Masaba's premium play: From bridge-to-luxury pioneer to luxe, Lovechild’s next act

Fashion designer Masaba Gupta is known for her quirky designs. Her provocative take on design, with saris having colourful cameras printed all over, or shirts with an ornamental image of a cow, has made her especially popular among millennials and Gen Z. At an average price-point of around ₹10,000-15,000, The House of Masaba is a popular bridge-to-luxury Indian designer label. The designer, who entered a partnership with Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail (ABFRL acquired a 51% stake) in 2021, is now eyeing the luxury market. This explains the designer’s recent entry into fine jewellery as well as the wedding wear segment.

Masaba’s rationale is simple: the average Indian consumer has evolved, she wants nothing but the best, and as a designer, she must solve for her. “The same girl who bought the gown with the cow print or camera print on a poplin dress when I launched, is now saying that I don’t care anymore about that quirky print anymore, I would rather have a camera necklace in brass and that becomes my entry to the brand,” she explains.

“There is also the consumer who is saying, I don’t care so much about a camera pendant, I want it in gold, as suddenly she is thinking, am I wearing smart investments, am I saving for the future. The audience is becoming bold with their dressing and their choices, and we must keep up with that,” she adds.

Soon after ABFRL invested in House of Masaba, the designer label forayed into colour cosmetics with Lovechild, which Masaba claims is poised to become bigger than the core fashion business. “In three years, the business has grown 5-6 times. It has a presence in 22 House of Masaba stores across the country. We are also on SS Beauty, Nykaa, Myntra, and Amazon. We sit at 18 kiosks, and that number will go up to 55 by the end of this year.”

Lovechild, which launched with just 9-10 SKUs in 2021, today has over 300 SKUs. “From make-up to lips to eyes and make-up cleansing products, we are playing to our strengths. We take pride in saying that we understand Indian skin, the brown skin, the best. We launch something new pretty much every month,” she says.

Lovechild, which was launched as a mass premium offering, is also on its way to wooing the premium consumer. The average price of a Lovechild lipstick, which was ₹600 at the time of launch, is now priced at ₹900. “Pricing is one thing, but experience always must be luxury. I was clear that the experience should lead towards luxury. With Lovechild, we launched with cool, quirky packaging targeted at the younger audience; today, the packaging is black and gold. We don’t do plastic packaging anymore. Every lipstick looks like a piece of art.”

The vision, says the designer, is to be a 360-degree lifestyle brand that is operating in the luxury category. “You will see a lot more focus on bridal, and we are heavily betting on fine jewellery. At some point, you will also see accessories and handbags. We want to see a woman in a House of Masaba product from top to bottom, head to toe, at every stage and every age of her life.”

Ever since ABFRL acquired a stake in House of Masaba, the journey for the designer label has been all about scale. It has not just grown from seven stores to 23, the brand has also witnessed a close to 400% growth in revenue from ₹14.4 crore in FY21 2021 to ₹70.3 crore in FY24. “When you have a partner like ABFRL, the sketch to store journey becomes simpler and much stronger. We never thought we would go beyond saris and shirts. Right now, we have menswear, which contributes 12% to the revenue, and the sari section, the highest contributor to the revenue. We do Indian and Western pret. By the end of this fiscal, Lovechild will be bigger than fashion,” says Masaba.

While one would imagine that with ABFRL’s support, the designer label would have international ambitions, Masaba says that her focus for the time being is only India. “I want to understand the Indian market first. Just because we have money in the bank doesn’t mean we will go international. The idea is to take it small, first strengthen our position where we are.”