“I believe success lies in faith and consistency.” – Anju Binani Damani, Founder & Creative Director, Miska, in an exclusive interview with Startup Story.
Founder’s Journey
Anju Binani Damani, Founder & Creative Director, Miska, had always been a designer by blood. She graduated from The Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata, and completed her further studies in design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, Kolkata (NIFT). Anju, a mother of two kids, started her career as a designer at the age of 30 with only ten designs in hand. Her mother and husband provided only emotional support in her endeavour. She launched Miska (Misका) in 2019 all by herself with a dream to design trending clothes for women and girls.
Designing The Idea
The idea of creating fashionable clothing has run in Anju’s family for the last 40 years. Her father and brother run a kids’ fashion business, Bie, both in India, abroad. Her husband, too, is creating clothing for boys under the brand name Blue Kids, globally. Anju had other ideas. She wished to create something for women and young girls. As marketing head, Anju began covering the West Bengal clothing market. After finding success in Bengal, she expanded her business to the southern Indian suburbs.
Miska currently caters to women’s and children’s wear, with a colorful and eclectic selection of round neck t-shirts, capris, and hot pants, as well as sections for women of all ages and little girls.
Competing With The Market
The founder believes in healthy competition. She talks about how price, quality, and client relationship management are important in differentiating one company from another, and she expresses concern about the lack of women in the B2B industry. Speaking about her business, she easily gets orders from retail merchants for the price and quality her brand provides as a pan-India wholesale dealer. Miska even has its own website where people can buy affordable and fashionable everyday wear. Their prices typically range between Rs. 400 and Rs. 800, making them reasonably priced. Aside from that, she intends to expand her business to Dubai. They will soon launch their flagship stores as well.
Work Environment
Anju provides her employees with a healthy working environment. As the Creative Director, she allows her team members to think creatively and bring out the best in the brand. She believes that the relationship between the employer and the employee should be as open as possible.
Covid Repercussion
Miska has been an online brand since its inception in 2019, so it didn’t have to deal with any such Covid-related consequences. Currently, the founder is slowly and steadily attempting to penetrate the offline market when Covid is not at its peak.
