Every person has a creative side irrespective of the fact that he/she gets a chance to express it. And even more is that yearning that his/her creativity gets recognised at any point even in a slightest manner. Nowadays, when looking presentable 24x7 has become an inevitable part of one’s personality, people have started becoming more and more conscious about what they are wearing.
Therefore, the thought of being a bit unique has ultimately persuaded many to design their fashion. This is also a realisation for many that they are good costume designers. However, taking it up as a career would not be in their agenda. Many might also be unaware of the technicalities required to be an entrepreneur.
But a group of techie friends started Hashboosh, their entrepreneurial venture with a never-before-heard concept of crowd-designed fashion store.
Ravi Sankar R, Javed Anaz, Dhibin Jacob and Sethunath created the store while working on an entrepreneurship project as part of an executive MBA programme. But the unexpected A+ credit for their project persuaded them to go ahead with it. “Therefore the rest is all that we have achieved today,” says Dhibin, who takes care of marketing. Afreen and Vaishak, who deal with designing and production respectively, later joined their team.
The concept involved in Hashboosh is to encourage everyone who can design apparels. The website hosts various competitions inviting designs for kurtis, tops, tunics etc and those who are interested can take part in it. The winner for a particular competition is based on the most number of clicks a design gets.
The winning design is then manufactured by Hashboosh and kept on sale in their online store and also at textile shops like Pulimootil, Narmada etc. Once an item is sold a part of the profit is credited to the designer’s account. The apparels also contain a tag with the designer's name, which indeed is the biggest appreciation a person’s creativity can get.
“We created such a concept because we were very particular about the quality of the products available with us. We could also start a typical online store and gained profits. However, we stuck to being unique and provide high quality products even though the production is low. Involving common people and not including only designer items has given us more acceptance among public because people can easily relate to the designs available,” adds Dhibin, who says that their community of designers have kept on growing since the inception of Hashboosh. They now have more than 100 designers ranging from people pursuing a different career but are inclined towards designing, youngsters, housewives and so on.
The team also approaches various fashion designing colleges in order to pool in designs from the youngsters. The team is all set to expand the venture, First to South India and then in the entire country.
