Custo Barcelona, the international design brand, endorsed by Hollywood icons like Julia Roberts, Penelope Cruz and Jennifer Aniston, has logged in its first appearance with stylish, resplendent outfits in selected malls and designer stores in Delhi and Mumbai. The brand, associated with Spanish aesthetic sensibilities and a kaleidoscope of colours, was recently launched at Radisson Blu in Noida.
That the brand is much in demand by fashionistas can be gauged by the fact that it is available in over 40 nations in North America, Latin America and Asia. With Delhi and Mumbai offering a strong consumer-base for high-end garments, the brand has entered India through these markets. Earlier, Spanish entrepreneur Custo Dalmau, whose brainchild the brand is, used to buy handcrafted products from Indian artisans for partial use in his collections but now he wishes to alter his plans as he wants to sell his garments, primarily to women. “Our priority is to enter the Indian market, which is strong. We feel there exists a market for fashionable garments where there is an interplay of colour and graphics. This is the DNA of our design and it matches with Indian sensibilities,” says Custo.
Describing Custo Barcelona, whose presence is visible in swanky malls and showrooms across Europe and North America, as a Spanish brand, Custo says that most people including Indians associate Barcelona only with soccer players, but this Spanish city is also a big market for fashion goods.
“India has a huge population and we are glad that Indians by and large are fashion-conscious people who dress up in their best attire. Over the years, we have noticed that Indian expatriates in good numbers buy women’s as well as men’s outfits from our stores in Europe and North America. So we are in talks right now and will be opening up stores in Delhi and Mumbai.”
The brand’s unique selling point is using colours in an imaginative way. “This is our strong point and the colours are used in a way that the dresses look every bit avant-garde. Our dresses are machine-made as well as handcrafted. Our brand is 34 years old and we are known for producing high-end garments. Earlier, we were buyers in India, but now we want to be sellers. The practice of buying handcrafted outfits from India was discontinued because we thought that in today’s time technology has to be relied upon.”
But this doesn’t mean that Indian handicrafts are not sought after. “In my country people have a good opinion about the Indian weaving community. The Spanish understand what creativity is all about.”
The brand was conceived three decades ago in the city of Barcelona by Custo and his brother David. “I and David founded the brand as both of us were obsessed with graphic design and wanted to take it a step forward by applying it into clothing. So we developed the whole collection with a lot of hard work and perseverance.”
An international presence has its own set of challenges.
“It is a complex and difficult exercise. Managing the global market is a daunting task. You have to identify and appoint strategists who have an inherent understanding of the market and know how to forge a bond with people living in different nations. These countries have their own culture, way of working and inimitable art and designs.”
