For fashion brands, staying culturally relevant can often mean jumping on the latest trend. But for Libas CMO Nisha Khatri, relevance is not about following every cultural moment. “We do have to hop on to trends, but not every trend,” she said, speaking to IMPACT Magazine alongside Libas campaign face, actor Anya Singh. According to Khatri, the challenge for marketers is knowing which trends are worth attaching the brand to and which are better left alone.
“At Libas, we are figuring it out in real time. There is no crash course on this,” Khatri said. For her, the instinct to identify what will resonate is a key part of marketing. “What makes you a better marketer than the rest of the marketers? Your gut,” she added.
That understanding of culture also feeds into how Libas approaches the ‘modern Indian woman’. Khatri believes the term should not become another marketing cliché. “Who is a modern Indian woman? It is no one other than yourself,” she said, adding that brands should not view their consumers as fundamentally different from the people creating campaigns for them.
“She’s somebody who is providing for herself, she’s independent, she’s opinionated, and she also has a very clear sense of what she wants and what she doesn’t want,” Khatri said. She sees women as moving between multiple roles every day—from professional to daughter, sister, friend or partner—and believes that Libas needs to be present across these different intersections.
For campaign face Anya Singh, that versatility is also what makes the brand relevant. Speaking about the Gerua campaign, Singh said Libas’ styling allows traditional Indian fashion to move easily into contemporary settings. “It doesn’t limit your personality. It actually complements your personality,” she adds.
Khatri also wants Libas to move beyond the conventional definition of ethnic wear. “We don’t even call ourselves an ethnic brand. We call ourselves an Indian fashion brand,” she notes. Her larger ambition is to build Libas into a complete lifestyle brand with multiple categories.
The brand’s approach to inclusivity, however, remains a work in progress. While Libas has introduced its ‘Extra Love’ range, Khatri said the industry still has considerable ground to cover when it comes to making plus-size fashion a mainstream commercial opportunity. “There’s a lot of learning we still have to do,” she said.
For Libas, speed is another part of its relevance strategy. Khatri describes the brand as an “ultra-fast fashion brand”, adding that it launches around 100 styles every week. “Speed is our virtue as a brand,” she said.
With 80 per cent of Libas’ workforce comprising women, Khatri believes the brand also benefits from an internal understanding of its consumer. “A garment looks amazing when it is made by a woman, for a woman,” she said, highlighting how this perspective helps the brand respond to changing needs while deciding which cultural shifts are genuinely worth pursuing.
