The departure of the chief designer of Wendell Rodricks’ label throws up the question again
Among the best fashion news of last year was that the Wendell Rodricks label had been bought over by a promising conglomerate, the Mumbai-based Purple Style Lab. Wendell had died rather suddenly nine months prior to the sale. Pioneeringly, and perhaps presciently, he had announced one of his former students, the talented Schulen Fernandes, as the label’s new creative head in 2016.
Purple Style Lab, founded by Abhishek Agarwal and backed by Flipkart billionaire Binny Bansal, had previously purchased the hugely successful fashion e-commerce site Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop as well as invested in designer Masaba Gupta’s label. While announcing the Rodricks purchase, a distress sale no doubt, Agarwal had said to this columnist: “A lot of our clients, both online and offline, always enquired if we stocked Wendell Rodricks. So, the brand equity among consumers was very clear to us. According to me, money is not the only driving factor in buying a brand, one also needs to be aware of the responsibility that comes with it.”
Wendell’s passing had left his label orphaned. Even though Schulen was chief designer, Wendell owned and managed the business. His partner Jerome Marrel came from a hospitality background and kept away from the daily goings-on of the fashion trade. Wendell’s death, the pandemic-induced lockdown, as well as a delayed museum launch (the couple had donated their home to be turned into Goa’s first costume history museum) was too much to manage. Marrel was happy to have found a buyer in Agarwal especially so that staff salaries could be paid. Moreover, the sale had industry veteran and Wendell’s good friend Anjana Sharma, then creative director at Purple Style Lab, watching over it.
Purple Style Lab, founded by Abhishek Agarwal and backed by Flipkart billionaire Binny Bansal, had previously purchased the hugely successful fashion e-commerce site Pernia’s Pop-Up Shop as well as invested in designer Masaba Gupta’s label. While announcing the Rodricks purchase, a distress sale no doubt, Agarwal had said to this columnist: “A lot of our clients, both online and offline, always enquired if we stocked Wendell Rodricks. So, the brand equity among consumers was very clear to us. According to me, money is not the only driving factor in buying a brand, one also needs to be aware of the responsibility that comes with it.”
Wendell’s passing had left his label orphaned. Even though Schulen was chief designer, Wendell owned and managed the business. His partner Jerome Marrel came from a hospitality background and kept away from the daily goings-on of the fashion trade. Wendell’s death, the pandemic-induced lockdown, as well as a delayed museum launch (the couple had donated their home to be turned into Goa’s first costume history museum) was too much to manage. Marrel was happy to have found a buyer in Agarwal especially so that staff salaries could be paid. Moreover, the sale had industry veteran and Wendell’s good friend Anjana Sharma, then creative director at Purple Style Lab, watching over it.