Delhi based designer sister duo: Sulakshna Kukreja and Arpita Khullar

Entrepreneur Journey of Sulakshna Kukreja and Arpita Khullar at Karigiri

Delhi based designer sister duo Sulakshna Kukreja and Arpita Khullar are perfect examples on how siblings can get together to stir up a successful entrepreneurial journey.

Both sisters Sulakshna and Arpita say they have lots in common, especially a creative inclination to develop something new of their own.

This was a childhood hobby encouraged by their Mum and later snowballed into a profession when they chose Fashion as a career stream.

Sulakshna acquired formal fashion education from Pearl academy of fashion New Delhi, and Arpita completed her degree from NIFT, New Delhi.

This allowed for building a rich foundation of learning from which they could launch their label Karigiri on 26^th October 2014.   

Candidly sipping coffee both voice “Launching our bootlegged brand Karigiri and scaling it to entrepreneurial success was not a cake walk.

Though fashion academia taught us the skill to design chic ensembles, we realized that as founders of a baby brand, we had to furthermore learn many new skills and in the continual journey we are grateful to our team and family that stood by us through ups and downs of running the entrepreneurial journey. ”

Both singularly voice that the mission of Karigiri is “to provide affordable luxury wear to the masses” They have set their goal to be among the Top 10 designers in the nation by 2026.

Defining their business model Arpita says “We would like our brand to be an umbrella label where women can find anything and everything except bridal wear. She further asserts that they are pioneers in providing Luxury Trousseau wear in Delhi NCR”

Karigiri has earned itself a slew of highlights for its designer work in its journey till date these include mentions in publications like Aspire London Based Magazine in December 2021, Fashion Show in collaboration with IDS got featured First India Newspaper in Jan 2022, right in first year VJ Anusha wore clothes for FITLOOK Magazine.

Additionally, there are a lot of celebs who wore outfits like Harshdeep Kaur, Disha Parmar, Helly Shah, Manvi Gagroo.

Apart from the sister duo founders the other core team members include Chirag Makkar, who is the brand manager and Heena – a Sales executive who has been with the brand since inception who handles fittings and customer queries and finally Naseem who is the Masterji of the brand – someone who started with us from a small balcony cutting patterns to make garments and today leads a team of 40 people under him. Together we began from a team of 3 people and now we are an army of 50 they chuckle!

The designers vouch that one learning from the Pandemic was the importance to have an online presence as the entire world is going digital.

Dropping some pearls of advice to young designers and entrepreneurs both Arpita and Sulakshna voice “Entrepreneurship isn’t a cake walk.

You have to face struggles and work really hard to achieve your goals. Understand your business really well keeping in mind your consumer’s needs.

Also, always dream big to achieve big. Problems are an inevitable part of business. Find your passion and work every single day working towards it. “

Acknowledging that there is stiff competition out there they believe that the only way to stand out is to stick to your USP.

Be authentic and create a niche in the market for your signature style of ensembles. On a conclusive note both dish out their recipe for success “Create a strong team, learn to delegate your work, be social media friendly, work towards your goal every single day. Also, learn from your failures.”  

Both sisters Sulakshna and Arpita are fine examples of how best to fuse one’s talents for the greater good, given they have already made foot prints in India and the Gulf they seem well prepped to grow and branch out like a banyan tree.

Kudos and keep growing!

If you like SugerMint’s  Success stories of Indian Women entrepreneurs would like to share any of your stories or entrepreneurial journey with us, feel free to contact us via email.

NOTE: The images in this story belong to their respective owners. If you feel that any images posted here is a violation of your copyright, please write to us.