Beader’s Touch Is Born
It was 1991 and we were selling beaded and silk scarves as well as silk sashes to wholesalers across the USA. I had learnt to never stop dreaming because I’d experienced that dreams do come true. One of those dreams was to work with high-end talented designers across the world. Beading and embellishments got me to start working with incredible designers like Oscar De La Renta, Mary McFadden, Adrienne Vittadini, Donna Karan, Isaac Mizrahi and Ralph Lauren.
There was something to learn from all of them and I was grateful for the immense knowledge and skills being passed on to me from the best in the business.
From Mary McFadden, I learnt more about embroidery, such as making embroidered cuffs for jackets etc. I still remember my first order from Ralph Lauren – 100% silk hand-painted fabric made by Sushil Kumar of Indian Textiles, to make skirts and tops, which were manufactured in Hong Kong. I loved going to the Ralph Lauren office on Madison Avenue. All the beautiful colors and furnishings, and it didn’t hurt that the silk business with them was a money-maker. Making beaded accessories with most other designers never made much money to speak of.
Another experience that stays in my memory was the one with Limited Express. They bought 100,000 silk sashes! I still remember going to JFK Airport one early morning with our Custom Broker Arthur Robbins & Roni, to get the shipment released. Jay and I drove with the trucker to Pennsylvania to make the delivery, to ensure we meet our cancellation deadline. We learnt the hard way but we sure did learn!
One fine day, Birendra Agarwal from Creative Garments came to our New York office with some interesting beaded vests. This gave birth to my entry into the womenswear arena in New York. He wanted us to sell his beaded vests along with our beaded scarves, which we were already selling. As luck would have it, our broker, Arthur Robbins gave us the contact of Olga from Oakhill, who very kindly helped us out with a buyer’s name – Neil Konigsberg. For our first presentation, we went with 10 vests. This was in 1993, and this meeting happened in the hallway of the office! But even with all this, God was on our side and we got a test order for beaded vests of a 1000 dozen, which is common terminology in the textile industry. This was the first time I learnt that people in this industry ordered using the thousand dozen unit of order.
This marked the beginning of a ten-year run in the garment business, with many more thousand dozen orders. At Creative, we worked with merchandisers like Radhesh, Pinky, Ritu, Vinita, Surendra, Ajay, Mayur, Jugal, designer Ajay S. & Alan, fabric person Mahesh, sketch artist Kaustubh, and pattern maker Gauz Master. I have especially dear memories of Vinay, who was Birendrabhai’s personal assistant from a very young age. He would look after me with the same care as he did for Birendrabhai. During each trip to the factory, he would never forget what time I would take my tea, and always brought me coke with peanuts along with the homemade lunch I would have with Birendrabhai in his cabin.
Everyone I worked with during this period made for incredible team players and we had a marvellous time. I was now travelling to Mumbai six times a year, every six weeks with Agnes and Raymond, designers from Oakhill. Every evening after work, we’d have dinner together, becoming quite famous with the staff at China Garden. They would always have two wine bottles at the table ready for us as soon as we arrived.
Such frequent and long trips to Mumbai also taught me that staying at the Shalimar & Regency hotels was not ideal. Keeping that in mind, we decided to go down the property-buying route, and invested in our own apartment on Pedder Road. During this period of constant overseas travel, we had a very capable person, Sonal Sharda holding down the fort and Jyoti Bhatt her assistant ran the New York office very efficiently.
The flipside of being so involved in the business with Oakhill was that I was less inclined to paint. Despite my success in the world of fashion, I always thought of painting as my primary passion. Our friend, Prakash Kundalia, would always tell me to stop doing business and start painting again. It is strange, in a way, how exhilarating it is to face every challenge and make it a success. It is entirely captivating and required all my attention.
Around this time, I was also learning the nuances of the clothing business. Neil had given me a table in his office to work from for six months. On my part, I learnt to be tough, and the rest followed. I got into the embroidered dress business with Mahendra Lulla from Vishal Exports, who manufactured dresses. In Bangalore, we were developing embroidered tops and silk skirts for Bloomingdale’s and in Mumbai we developed Soft Surroundings with Navin Agarwal from Sonal Garments, We also worked with David Khym the owner of South Pole, a New Jersey based company. They came to India with us to develop a business of men’s t-shirts and shorts with Vijay Agarwal from Creative Garments, Mumbai.
A Period Of Exponential Growth
The opportunity to grow was knocking at the door, to take us to Brazil. It came in the form of our friend, Tarcisio Sousa, who lived in Itauna, Minagerais, Brazil. Through him, we met good retailers like Pernambucanas and worked with Eduardo Costa for men’s shirts and t-shirts. These were produced by Vijay Agarwal at Creative Garments. We also worked with Falabella in Chile for women’s dresses and these were produced by Shiv Agarwal, who was the youngest brother in the Agarwal family at Creative Impex, Delhi. After a very successful run of 10 years, we realized the garment business was not churning out profits the way it used to. Thus, we innovated and introduced Décor By Beader’s Touch, our home furnishing business in 2002.
