SHE may have had a later start than most young designers, but she comes well-equipped with other skills gleaned from her former corporate job, believes Saloni Shrestha.
The 34-year-old behind local label Saloni Rathor has 10 years of marketing savvy under her belt, working her way up from marketing executive in a real estate firm in India to become the regional marketing director for Wood Mackenzie, a British energy research and consulting firm.
It is this marketing background, she says, that instils in her the strict discipline to implement and stick to her own deadlines, especially in the critical early stages of building up her own business.
Her smiley demeanour and petite frame may suggest otherwise, but Ms Shrestha is a resolute go-getter: "I can't let go of opportunities. I always aim to have my plan A achieved," she says.
She left Wood Mackenzie last September - a decision that she took about three years to make - but once she set her mind to it, everything else fell into place quickly.
She engaged a fine arts lecturer to give her private sewing classes, which she has been taking for the past year, and turned out her first line, a Spring/Summer collection last March, followed by a resortwear series just two months later.
Come April, her Saloni Rathor label will get its own 350 sq ft of retail space in Parco Marina Bay as Ms Shrestha is among the third batch of emerging designers selected by PARCO next NEXT, a fashion incubator run by Japanese mall operator with the help of SPRING Singapore and the Textile & Fashion Federation (Taff).
As part of the programme, Ms Shrestha gets paired up with industry veterans like Thomas Tan, a design consultant at Taff and business consultant Byron Teo as mentors.
They advise her on anything from the aesthetics to the technicalities of retail such as finding the appropriate merchandise mix for the Singapore market.
"In fashion, the creativity may come from the individual but it's important to work with important people to implement that creativity well," says the Singapore permanent resident of their weekly meets.
"It's good to get a third-person perspective. Talking to people gives you more ideas, as well as a clearer direction."
It helps too that her husband, Amar Rathor, 36, is a director of corporate strategy planning at Standard Chartered Bank, so he acts as her financial adviser.
"He has been thoroughly supportive," she says, despite her room in their three bedroom home in Kembangan being flooded with fabrics, hangers, sample pieces and stacks of magazines.
"There are also three mannequins that have now become a mainstay in our living room," she recounts cheekily.
As with all career changes, lifestyle changes of course had to follow: "It affects the house budget and our travel budget, on top of my personal budget. Shopping has been drastically cut down. I analyse every spend two to three times and have to ask myself, do I really need those shoes?" she says.
She recently launched her third collection, Exotic Edge, a tribal-inspired series of 25 looks, and is currently working on a nature-inspired Autumn/Winter collection to be ready by May.
Prices for her items range from $100 to $250.
"I have no weekends and I'm working round the clock. But it's my baby, I enjoy every moment that I spend working on it. I rather do more today than leave it to tomorrow," she adds.
"We built the business on our savings, so I don't mind doing the hard work."
Her creations are currently stocked on her own online site, Salonirathor.com, and she is currently in talks with other regional websites to carry her label.
She plans to make Saloni Rathor available in other cosmopolitan Asian cities by year-end, and eventually, in global fashion hubs in the US and Europe.
"My husband tells me to slow down, but I can't. That's what marketing does to you," she laughs.
This article was first published in The Business Times.
