Raised in a family whose business is apparel manufacturing, Anand Ahuja’s industry experience began early. It grew with an undergrad at the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA at Wharton and related work abroad. In 2011, he started bhane., what he calls, “an everyday wear clothing label”.

Created under two premises – that style is universal and self expression is key – bhane. has since nurtured a loyal community through its genuine communication and engagement with youth culture. While grateful for its success, Ahuja assesses that his best work is ahead of him:

The beginning: 

I returned to India from the US in 2011 with an intention to spend time learning at Shahi Exports, our family’s apparel manufacturing business but four months after my return bhane. began to take form. I had started to notice an increase in people expressing themselves; through blogs, photography, personal style and art. On the whole people seemed to want the same type of clothes, whether in India or the US. The designers at Shahi Exports were dressing with the same aesthetic as those graduating from Parsons, FIT and RISD. This is the main premise behind bhane., that style is universal. Of course this doesn’t apply to high fashion but for basic everyday wear, people want access to the same clothes. It started off with just myself and two designers and we put together a range of ideas for pieces we wanted to make and started doing some basic design and prototyping. With positive feedback, we decided to develop a website and make a small run of clothes.

Most people don’t know what ‘bhane.’ means or don’t know how to pronounce it. At the end of the day, how does it matter how you pronounce it? As long as you like the product, how does it matter what the word means – we want to know what it means to you. 

I grew up in New Delhi and attended the American Embassy School. With my family in the apparel manufacturing business, I spent many summers learning about the manufacturing process and spent one summer packing boxes in my uncle’s apparel warehouse in New Jersey. After an undergrad at University of Pennsylvania I became an Assistant Buyer at Macy’s Inc.

What appealed to me most about the role (as Assistant Buyer at Macy’s) was that it was dynamic, and required a lot of teamwork and group interactions. With some of the best managers and buyers, I learned a lot about how stores interact with customers.

Two years later, I went to work in sourcing at my uncle’s wholesale company. I learned about how factories interact with wholesalers and finally, I spent six months learning about lean manufacturing at one of my father’s factories in Bangalore, which was firsthand experience in understanding how factories work. I then went on to pursue my MBA at Wharton and spent my MBA summer internship as a Product Manager at Amazon.com in Seattle. This is when I realized I wanted to work in India. The rest, well, you know…

Challenges of the past five years:

We crossed our five year birthday on December 12, 2017, and have had a chance to reflect on all that we have accomplished but to be completely honest, our best work is ahead of us!

Our greatest achievement has been building a community and our biggest failure has been staying focused on our product offerings. We have been blessed with loyalty and community by staying genuine in our communication.

Above: bhane. collection | Images: Pritiza Barua

We aspire to enable people in telling their stories and we do this via our product design, our bhanelive events which are free to the public, our photoshoots and social media which are focused around “street shoots” and our open floor concept store which allows people to gather over coffee, ice cream, pizza, board games, video games or even none of the above and just good company. The Indian market is young and new. While this is exciting, we have to remember to be patient and let it take its own course. We have never been more excited about what is to come. We look forward to answering these questions and more with our re-focused brand in the fall of 2018!

Above: bhanelive | Images: Gaurav Karki

What drives bhane.:

One of the founding principles of bhane. is that we want to use our resources – apparel production – to equip people with one tool they can use for self expression: their sense of style. We want to encourage and facilitate individuality and self expression. This is why our clothes don’t carry logos and even our tags don’t say ‘bhane.’  

Another principle is that style is universal and we believe that India should not only be seen as a manufacturer but a thought leader in apparel design. Secondly, to encourage, empower and facilitate self expression. This is why our shoots crowdsource people of different heights, statures, professions and styles.

Above: bhane. collection | Images: Pritiza Barua

The biggest learning I’ve had is that the only thing that differentiates successful companies from failed ones is time. The companies that have the ability to stay in the game longer will succeed. This means patience from all the stakeholders. This means strong determination. This means a meaningful purpose. And this means financial stability and trust from investors.

Translating digital into physical:

We started thinking about physical stores a while ago. My obsession with Nike is indicative: as much as I shop for shoes online, whenever I am in New York I feel obliged to go into the Nike stores. This is because ultimately no remote experience can replace a physical touch and feel. The way we interact with our followers online and offline is completely different and both are very viable. The biggest challenge was realizing that just because you have a website, it doesn’t mean you can open a store easily – the business models are completely different and it requires a lot of work.

The best part is about being able to interact with our followers on a daily basis. It’s about reaching out to new people and really being able to personify our brand. We’ve always had a tangible aspect to bhane. with our house parties way before WIP (our first store). Seeing how we interacted with people in these casual events also impacted how we have positioned our store.

Above: bhane. store | Images: Pritiza Barua 

There is no value you can put on authenticity … this is why young blood is important. With the way marketing works today – instantaneously and in the moment – there is no way to forge a young culture without being young. We just launched bhanelove on Snapchat and we could do this instinctively because everyone who contributes to bhane. really believes in the overall vision – empowerment of individuality and a universal aesthetic. Furthermore, we are trying to create a cultural impact on how people think about work, play, art, music and to do that, we need to have people on the bhane. team that can create this culture. 

People: 

My grandmother, she is the one that originally started my family’s apparel manufacturing business. At 80+ years old, she still provides me with some of the best business advice and encourages me to take risks. My father – calm, patient and collected. Sometimes it can be frustrating how calm he is, always. But without fail, I know that he will always challenge me to think about any problem in a new way and encourage me to calm my mind in order to figure out the right answer. My mom – selfless and supportive. Can’t ask for anything more! The buyers at Macy’s – they have an incredible understanding of marketing and catering to the needs and requirements of customers.

Digital References:

businessoffashion, fastcodesign, nicekicks, hypebeast, uncrate, billionaireboysclub, sneakersnstuff

Work History: 

Camp SMA Pvt Ltd (bhane.), CEO & Managing Director, New Delhi, March 2011 – present

Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd, Business Development, New Delhi, November 2011 – March 2011

Amazon.com, Product Manager, Seattle, June 2011 – September 2011

Shahi Exports, Production, New Delhi, December 2009 – June 2010

At Last Sportswear, Sourcing, New York, June 2009 – December 2009

Macy’s Inc, Assistant/Associate Buyer, New York, Aug 2007 – May 2009