Beech Tree branches out

Karachi

Fashion is lucrative but competition is tough. In times like these, it becomes indispensible for retail brands to offer something novel, something that resonates with the brand’s identity, making it distinguishable from competing brands. A revamped Beech Tree, fresh following its successful debut on the PSFW runway, had its grand launch this weekend; grander because of the fact that the store covers a massive space on Dolmen City’s Designers’ Avenue. However, while Beech Tree has most of its essentials in place – a business model, affordable clothing, a wide variety of Eastern embroidered separates (kurtas and cigarette pants), unstitched fabric and a small section of accessories - it loses out on one of the key aspects of fashion design: originality.

As you walk into the huge Beech Tree store, the minimalist character of the store has a welcoming aura and the extensive racks of kurtas lined across the entire space are enticing enough to influence a shopping splurge given the reasonable prices.

“What we are trying to create is good value for money within the prêt wear parameters,” said COO Kehkeshan Raza.

With a price bracket of PKR 2,000 to PKR 3,000, the outfits are definitely a great bargain but those who are looking to stand out in the crowd will be disappointed for there is hardly anything that is different from what is already available in the market. Unlike Sapphire, that has managed to create its own identity with quirky prints and shorter kurtas, Beech Tree seems to be drawing too much of its inspiration from Khaadi including lengths that exceed the current standard of 45 inches – one of the looming criticisms of Khaadi in recent times.

That said some of the embroidered separates do have potential and the unstitched collection has an interesting design element. A lot more interesting would have been to see their runway collection adapted right in time for this big launch. The accessories unfortunately echo cheap knock-offs of international luxury brands like Gucci unlike the incredible 9Lines briefcase bags that were custom-made for the brand’s runway collection, and the jewellery is also very similar to what is available at a myriad of brands, both Western and Eastern.

Team Beech Tree [L to R] Uzma Shah, Saira Tariq, Maheen Iftikhar, Iqra Raghib, Kehkashan Raza, Aneeka Zahra, Mehr Khan, Hifsa and Maryam Ali

In short, a lot is happening at this Lahore-based retail brand but with little direction. What it needs is a brand philosophy and an identity which serve as a framework for the designs. What it also needs is a lot more work on its design element so as to stand apart from the rest.

Thankfully, the team behind Beech Tree is open to suggestions and is willing to strive for the better. The brand promises to adapt its Porcelain Dreams collection through a formal range for Eid that will be available in stores a week before Ramadan kicks off.

“We have worked very diligently towards adapting the collection for retail, filtering out the ones that weren’t the most wearable. We picked out around four to five designs and tweaked them further to develop an Eid collection that is both festive and aesthetically sound,” added Kehkeshan.

It is obvious that there is slight fear of stepping into a new market and the brand is at the moment testing waters with safer options, but once it has set base it will be important for them to break away and take more design risks. Customers nowadays have become a lot more aware and are out and about looking for things that are new. If Beech Tree has to tap into the savvy fashion consumers, it will have to shift focus to the fashionable aspect of high street retail.