Jay’s friend, Dinesh Doshi had said that one day I would make it to the top. At this point, I really did feel a strong sense of achievement, like I had reached the summit of success. I worked with a freelance designer, Raymond, who was once a designer in Oakhill (Donnkenny). We got along famously and would share our ideas with each other as he is an absolute sweetheart and very down-to-earth. He is an inherently a creative talent and we would agree on most designs together.
One of my major breakthroughs was at New York Home Textile Show, where I was awarded with the Best New Product for the Starburst Leather Pillow. This was, designed by us and produced by Vijay Kalanjee from Radia & Sons in 2003. Home furnishings had started doing really well for us and we even had a showroom for the same at 230 Fifth Avenue, New York.
We received a lot of good press and interacted with publisher, Joe Carena, and Chief Editor, Jennifer Marks, from Home Textiles Today. Magazines like LDB and HFN gave us glowing reviews and during each market, they would be the first to visit us.
Our work with BBB, TJX Group of Companies, Sears, May’s, The Great Indoors, Soft Surroundings etc. along with our own Research and development for new embroidery techniques and designs kept us perennially busy. Even today, I have great regard for our suppliers in India, whose constant support helped us achieve so much. We are thankful to Jaideep Raswant, Monica, Ashish, Abhishek from Rainbow, Sarogeeka, Creative, Neerah Jain and many more for their selfless contribution to our business. I cannot forget my ever-hospitable hosts in Delhi, Gagan and Amar Raj Singh, and their beautiful home.
Decorative pillows was an important category in the home furnishing business for me and I must mention one person who was hugely supportive and encouraging during the initial days. That is Scott Goodman, who I will always look up to with great regard and respect.
Small Steps, Big Gains
By 2005, we were marching forward, forging strong professional bonds along the way. We met the buyer for QVC through Charlie Ruch of Obac during Market Week. At the time, we had a henna collection of ethnic Indian quilts and gypsy bedding which turned out to be quite profitable for us and we received plenty of reorders from QVC UK.
Life was being kind – as we took giant strides in the home furnishings market, our close friend Gaurang Parikh, who owned hotels, encouraged us to give the hospitality business a shot. Jay, Raymond and I started mingling within the industry and met some helpful people like Rocco from Richloom Fabrics, Diane (she knew the who’s who in the industry!), Hersha and Hasubhai Shah from Hersha Hospitality, Hotel Warwick, Resorts Worldwide, Apple Core Hotels, and Tulsi Drupal from Denaham Hospitality. With Raymond as a partner, we launched the hugely successful RR Design Concepts, which maintained the strong sensibility of Flemish Textiles, designs, while also exploring new textured fabrics and weaving techniques, all the while preserving the quality and exquisite craftsmanship.
Along the way, we met an old friend of Jay’s from the apparel industry from the early 1980s – Jerry Fishman, who was now active in the home furnishing arena. We eventually entered into a joint venture partnership with the Fishmans – Jerry and his son Scotty – in 2010. In the early days, Jerry was always optimistic. He would tell me that we are definitely going to make it big. To this day, Jay maintains that he’s never met anyone in the New York apparel industry who could match Jerry’s level of integrity. We’ve been lucky to work with companies like the Marmaxx Group and Ross & Burlington. It’s a decade I can never forget. With Jerry’s encouragement and Scotty’s excellent public relations skills, we ventured into the market of getting decorative pillows out of India and dog beds out of China with Kevin and Winnie. This was all happening between 2000 to 2010.
Additionally, we also tried our luck with rugs with Vikas of Panipat, India, then moved to men’s shoes (Andrew Fezza and Mecca) with Sandy, and then partnered with Ultima who sold pots and pans to Burlington under the ‘Delmonico’ brand. In 2012, Jay’s stray meeting in Long Island with our close friend Gunvantbhai Katrani resulted in an introduction to Kanakji, a prominent businessman in the perfume industry. He had built a 25-year-old empire under the banner, which paved the way for our fragrance business with our customer base of discount retailers – TJX Group of Companies, Burlington Stores, Ross, and Costco. Recently, we’ve started dealing in spices from India with Vipulbhai, and we’re doing pretty well.
During this period, I was presented with a delightful opportunity to be a co-judge along with the elegant Poonam Dhillon for a beauty contest. This was for the Miss India New York 2015, which was organized by Neelam and Dharmatma Saran of the India Festival Committee, the largest and oldest platform for beauty pageants held outside India.
A Feeling Of Gratitude
The journey of life is constant, and I am blessed to be able to look back on some very fond memories with immense gratitude. I feel proud that people I have been associated with, both personally and professionally, acknowledge the fact that I have contributed to their growth and helped to bring about positive changes in challenging times. The love and respect that has been bestowed upon me is the wealth that I have accumulated over the years. With time you realize that life is not about the money you make in a lifetime, or the brand of car you drive. On the contrary, it is about the difference you’ve made to a person’s life, with God working through you.