“We make exclusive high-street fashion you won’t find anywhere else,” say young startup founders of Farda, a brand clocking Rs 10L/month

You've heard of customized clothing – the kind where you send your designs to a brand, ideate with them, and get something very, very unique to you. 

But when it comes to generational fashion, that's slightly more nuanced. 

It means clothes that are art-heavy and add more than just layers to your personality when worn.

Generational fashion is fashion with context. 

Each stitch carries a story, and every piece has a lineage of evolution and culture behind it. 

“Farda is generational fashion blended with high-street wear and art. People want more than just clothes now – they want an expression that is carefully laced with what they believe in, what they are. We are giving them exactly that, while putting Indian streetwear on the global map,” Sanskar Mishra, co-founder of Farda, tells Startup Pedia in an exclusive interview. 

Founded in 2021 by young startup founders and based in Nagpur, Farda is a design-led, artistic, high-street fashion brand. Currently, it is operating with a monthly revenue of Rs 10 lakh.

To date, it has served thousands of customers across India and the world. 

THE BACKGROUND 

Hailing from Nagpur, Sanskar Mishra and Chahat Pahuja became friends through a mutual friend in college.

“At 19 years of age, both of us shared an entrepreneurial streak. We tried experimenting with a bunch of things - from guerrilla marketing to starting and shutting down an event management company. Ultimately, both of us ventured into fashion and decided to bank on the growing trend of customized clothes,” Sanskar Mishra says.

With a small bootstrapped amount of Rs 35,000, the duo established Farda in 2021.

Chahat breaks down the initial investment as:

• 40% was spent on obtaining raw material and securing a base canvas on denim, where the young entrepreneurs could ideate.

• The other half was spent on hiring service providers like artists and designers.

In its first phase of operations, Farda started customizing jeans and then ventured into t-shirts.

“It was in small pop-ups that we recognized how much people were willing to pay when it came to getting the exact design they wanted on a piece of clothing. The same t-shirt that sold for Rs 900 one day at a stall would sell for an easy Rs 1,500 the next day,” Chahat Pahuja tells Startup Pedia.

Eventually, the young entrepreneurs made an Instagram page for Farda, started posting content regularly, and began gaining traction.

“Our first-ever pop-up was in a flea market in Nagpur, and we achieved close to Rs 33,000 in sales,” Sanskar smiles.

Just a few months later, Farda made it to the first season of Shark Tank India. At the time, the brand had clocked Rs 1,30,000 in total sales – all from selling customized jeans, t-shirts, and jackets.

Sanskar Mishra and Chahat Pahuja received positive feedback from the sharks and even bagged a deal of Rs 30 lakh from Namita Thapar and Aman Gupta.

Also read: “Typing ‘I love you’ never feels the same as saying it" - Meet Hyderabad founder who launches a voice-first app for real human connections (startuppedia.in)

THE PIVOT TO GENERATIONAL FASHION

As the streetwear fashion brand started growing, Sanskar and Chahat had two realizations:

1. Limiting themselves to customizing clothes would result in Farda operating in a very workshop-oriented style – print, pack, ship.

2. They wanted to build something iconic, generational, and laced with more meaning, design, and substance.

“We discovered that just customizing clothes wasn’t leaving us creatively fulfilled. We wanted Farda to be more than just that,” Chahat says. 

With this, Farda made a clear pivot towards becoming an artistic, design-heavy brand that aimed to put India on the global map of stunning streetwear pieces.

JOURNEY AND CHALLENGES

Now that the trajectory for the streetwear fashion brand was clear, the first thing that Sanskar and Chahat did was to carefully study Indian design techniques, the history of fashion, and the intricacies of craft in detail.

Apart from learning, experimenting, and executing design-heavy clothes, the young entrepreneurs started bringing together a small team of artisans, designers, and people specializing in khadi manufacturing.

“We hired part-time designers and tailors. Next, we sourced fabric from anywhere and everywhere – be it Nagpur, Surat, or even China. Currently, we operate a lot in khadi,” Chahat adds.

With time, value-addition at every step of the design process became Farda’s thing.

Farda’s first collection, after the pivot, was called The Birthright. It gained widespread appreciation for being a culmination of Indian design, artistry, and block painting.

Barely 19 to 21 years old at the time, Sanskar and Chahat went through their own share of challenges when it came to building Farda as a brand that took generational fashion to the next level:

1. Unlike popular belief, appearing on Shark Tank India didn’t make the brand soar. It did bring in a lot of traction but also highlighted organizational deficiencies.

