My Designation aims to build a global brand from Kerala

Fashion brands from Kerala have limited scope. Why? Because the market is small, business can’t be scaled up, most Keralites prefer brands from the West, only nostalgic Malayalees abroad value local merchandise, and local consumers prefer cheaper knock-offs... oh, the list of such cautions is almost endless.

Such refrains greet anyone venturing into business in Kerala, for decades. But Swaroop Krishnan and Gopika Menon belong to a new generation, and they refused to kowtow to such traditional attitudes. In 2017, they took up the challenge of creating fashionwear rooted in the state’s cultural heritage and established My Designation.

Eight years of hard work seem to have paid off, and the startup founders say their dream of building a brand from Kerala with customers far and wide has now taken firm shape. The firm recorded a net revenue of 16 crore rupees in the 2024-25 financial year and recently attracted investment worth over 10 crore rupees.

“Our vision was to create a brand that offers trendy, quality wear that is affordable, unlike brands that create value by inflating prices. It was a hard struggle and there was very little institutional handholding. But we had faith in our customers, and they have repaid our trust handsomely,” say the cofounders.

Schooled in Fashion: The husband-and-wife duo’s journey began during their school days at Chinmaya Vidyalaya in Trivandrum. “Even during our student days, we liked colourful, expressive clothes. What was available was either common designs worn by hundreds or too expensive for most to buy,” recalls Swaroop.

Gopika used to design her own dresses, and Swaroop was her handyman, sourcing the right material. As her social media posts of these creations caught the attention of friends and family, requests for new dresses started flowing in. That naturally led the duo to form a strong bond early on.

“Our dates were not the usual outings to parks and cinemas. Our talk always centred around creating a quality product rooted in Kerala. Our thinking was different, and that is what attracted us to each other,” says Gopika, reflecting on their unique courtship that revolved around a shared entrepreneurial vision.

By 2016, when Gopika graduated in Civil Engineering from Mar Baselios College and Swaroop returned from Vellore Institute of Technology with design experience under his belt, their fledgling business had expanded into bridal attire as well. Both had topped their college but decided to sit out of campus recruitment, having set their minds on standing on their own feet.

The Breakthrough Moment: In January 2017, they decided to formally launch My Designation as a fashion brand. “Swaroop was doing freelance work and the business was more like a pocket-money earning venture for us, though I was very passionate about fashion. In the very first month, we did business worth around 100,000 rupees, mostly from Trivandrum customers,” says Gopika.

Their first big step-up came during a local flea market festival called Olam. The duo took a chance and scraped together enough money to print 300 T-shirts featuring figures of iconic Trivandrum monuments and catchy Malayalam phrases.

“Our hope was to sell all 300 over the three days of the event. But our entire stock was sold out in three hours, and we got orders for another 800. That was a big validation of our idea,” says Swaroop.

This overwhelming response at Olam marked a turning point, and soon they started selling their products online, generating steady business.

Learning from Setbacks: The entrepreneurial journey wasn’t without its challenges. A dinner conversation between the two about scaling up led to Swaroop heading to Tamil Nadu the next morning to find supplier from Tirupur, the knitwear capital of India. However, the fragmented nature of the industry proved costly when a "trusted contact" disappeared after taking 250,000 rupees for their order.

“All our profit till then was sunk into that, and soon people were telling us to give up our dream,” recalls Swaroop. But that setback only steeled their resolve, though the going was tough. “No institution was willing to support us despite several schemes announced by the governments. I kept a count – we had approached banks and other organisations 44 times for help, but no one did,” he says.

At one point, they even had to sell their family flat below market price to keep the company afloat. Swaroop says it was support from the family and friends that sustained them through the early days.

We registered as a startup later, as we were not even aware of its benefits. One thing we lack in Kerala is a mechanism whereby authorities proactively locate promising businesses and help them through the struggling phases, he says.

Swaroop points out that talent scouting by private investors is also rare, and says My Designation was fortunate to have caught the eye of Sanjay Ramakrishnan, founding partner of Multiply Ventures, which led the latest funding round. He detailed the events in a LinkedIn post recently.

Unconventional Path: My Designation treads a different path from other similar ventures by staying away from popular e-commerce websites and limiting sales to their own website, with Instagram as their main marketing platform.

This goes against conventional wisdom, but the strategy has proved successful as the company built a strong base of followers and now has over half a million followers on Instagram– more than many other famous Kerala businesses. Unlike other fashion brands that sell through third-party platforms, this approach also provides them with direct feedback, helping continuous product improvement.

However, success brought new challenges. Their designs rooted in Kerala’s traditional arts like Kathakali and Theyyam were a big hit among fashion-hungry youngsters, but the bane of the Indian apparel sector soon reared its head – piracy.

Copycats of their viral designs began appearing elsewhere. My Designation founders then realised that it was not easy to sustain the business with attractive designs alone. Anyone could copy them and sell cheaply.

Winning Formula: The founders wanted to overcome this challenge and realised that the quality of the material and attractive designs were the key factors in building the brand. “An artwork or a slogan can be copied, but complex patterns rooted in well-worked out designs are difficult to reproduce. That has been our winning formula: innovative ideas and attention to detail,” says Swaroop.

More importantly, they paid attention to every customer request and took pains to respond to feedback, making sure they built a connection with their loyal customers. This has resulted in a customer base that now includes people from other states and countries who have ties with Kerala or know about the state.

They constantly explore new ideas, as their Raven Embroidered shirt illustrates. The artwork on a single shirt needs over 300,000 stitches, making it impossible to reproduce in cheaper versions.

Fashion Soft Power: “We always believed we could create a successful brand here itself and set out to disprove the detractors who say customers, especially in Kerala, will pay only for Western brands. Now we have customers across India and abroad,” says Gopika.

Taking inspiration from the rich cultural tapestry of local folklore and blending it with elements from universally popular manga and anime art is something My Designation is currently exploring.

“Western brands like Marvel have created many superheroes, but it is difficult to place them in an Indian context,” they say. “So, we are pursuing an ambitious vision to create a universe with indigenous cultural icons that could compete on the global stage.”

This strategy taps into a broader trend where Asian cultural elements are gaining unprecedented global appeal. Just as Japanese anime, K-pop from South Korea and Chinese toys have become worldwide phenomena, My Designation’s fusion approach of traditional art with contemporary aesthetics could mark India’s entry into this cultural export revolution.

Strong Performance: The numbers speak to their success. Around 60 percent of the brand's revenue comes from its shirt category, which also sees the highest repeat purchases and footfall. The B2C company has monthly repeat purchase rates of 30-35 percent.

After being fully bootstrapped for five years and the startup raised 10.7 crore rupees as seed funding and recently has opened a new store in Bangalore.

By successfully blending Kerala's rich cultural heritage with contemporary design sensibilities that has global appeal, My Designation stands as a testament to India's potential for creating cultural soft power through fashion.

Their journey from a school romance to a multi-crore business challenges every stereotype about regional brands and demonstrates that with vision, persistence, and cultural authenticity, Kerala products can indeed conquer markets that are far beyond our shores – again.

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