needed concept, no one does fits and quality like we do, even if people are ready to pay.
What it takes to run something as comprehensive as FableStreet?
Running your startup is a 24-hour job. You have to get into detail of everything and not be shy to do anything - be it cleaning the office or attaching a button on FS shirt or meeting investors! Some of my learnings as we built FableStreet are:-
Building a startup which is focused on customer service and experience and product as core and quality and scale as enablers is not an easy task.
Making garments seemed very easy initially - but once you try to solve for fitting and quality, it needs significant R&D and analytics to differentiate your product, which in turn needs a complex manufacturing process as well.
Team is critical - I love our team- the team needs to have the capability and commitment to build something new and different. Everyone needs to share the same vision and focus to get this done.
Execution is crucial- Dreaming about a startup and actually doing it is different. Executing each and every small task is not trivial. Needs focus, dedication and strong program management
What is your morning routine like?
I grab tea with my husband early am around 6:30 - chit chat a bit about work, non work and fun stuff! Around 8 am, I spend 30 minutes in the morning to plan and get my day in order. Work for about 60 minutes before I leave home for office. And I have been hoping to get into schedule of going to gym, but alas - I am lazy :(
What advice would you give someone who wants to grow in fashion e-commerce?
It’s the much repetitive advice but so true as I do this myself now - Build execution capability, get into details (not high level) and build a great team. This is crucial for any start up. Beyond this, networks in fashion space helps.
Any fun anecdotes you would like to share with our users?
Building FS has been a fun journey. We are a team of women, primarily - so we get to do work and gossip a lot! I am the oldest and most outdated of the bunch here, so my team teaches me snapchat, insta, filters and what not - I never knew what snapchat was until the 24 year old kid (yes, I call her kid!) but super sharp designer in my team taught me the same.