Fashion fires up her passion

Fashion fires up her passion

Rinrata Indamra started her brand with a Facebook page, and four years later it's still winning.

SOCIAL & LIFESTYLE

Making the best out of every situation is how Rinrata Indamra — a designer and creative director of her brand Rinrata — thinks when it comes to work. This simple mantra has made her brand run and survive in the extremely competitive fashion business for over four years. Today, another step has just been made as the brand joins “Elle Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2015” at CentralWorld, as part of Zen’s Fresh Faces.

Rinrata Indamra.

Unlike most who run their own brand, Rinrata doesn’t hold a degree in fashion design. Passion and interest motivated her to choose this career path.

“I always enjoyed mixing and matching things. I added and modified things from ready-made clothes. I also shopped for fabrics with my mum and had them tailor-made into my own ideas,” says Rinrata. “When my friends saw what I was wearing, they always asked if they could get the same design, which then gave me the idea of starting an online shop.”

The idea arrived when the law graduate took a break before pursuing graduate studies. She started her first shop as a Facebook page, selling as little as five pieces of clothing. Unexpectedly, the outcome surpassed her expectations. It was successful. As time went on, she gained more and more of a good reputation. With the business seemingly in good shape, Rinrata decided she would not continue with her master’s and would instead focus solely on running her brand. The shop quickly expanded to Instagram, just before her pop-up stores all of a sudden were becoming accessible in various malls.

“It’s the high quality of fabric that I choose. I always pick material as if it were me who would be wearing it. Another strength of my brand is that my customers can customise their clothes. They can ask for adaptations, however the Rinrata style remains,” says the 26-year-old.

“Urban Fuzzy” is how she defines her brand. She believes that anyone in their 20s up to their 50s, who love dressing up, would fit perfectly with her designs.

Rinrata gets her ideas for designs from her experiences in life. As she personally loves to travel, her latest autumn/winter collection, soon to be launched during the Elle Fashion Week, was derived from her travel experiences.

“This collection is a combination of modern and classic. I was inspired by European architecture and the arts,” she explains. “The form of the dress looks modern while laces are added for decoration.

“It’s very challenging for a brand to be on the catwalk. Before this, all I had to consider was how to make items look good, but now I have to understand the art of making people enjoy the show. There are many factors involved like music, graphics and style.”

Rinrata adds that what she hopes for the show is that the attendees will enjoy what she tries to deliver. She is set on expanding her market abroad and gaining more recognition as she knows international bloggers and buyers will be attending the event.

Since launching her brand, the designer never set any long-term goals and because of this, every step she has taken she equates to receiving a trophy.

“It’s all about opportunity and timing that come at just the right moment. If we try hard enough everyday, great opportunities will eventually come.”

Lately, the brand has been making good progress as it has gained recognition in international markets. Some of her items have also been on sale in Singapore and China.

“Everything counts as a precious experience. It may sound easy but there have been obstacles along the way,” the designer adds. “Sometimes a product will get shipped back from abroad, even if it has the tiniest mistake. But that makes us learn not to repeat them again.”

Back in the times when the business was smaller, Rinrata did everything on her own, from the designing to the delivering of the clothes, but as it has expanded, having a team has definitely become more important.

“The bigger the team, the harder it gets, but they help me a lot on developing my ideas as well as in the areas I am not so talented in, such as accounting. But when it comes to decision making, I am still the one who takes action.”

Rinrata admits that it’s so easy to step into this business field nowadays. Just create an online account and the business can be launched within the blink of an eye. Newcomers are popping up every day.

“Thai designers have a very high potential to become successful. Foreigners know many of the Thai brands well. I see this as a very good chance for all of us,” says Rinrata.

Asked if the booming of the business has had an effect on her brand, Rinrata’s reply was that it’s all about the quality that she has to maintain.

“I do believe that if we can keep the brand focused around high quality, it will survive,” she says. “But it’s undeniable that making our business last is very challenging. There are already senior designers as well as many newcomers in the field. I think my brand is now somewhere in between. Maintaining our position is the key challenge we need to work on.”

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