“Fashion Can’t Be Learnt But Is Inbuilt” Believes Ishita Sanghal Gupta, Founder Of Zurova
I have always believed that fashion cannot be learnt but is inbuilt, no matter who you are or where you come from; if you have it in you then it’s bound to reflect. I was born and brought up in Dehradun, which is where I did my schooling as well. Even as a schoolgirl, I was always driven when it came to achieving my goals and ideals. From the last years of my schooling through college, I developed an interest in fashion that I knew I would explore at one point in my life or another. However for me, that dream took a detour from that point in time till the year 2015, when I officially founded the website Zurova.
I graduated from SRCC and completed my masters in marketing and finance student. Thereafter I joined Airtel as a content specialist post which I joined my family business. Heading marketing and business strategy in the hospitality business, made it possible for me to inculcate a keen business sense and the determination to persevere in whatever I chose to do. Even while diving into my work wholeheartedly I knew that through these life experiences I would eventually reach exactly what I wanted to be doing.
In 2015, I finally was able to prioritize my dream of opening my own fashion retail website over the various responsibilities that I had committed to. The idea stemmed from a need of something that I myself faced while living in Dehradun. As a fashion enthusiast I could empathize with my fellow fashion lovers living in cities that did not offer the standards of high fashion in terms of design and quality, I knew that the gap existed and I knew how I wanted to go forward with utilizing it. My goal was for Zurova to offer a platform for contemporary fashion labels and boutique brands to showcase their collections to a countrywide audience that will appreciate their unique design aesthetics and quality, and I have progressed to that point successfully.
Post its inception, while the website was on a beta version I had to put the project on hold due to my marriage. Thereafter I revived Zurova in December 2016 with a renewed outlook. We faced various challenges while getting the website up and running and one of the major challenges was building a rapport with designers to get on board with a start up amongst a dozen startups that have cropped up in the recent years. It was also a task to assemble the right team overlooking Zurova that would work on the same wavelength as me on achieving the determined goals. Being aware of stiff competition that surrounds the fashion retail industry, it was essential to keep consistency in achieving what we wanted without losing focus of our goals.
Although currently we are working with contemporary labels curated from length and breadth of India, we would be expanding to include contemporary designers and boutique brands from across the world that can be accessed by and delivered to an audience that will stretch worldwide as well.
Being a startup, you are always surrounded with a plethora of issues, and it becomes important to actively seek inspiration to stay motivated. What inspires me the most are the driven contributors and achievers that have risen to take up industries by storm solely by their hard work and struggles. They motivate me to preserve, keep consistent and determinant towards my aim. My advice to people wanting to explore this industry would be to do their groundwork right and study every aspect in detail before you dive in.
Check out Zurova to browse through latest trends and style in the world of fashion.
