How entrepreneur Aishwarya Priyadarshini made it ethnic wear market with her brand Aujjessa

Aujjessa is Ojas in Sanskrit, means “Badhta Huya”, which grows, which has strong power within. Their Brand slogan is “Stitching Dreams into Reality”. It is a woman wear brand, started out of a passion to build a brand which will not only be based on exploring creativity out of traditional crafts of India but also to work on humanitarians' ground to provide employment to underprivileged craftsperson.

The Journey

Established in the year 2011 Aujjessa or “Women of Victory” by Aishwarya Priyadarshini who is a design alumnus of AJP school of Design with MBA in Marketing. She started this Brand with the mission - To fulfil the aspiration and dreams of craftsperson engaged in hand made apparels. Her dedication and hard work led her to take this brand as a success story in the Fashion design world and recognised in the list of temples of Education, Aujjessa has been incubated at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Indian School of Business, Mohali.

While Studying Bachelor in Design, Aishwarya Priyadarshini always wanted to build something of her own and was highly inspired by “Ritu Kumar”. When Aishwarya got married to her husband Vikram Ghai, who is now Co-Founder in the company. Before this venture Vikram Ghai was working with a Telecom Giant in Kolkata.

The dream of starting the venture was up roaring in the mind. The journey was destined and took a weird start when she went for shopping of “Kantha sarees” in an exhibition, she saw very beautiful intricate embroideries at very low-price. When she further dogged down deeper to find details of wage structure and how commission agents do injustice in paying back.

So here the journey started, walked street to malls, Villages to towns of Bengal to find the gap between selling price and amount paid to craftsperson later added many arts like “Parsi embroidery, and Rabari work from Kutch, Zardozi work from Agra, Bareilly, and Delhi 6, Chanderis and silks from Maheshwar, Pochampally and Banaras, Hand block prints from Jaipur, Kalamkari from Hyderabad”.

Aishwarya Priyadarshini used these traditional needles and woven arts and prints and tried to improvise them into other categories to give the brand a more contemporary look to meet today’s demand by introducing palazzo kurta set, women cotton trousers, salwar suit sets, rayon Kurtis, festive Kurtis, western formal wear, cigarette pants, and Night suits / Lounge wear by using imprints of these beautifully handcrafted arts from lanes of Bagru and Sanganer.

Indian Tradition

With time brand has emerged itself into Western formal wear and Imitation jewellery online. They proudly position themselves for the need of Young modern Indian women. They ensure to offer a collection of Made in India with quality products by employing under privileged artisans, which can create outstanding fashion statement as well as social status. With their creativity and an eye for fashion detailing, they always strive to introduce more fashionable and appealing attires in their collection from time to time.

“To be the best whilst using traditional art forms of India. To create a legacy of honesty, artisans and value systems. To Create Sustainable art forms which are affordable at competitive pricing” Aishwarya Priyadarshini says.

Startup Structure

Aujjessa Journey took a new roadmap from 300 sq. ft showroom in Delhi to 10000 sq. ft office catering Wholesale, Retail and E-commerce business. Aujjessa is presently working with major E-players like AJIO, Myntra, Amazon, Lime Road, Flipkart and many others.

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