Jungle Jawani underlines the brand new Khaadi experience

Hassan Raheem’s ‘Joona’ played in the background, setting the pace for a brand new Khaadi experience, one underlined by a young and digital shopper. Khaadi is now over two decades old but with this new store at Dolmen Mall, it has reconfigured the brand and set it to sync with a younger consumer looking for an international fashion retail experience.   “The consumer has changed drastically and any brand that doesn’t think about the consumer is going to be deficient,” Shammon Sultan, the man behind Khaadi said at the media launch of the store. It opens for public today. “This is the age of social media and our consumers know what’s happening around the world. It’s all about customer experience.”   Evidently, it’s not just about the clothes anymore.  

“Jungle jawani hai ye

Kaisy kahani hai ye

Akhbaaron main ye aye chap kay…”

Wild For You was the colourful theme of the evening and as Hassan Raheem’s music belted out, it kind of set the shopping experience in motion, having you look for a shopping cart to start piling up in.   And there was lots to stock up on.

There’s a lot more colour blocking than you’ve probably ever seen in a Khaadi store before. It welcomes you with a wide range of western wear, from casual and cool track suits to tops and blousons, trousers and jumpsuits to basically everything needed to lounge with friends. The unstitched range has been reworked too; this time with more classic Khaadi, meaning tribal and ethnic prints, as opposed to generic flora and fauna. You could mix and match and when feeling creative, you could go to a newly conceptualized segment of the store that offers laces and trimmings and all sorts of finery. The store encourages you to think, innovate and create unique looks for yourself. That’s exactly what fashion does! The popular Khaadi ready to wear is spread out all over, offered with countless accessory options from chappals to scarves to jewellery, purses and pouches and what not. Created to complement both casual wear and Khaadi Khaas, the accessory range is endless and punctuated over all 32,000 square feet of the store; it seems impossible to walk out empty handed. Another flip benefit: you’ll be able to pack in a couple of thousand steps just by walking around!

Much to one’s delight, Chapter 2 has its own section, furnished with countless new designs that will most definitely get wiped out within the week. Another point of attraction is Khaadi Home and then another exciting new counter: a Wrapping Station.   With online shopping being a rising and very convenient trend, a habit that we all picked up during the two-year lockdown, it’s an experience like this that’ll motivate consumers to finally step out to shop. No one wants to waste time in small, dingy shops with unsightly displays and limited products; no one wants to walk into shops that appear to be on the verge of shutting down. The fashion experience needs to be confident and unapologetic. Online shopping offers unlimited options. What it doesn’t offer is the shopping experience and that’s exactly what Khaadi has aimed to cash in on with this store.

“Khaadi has always been a trailblazer and has led trends,” Shamoon said. “The two year lockdown gave a chance to revamp.”   The new store, now open at Dolmen Mall, gives one a full display of the new Khaadi logo, which received mixed reactions when it was released earlier this year.   “The logo was supposed to be revealed with the new store,” Shamoon explained with smile. “We had started designing this store two years ago, before Covid. We wanted to redesign the store and the logo because I felt every store had started looking like Khaadi. When Covid happened and we had to take a pause, we started reworking it. Once we finalized the new design, the team felt that the old logo wasn’t going along with the new theme. The old logo was a hand’s knuckle, suggested to be holding a handloom, and what we’ve basically done is merged the two hands into one.”