Business

Mumbai : In a business environment where professional success often comes at the cost of personal time, a Mumbai-based fashion accessories brand "Vintage Velvet" is redefining what entrepreneurship can look like when family becomes the foundation of growth. Vintage Velvet, founded by Dr. Fatima Vadhariya along with co-founder and proprietor Ahad Vadhariya, is not just a fashion brand built around accessories and trends. It is a business shaped by emotion, family values, and the desire to create a more meaningful life together. The journey of Vintage Velvet began not with a corporate business strategy, but with a deeply personal realization. Both founders came from medical backgrounds in dentistry and pharmacy, professions known for long hours and demanding schedules. While their careers were professionally stable, they found themselves missing valuable moments with their children. Over time, the pressure of balancing work and family life led them to rethink what success truly meant. That realization eventually became the driving force behind Vintage Velvet. The founders wanted to create something that would allow them to stay professionally active while also being present as parents. Rather than continuing in a routine that kept them constantly occupied, they chose to build something together as a family. The business initially started through jewellery drop-shipping, but the turning point came when they discovered a collection of scarves that stood out from what was commonly available in the Indian market. Trusting their instincts, they invested in a small order of just 200 scarves across 10 designs. The response exceeded expectations. The entire collection sold out within four days, revealing a strong demand for elegant and premium-looking fashion accessories at accessible prices. What began as a small experiment soon transformed into a growing lifestyle accessories brand. Today, Vintage Velvet offers more than 1,500 products, including scarves, handbags, shawls, ponchos, jewellery, hair accessories, watches, gifting products, and seasonal collections. The brand has expanded to over 450 unique scarf designs and now serves customers across India. Unlike many fast-moving fashion businesses that rely heavily on trends, Vintage Velvet focuses strongly on curation and uniqueness. The founders spend significant time researching customer preferences, global fashion influences, color combinations, seasonal styling, and underserved categories before introducing new collections. Their willingness to take risks on fresh and unconventional designs has helped build a loyal customer base over the years. Today, the company handles approximately 1,800 to 2,000 monthly orders and maintains a repeat customer rate of more than 35 percent, reflecting growing customer trust and long-term engagement with the brand. What truly distinguishes Vintage Velvet, however, is the role family continues to play in the business itself. Their children — Sarah, Safa, and Arwa — are actively involved in the creative environment surrounding the company. From helping with packaging during weekends to sharing opinions on product selections, the children have become part of the journey in a natural and meaningful way. Some ideas within the children’s collections are even inspired directly through conversations at home. The founders describe the business as more than a source of income. For them, it became a way to reclaim time together as a family. Evenings once consumed by exhausting work schedules are now spent discussing ideas, selecting products, and creating memories together. Like many entrepreneurial ventures, the path was not free from challenges. Transitioning from respected medical careers into fashion entrepreneurship involved financial uncertainty, societal pressure, and moments of doubt. The founders openly acknowledge that they entered the business without prior experience in fashion retail or accessories. However, the emotional purpose behind the brand kept them motivated during difficult phases. The company initially operated from home before moving into a dedicated office space in 2023 as operations expanded. Despite this growth, the brand has remained committed to the values that shaped it from the beginning accessibility, uniqueness, affordability, and emotional connection. Vintage Velvet has particularly gained recognition for its silk-feel scarves, embroidered stoles, premium handbags, winter collections, gifting solutions, and curated festive products. The company has also expanded into men’s winter accessories while continuing to strengthen its presence in women’s and children’s fashion. Also Read | NADEEMIC, A Premium Minimalist Fashion Brand Operationally, the brand has focused on customer convenience through pan-India delivery, cash-on-delivery options, fast dispatch timelines, and direct customer support often handled personally by the founders. Yet despite the company’s growth and expanding customer reach, the founders believe their biggest achievement lies elsewhere. For them, the real success of Vintage Velvet is not only in business numbers, but in creating a life where family, creativity, and work can exist together. Vintage Velvet stands as more than a fashion accessories company. It represents a growing shift in modern entrepreneurship where businesses are increasingly being built not only around ambition, but around values, relationships, and the pursuit of a more balanced life.