For the last six decades, Fabindia has been the leading voice for the use of indigenous crafts and traditional techniques juxtaposed with new design and consumer trends to stay relevant. Fabindia has launched a millennial mindset driven brand called FabNU—a collection of sustainable, playful, affordable western-wear intended for the younger mindset. The first launch comprises of four flows namely Indie Dreams, Flashback, Conversation Starter and Folkadelic.
Ahead of the launch, ELLE sat down with Dipali Patwa, Group Head of Brand, Community & Digital, CMO at Fabindia, to get a deeper insight into what led to the creation of FabNU.
ELLE: What’s the inspiration behind FabNU?
Dipali Patwa (DP): Stemming from the ever-evolving universe of Fabindia, FabNU promises a NU [new] approach, avatar, and brand for U [you]. The sub-brand is a salute to our ever-growing younger demographic where age is just a mindset. FabNU is a fun, colourful, comfortable, stylish approach for the everyday fabindian. The apparel line is just a starting point.
ELLE: Take us through your mood board, sketches and design process.
DP: The beauty of slow fashion combined with the dynamism of limited edition merchandising; this first launch of Women’s Western wear has four FLOWS (Collections) with engaging offerings for the younger audience—both of age as well as in spirit. Our design team greatly respects the brand’s traditions and craft-led vision, artisan-led techniques and sourcing. While we look at the overall trends, the backbone of our design process is always led by the pillars of our brand—craft, artisans and community. This, combined with a lot of feedback from our social media and digital community platforms, has really helped us in understanding the desires and needs of our millennials and GenZ audiences.
This proposition of actually collaborating with our community on social and digital media, addressing their belief systems and behaviour really led us to create FabNU.
ELLE: Can you elaborate on the silhouettes, prints, and fabrics used for the collection?
DP: Millennials and GenZ like to create their own looks and styling, and their behaviour is very fresh and distinct. The unconventional shopping habits of this audience also led our teams to think outside the box and create fun conversational prints along with added accents and details on the cuts and fits. Their willingness to experiment with colour and champion styles has started many conversations around sustainability, craft, community, and they are not afraid to speak their mind. This insight led our design team to dive into their mindset and create their collections that are undoubtedly for this generation.
ELLE: What is one unique feature of each collection from FabNU?
DP: There are so many fun, unique elements in each of these four flows.
Indie Dreams is driven by our indigo block print craft with easy comfort styling. While Flashback is a salute to the retro style made new again. Conversation Starter is all about being fun and playful, and Folkadelic is an ode to some of the original madras plaid weaves in beautiful yarn dyes and celebrating colors the way we best know how to.
ELLE: Where can we get our hands on this collection?
DP: The collection is now available on our website – www.fabindia.com and 96 key stores across like our flagship stores and experience centres, and will then be trickling across for a wider presence. And needless to add, for our digital-first consumer base, this collection can be viewed and discovered on all our social media platforms like Instagram (@fabindiaofficial @fabindiahome), Facebook & Twitter.
