The Reinvention of Khaadi

When Khaadi unveiled its new logo in October 2021, it came as a significant departure from what came before. Although the fashion and lifestyle brand had tweaked its logo at least three times during its 22-year-long history, the changes were always minor. The last change in 2019 involved removing the brand name altogether, a decision based on the premise that the icon itself was instantly recognisable. However, over the last two years, Khaadi has been working with international brand consulting and design company Landor, a project that also involved examining international fashion brands such as H&M and Zara. In the process, the brand was struck by two realisations. First, that the brand has moved on from its handicraft-based roots and therefore, the logo depicting the two hands of the craftsperson no longer rang true to the current reality. Secondly, that as Khaadi moves into new local and international markets, retaining the brand name and integrating it with the logo was both crucial and a marketing best practice. However, the new logo is only a part of the journey of reinvention the brand has embarked upon. Intrigued to know more, I spoke to Saira Shamoon and Tinath Saeed, about how the brand is setting itself up for the future.

Going Back To The DNA

SAIRA SHAMOON: This exercise began a couple of years ago as a very thoughtful process. We went back to our DNA and looked at what Khaadi stood for in the first 10 years. In those days, we broke barriers and kept reinventing ourselves, moving from hand looms to lawn to ready to wear prêt to kid’s fashion. The process also involved the retail experience. Since we started our journey, a multitude of brands have cropped up, especially in the last 12 to 15 years and they have been designing their stores, their packaging and their product in a way similar to ours. There also came a point when we started focusing on growth rather than innovation, because the business needed it, and when we paused for a minute and looked around us, we thought, “oh no, we look like everyone else!” This is when we started to re-evaluate everything, including our product and asking ourselves questions such as: were we innovating, were we playing it too safe, were we only doing what the customer was demanding, had we stopped disrupting? We carried out a lot of research and people were saying ‘it’s my mum’s brand’. We realised we are not connecting with the younger generation.
TINATH SAEED: When Khaadi started its journey from a small shop in Zamzama, it was all hand crafted and handwoven. However, Shamoon (Sultan, CEO, Khaadi) realised it could not just be about that, he was looking for scale and this meant going industrial. Today in Pakistan, Khaadi has a footprint of over 60 retail stores and not only in the metro cities but in the next 20 cities. We also have a presence in Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and the UK. First and foremost, Khaadi was about accessible and affordable clothes for women. Accessibility was at the heart of Shamoon’s vision and the design aesthetic was rooted in cultural relevance. When the stores came into being, they were the first ‘experience stores’ at the time. Now, however, we had to look at all this from the point of view of the competitive landscape and this made us ask ourselves whether we were different and did we still have that edge?

The New Logo

TS: People were so emotionally attached to the logo with the knuckles and when we changed it, they wondered why. The point is that the knuckles represented the fact that we were a handicraft business – which we no longer are. Our vision is to be a global brand headquartered in Pakistan, and when people walk into a Khaadi store in any international city, they will see and say our name. The name is where the brand equity is and you cannot do away with it; people do not walk into a store for the logo, they go for the brand. So, as we expand further into Pakistan’s cities, we want to establish the name Khaadi. What happened is that over time the brand name went on the backburner and when we benchmarked ourselves with other brands in our peer group, such as Zara, Burberry and so on, we saw that they all went through a process of logo and brand changes and then brought the brand back into focus and did away with the frills. According to our benchmarking study, a couple of things came to the fore. Our brand name must be everywhere and it has to be more prominent and contemporary. This led us to develop a special font in collaboration with an expert in Brazil and the ‘K’ of Khaadi you see now, has been patented. The two hands have become one hand with Khaadi embossed on the top to ensure that the icon and the brand name remain together.
SS: Once we started changing the visuals, we also began to look at things differently. The two hands represented the idea of handcrafted and handwoven and those were our roots. But we no longer do this. What does the new Khaadi represent? It is a form of expression; it’s us wanting to express a lot more.

The New Brand Book

TS: We started working with Landor on developing Khaadi’s brand book two years ago. It was about documenting our DNA in order to protect what we have and at the same time evolve and grow. Although it took time, every element of the brand has been documented. The personality, the unique features, the identity, the colours, the Pantone shades, the font size, the typography and the visual vocabulary. This will keep us on the golden path, in terms of knowing what we can and cannot do. It structures the brand in a more permanent way, one that is not dependant on what the people working with us at a given point in time think.

The Store of The Future

TS: Having changed everything, we thought about our customers; should we not offer them a different retail experience as well? So Shamoon has taken on the task of designing the ‘store of the future’ at Dolmen Mall (Karachi), where all the elements of the brand are in place. It will reflect the values about where we want to take the brand. There is a ‘consumer hub’ for customer engagement and a consumer experience journey throughout the store. We have brought in a tactile element; customers will be able to touch and feel and fabrics and accessories will no longer be stuck on the walls. There will be 16 AV screens, a station for gift wrapping, another for laces and trims. The entire store has been designed to engage and it is not just about transacting anymore.

‘Wear Yourself’

SS: The message we want to communicate is: ‘embrace yourself, create your own style.’ We say this because our product lines offer a lot of mix and match items and assortments. Our goal is to enable customers to look like themselves. We have started with ‘Wear Yourself’, but this is just the beginning. It’s a braver world in Pakistan and women have become more vocal and we are focusing on women who want to express themselves differently.

Listening To Customers

SS: I have 60 women working under me aged between 22 and 40 and I make it a point to listen to them. We carry out small surveys and subscribe to WGSM (a global company that forecasts consumer and design trends) to keep abreast of global macro and micro trends. Believe me, all of these trends are filtering into Pakistan. listening to customers does not necessarily mean that customers always know what they want. They often look to us about what to wear; that said, customers know their own lifestyle and we want to give them ideas based on that.

The Khaadi Woman

SS: Regardless of age, the Khaadi woman is an explorer and wants to discover more about herself. Fashion plays a huge part in how we present ourselves; how we want the world to perceive. This is an important narrative for most women and we want to enable them to be this woman.
TS: The Khaadi woman is confident, knows her mind and is multifaceted. This is reflected in the kaleidoscope depicted in our communication. The Khaadi woman changes colours and moods; there is no one way to describe her. She dresses for herself and not to please others, but she is always culturally relevant.

Marylou McCormack is a former member of Aurora’s editorial team. marylouandrew@gmail.com. For feedback: aurora@dawn.com