Why Westside?

Westside is a trendy departmental store founded in 1998 by Tata group Trent ltd. It offers a wide range of products from clothing, footwear, accessories to cosmetics and home decor. The chain exclusively offers fashionable apparel under its own brand along with partner brands.

Tata in the year 1998 acquired ‘Littlewoods’ – a London based retail chain from the money they got after selling 50% of Lakme’s share to Hindustan Unilever Limited. Acquisition was followed by establishment of Trent ltd. Subsequently Littlewoods was renamed as ‘Westside’.

The target audience for this store is a population that is newly – trend conscious & globalised, but whose low average income means that clothing from brands like Zara and H&M is mostly out of reach.

Sustainability goals and strategy

According to Trent’s 68th Annual Report ’20 – it believes in delivering aspirational fashion/products at great value in an ethical & responsible manner with focus on sustainability in all areas.

The company follows the Tata group climate change policy which emphasizes the need to play a leading role in making the planet a better place to live. It focuses on areas such as energy conservation, logistics efficiency and e-Waste management.

Targets are set for energy consumption at stores and offices and adherence is monitored on monthly basis. E-waste is managed through certified suppliers. Reduction in usage of plastic in product packaging also helps the company in making its operations green.

Westside’s cosmetics brand ‘StudioWest’ is a vegan brand. It is totally cruelty free.

The product range of Westside consists primarily of apparel and accessories for ladies, men and children, household, bed and table linen and gift articles. The process of manufacture of these articles adversely impacts the environment through the use of fabric, the chemicals used in the manufacturing process, the materials used in packaging etc.

The store aims to minimize the adverse impact on society to the extent possible right at the source, i.e. the manufacturers and suppliers themselves.

As part of furthering a culture for Energy and Environment Conservation by walking the talk, Westside under the aegis of Tata sustainability Group has completed a ‘Carbon Footprint- Assessment and Abatement exercise.’ The aim being, “To move towards a carbon neutral platform by measuring and conceiving possible Techno-Financial measures to reduce the Carbon Liabilities.”

Even though the store started out as a fast fashion brand, it is now taking measures to save the environment.

Handicrafts

The kurti modified the Indian ready-made garment sector. Leading this fashion revolution — from a store in south Mumbai’s Hughes Road precinct — was Tata group’s flagship retail store Westside. Its trademark kurti was sold under the same brand name, Westside. Twenty years on, Westside kurtis are still snapped up.

Westside, over the years, has garnered its own set of loyalists, who prefer the blend of cutting-edge fashion with a touch of Indianness. Having its own brands has allowed it to build from scratch — from the design, look and feel to target segment, fabric, production and placement.

“When I joined 19 years ago, there was no ethnic line, everything was clubbed under women’s wear. I started the mix-and-match section under the Westside label and, over the years, we have developed so many different brands. We have created a niçhe for ourselves, despite the competition,” says Madhulika Damani, buying head, ethnic wear, Westside, that contributes the largest share to the Westside sales and revenue.

Westside has its own brands including Bombay Paisley, Utsa and Zuba amongst others. The brand ZUBA supports local artisans who contribute to our cultural heritage. The garments made under this brand consists of handspun woven silk.

The current winter collection available in the store has garments which are made using traditional methods like Chikankari, block printing etc.

International Styles

If you didn’t know, one of the main reasons to start this brand was to make the international styles available at low prices. This is one of the Indian brands which is really good at keeping up with the trendy styles. This is one of the reasons that this store is a personal favourite to the Gen-Zs.

Talking about the current Winter’21 collection this store has it all. Sweater vest? Check. Bomber jacket? Check. Knitwear? Check. Need clothes for Christmas and New Year? Yup, that’s out there too.

I could see most of the runway trends at the store and when asked to the manager of the store she said – “Since most of our customers are trend-conscious we try to bring in the styles from runways as soon as possible. Previously it would just take 12 days for the trends to go from runways to customer’s closet. But keeping sustainability and ethical fashion in mind, we’ve reduced the speed and are bent more towards slow fashion, hence now it almost takes a fortnight to come to the store and a month to clear the stock.”

As of now I could see most of the trends but they were majorly missing out on the A/W’21 color palette. I could just see the basic autumn colors – mostly beiges and browns.

Below are a series of ‘Walkthrough photos’ of the Westside store, Hyderabad.