Silver lining to the shirt market

Silver Gray is the newest brand to enter the ready-to-wear shirts market

by Srikumar Bondyopadhyay

CAN you judge a shirt by its collar? Fold the collar inside out, match the ends and check whether the stitch lines on either shoulders fall exactly one upon another or not. If not, for even a millimeter’s difference, the shirt is not good, claims Mr Partho P Kar, CEO of Silvia Apparel Ltd, a new entrant in the domestic shirts’ market.

The company, which has been making big labels for the foreign market for almost a decade now, has decided to put its shirt on racks in the Indian stores. Looking carefully at a shirt, can tell you the story of its quality, says Mr Kar. “Look at the stitching at cuffs, inside of the chest-pocket, button-holes, inside folds of the front placate and shirt bottom. In most of the cases, you will find raw edges and the stitching lines not quite close to the fold edges,” Mr Kar says. “ The thread begins to come out of these raw edges, the edges begin to curl, giving the shirt a very bad look,” he contends, claiming that Silvia shirts will have none of these drawbacks.

Formed in 1993 as a 60:40 joint venture between Mafatlal Industries and Gruppolaperla of Italy, Silvia Apparel has so far been manufacturing shirts for leading international brands like Polo Ralph, Donna Carren, Next, Zarra, Austin Reid, Yojiyammatto, Arrow and others from its unit at Noida Export Processing Zone (NEPZ). From the first week of March this year, the company has started selling its ‘Silver Gray’ branded shirts in the domestic market.

Silvia Apparel has made its debut in domestic market at a time when the government has increased the excise duty on ready-made apparels. “In fact, we were considering to venture into the domestic market over the last one year after our ‘Silver Gray’ brand shirts made a successful debut in France and Finland a couple of years back,” explains Mr Kar.

Silvia’s USP in the domestic market is its quality, says Mr Kar. “In all our shirts, you will find 19 stitches per inch (SPI) as compared to 8-10 SPI in most other brands. Apart from this, we use a special non-fusable technology for collar and front placate interlining which never gives rise to bubbles or curling of collars,” he says.

Priced between Rs 795 and Rs 1,295, Silver Gray shirts come in four fabric categories, 65:35 cotton-polyester fabric for Rs 795 a shirt; cotton-lycra for Rs 895 a shirt; 100 per cent cotton for Rs 995-1,095 a shirt; and 100 per cent Irish linen for Rs 1,295 a shirt. These shirts are currently available in three fits—40 inches, 42 inches and 46 inches. “For the winter season, we will introduce two more fabrics, one is a cotton-silk blend and the other is a cotton-modal blend,” Mr Kar adds.

Silvia is also contemplating to introduce specially made exquisite dress shirts. These shirts will target the top niche of the market with a price tag of Rs 1,500-2,100. “Apart from using a very high quality fabric, these shirts will have French seam stitching, Australian pearl buttons and many other special features like these,” says Mr Kar.

Silvia Apparels has launched its products in Delhi to start with and the company plans to go other parts of the country by the second half of this year. “We will sell our products through multi-brand, A-class retail outlets like Saigal Brothers, SM Stores and Bindals which have a special and loyal customer base,” Mr Kar adds.