Audrey Hepburn

A woman with absolute natural beauty Audrey was tall and slim; her pixie cut hair drew more emphasis to her strong cheekbones and big dark eyes.

A born dancer her early training days brought her a natural elegance adding a simple yet extra flair to her personality.

Simple yet sophisticated style is perhaps an understatement when it comes to describing her looks and style. She always favored cleaner looks and plain colors which earlier were popular among the males; irrespective of that how she managed to look ultra feminine continues to be a mystery even today.

Confident Elegant and incredibly beautiful these are the words that comes to mind once Audrey Hepburn is thought of. It was perhaps her calm elegance and wit she possessed that made her most noted style icon of her times. Its been more then a Decade now but the world has yet not recovered from the steer this Brussels beauty created in the world of fashion, When her image was flashed on the 75 mm silver screen in the famous all black little dress with white gloves and diamonds.

Regional Apparel Cos Quicker In Store Rollouts

Driving a revival in the country's apparel business after a tough year is a slew of regional brands mushrooming in smaller cities and towns across the country that are now attracting the attention of private equity players. Brands such as Liverpool Retail India's Barcelona, Vir Retail's John Hill and Nahar Group's Cotton County that sell outfits at less than one-third the price of national brands are opening stores faster than the cautious national brands.
These brands operate in the Rs.150-600 price band, working on low margins and fast stock turnover. Their marketing efforts are mostly localised and they woo new consumers into the organised sector through discounted offers like 'buy one, get three'.

"National brands retail at a mark up of around three times, which is channelised into branding. We pass this on to the customer while retaining net margins of 8-10%," says Kailash Gupta, MD of Ahmedabad-based Liverpool Retail India. While national players focus on per-store profitability and saturate metros before targeting tier II and tier III cities, these regional brands bet on scale and dress up smaller cities with Westernised brand names.

"Several regional brands are challenging the might of big players within the value segment where a significant proportion of Indian demand exists. Many of them will soon grow into national players and capture share from established brands," says Baqar Naqvi, associate VP retail & consumer goods at Technopak.