“For instance, it became chaotic to even fulfill the first batch of orders that came in right after our episode was telecast in 2022. That was probably one of the first few times that we realized that customizing clothes couldn’t be done at scale,” entrepreneur Sanskar Mishra says.

2. Pivoting to an entirely new business model meant more doubt, more anxiety, and more risk. Issues like not being able to project demand came up.

“I remember that when we made the pivot, stocking became something that we really couldn’t get a hold of. The first stock that we produced didn’t sell out completely, and we had to find other ways to flush it. Through sales, for instance. But now, we’ve completely stopped conducting sales,” fashion entrepreneur Sanskar Mishra tells Startup Pedia.

3. Eventually, the duo trained themselves in demand projection, inventory management, and stocking.

4. Farda’s founders decided to completely own their manufacturing – but setting it up had its own problems. Zeroing in on the right machines, bringing in workers, and forming a fair pay structure were moving parts that had to be carefully aligned.

5. Apart from this, Sanskar and Chahat spent a great deal of time understanding legalities like due diligence, compliance, and documentation.

Also read: Gurugram Engineer Starts A Cybersecurity Co. From Home; His Startup Now Serves 800+ Clients Globally & Generated ₹25 Cr+ Rev During Last FY (startuppedia.in)

FARDA: GENERATIONAL FASHION THAT SPEAKS 

Today, Farda operates as an Indian-origin artistic high-street fashion brand that makes statement pieces of clothing. 

From t-shirts and jackets to lowers, co-ord sets, cargos, and accessories – the fashion brand has something for everyone. It is all about slow, intentional craftsmanship.

“Our unique selling proposition is exclusiveness now. You will simply not find another product like ours anywhere else. Each drop we release has hours and hours of brainstorming, design, and packaging behind it,” young entrepreneur Chahat says.

Presently, Farda operates with a mix of all models – D2C as well as offline stores.

“We are heavy on content, and utilize Meta ads, and email and WhatsApp marketing to keep ourselves relevant and on top,” Sanskar notes.

As far as offline stores are concerned, Farda has distribution across seven streetwear aggregator stores in Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Nagpur, and Ahmedabad.

Around 65% to 70% of the high-street fashion brand’s sales come from offline sales.

The founders attribute it to customers’ desire to experience the design-heavy clothing in person before taking their pick and bringing it home.

“Our clothes are not like your regular, run-of-the-mill basic t-shirts that you can just browse online and order. We are making exclusive, statement-led clothes that tell a story – either about expression, Indian artistry, or simply confidence and style. We make exclusive high-street fashion that you won’t find anywhere else,” Chahat explains.

UNWAVERING ARTISTIC FUNDAMENTAL

Sanskar Mishra and Chahat Pahuja differentiate Farda through real, thoughtful art that is not copied and pasted from anywhere on the Internet.

“That’s why it becomes all the more important for us to educate our customers on why we are priced the way we are. We build transparency by releasing our BTS clips and design processes on Instagram. They’re also one of the best performing pieces of content for us – people love knowing what went into their clothes and how they were built from scratch,” entrepreneur Sanskar mentions.

Farda’s clothes are priced from Rs 2,500 and go up to Rs 30,000.

Also read: This mechanical engineer quit high-paying job to rescue bees - Now clocks Rs. 65 Lakh annual turnover (startuppedia.in)

THE UNIT ECONOMICS 

The high-street fashion brand’s average order value is currently approximately Rs 4.500.

According to Sanskar and Chahat, the breakdown is as follows:

• Around 35% goes into the manufacturing and designing costs.

• 18% is taken up by taxes, 2% is the Shopify tech payment, and 1% is the payment gateway fee.

• Around 25% to 28% is the direct and indirect customer acquisition cost.

• The remaining is profit.

GROWTH

With a full-time team of 12 people (including tailors, designers, packers, and marketing specialists), Farda has shown an incredible growth trajectory.

From a humble annual revenue of Rs 3 lakh in FY21, Farda clocked a monthly revenue of Rs 10 lakh in FY25.

For Sanskar and Chahat, Farda is all about translating clothes in a way that helps their customers express themselves freely.

“Over the past few years, the scope of expression has widened. And people look for a medium to fulfill it with. That’s exactly where fashion comes into the picture. People don’t want something that is owned by the masses; they want a clear differentiating factor that sets them apart. That is our ideal customer – someone who doesn’t care about blending in. They’re confident standing out. In fact, they look to stand out.” Chahat Pahuja concludes.

Also read: Meet these two 22-YO engineers who built India’s first AI-powered Robot that burns weeds with lasers instead of pesticides (startuppedia.in)