Meet Iqra-Valley’s maiden online clothing store owner
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Meet Iqra-Valley’s maiden online clothing store owner

Post by on Wednesday, June 2, 2021

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Iqra Ahmad is young, she is vibrant and most importantly she is the first to start online clothing store in Valley. The 28-year-old female entrepreneur, who hails from Srinagar, runs an online clothing store with the name as “Tulpalav.

In an exclusive interview with Rising Kashmir’s reporter Irfan Amin Malik, the young entrepreneur Iqra gave an insight about her business, how it all started, what is its current status, the challenges she faced and what are her future plans regarding her business.

Irfan Amin Malik: Tell us first about yourself?

Iqra Ahmad: I come from Sanat Nagar area in Srinagar district. I always wanted to become a fashion designer. Since Kashmir has no fashion designing schools so I decided to study other subjects. After studying economics and psychology, and later linguistics from the University of Kashmir, I moved from pillar to post to get a job, but all in vain. Ultimately, I decided to create my own space. Without any formal studies of fashion designing, I decided to launch my clothing store.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: When did you start your online business venture and how?

Iqra Ahmad: It was in 2015, when one day an idea struck me of starting my own fashion business. During those days there was no online business store in Kashmir, so I decided to be the first and open one. Without taking any credit or bank loan I started my business with just Rs 10,000. With this little amount, I started the first online clothing business in Kashmir with the name “Palav Forever in Style”, which I later changed to “Tulpalav” only.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: What kind of clothes do you sell on Tulpalav? Where do you find your customers?

 

Iqra Ahmad: On Tulpalav we sell many clothing items, which include pherans (traditional Kashmiri tunics, for summer and winter wear), kurtas, pleated skirts and wedding dresses. Our most popular product is a custom-made tilla-work (gold or silver thread embroidery) pheran that has gained a lot of attention among customers. We also sell a wide range of products designed to blend modern fashion with the Kashmiri culture. I hardly procure any material from outside. We only use Kashmiri material. While using Kashmiri material in our items, we do designing, stitching and embroidering in a very trending manner. We mix the contemporary trends with the traditional Kashmiri designs. Now all these items are mostly sold through popular social media platform—Instagram. Every day, I get 5-6 orders across the world and I am able to make a good business.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: So Instagram is the place where you perform online business?

 

Iqra Ahmad: Absolutely, I created Instagram to showcase items before customers and luckily I managed to get thousands of customers across the world. Till August 2019, I had 50,000 Instagram followers, but in one snap I lost all hard earned verified account while using a virtual private network (VPN) to access the internet. Due to the internet gag post revocation of Article 370 in August 2019, I could not access internet. After months later, when 2G internet was partially restored, social media services like Instagram were still inaccessible. To access my insta account, I installed a VPN app, unfortunately, my account was hacked and I lost the account. Then I created a new account on which I have so managed to get 25,000 followers. I also have a Facebook page and soon I will be launching my own website also.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: Are you going to restrict your business to online only or do you have plans to start an offline business as well?

 

Iqra Ahmad: I am opening a physical store soon. The online store has been a successful one. But a physical store will be like another feather in my cap. I am planning to grow my business on every front. I would have started a physical store a long time back, but due to persistent lockdowns in Kashmir, I could not open it. Now I feel things are fine and it is time to start a physical store in the valley.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: What are your goals about your business?

Iqra Ahmad: I am striving hard to keep the Kashmiri traditions alive. I have a team of ten people. We are working with the determination to revive Kashmiri art, culture and heritage to prevent its extinction. Tulpalav is a platform through which we share our perception of fashion with the world. It is actually an initiative to represent the Kashmiri culture with the world.

 

Irfan Amin Malik: Being a female entrepreneur did you face any challenges?

 

Iqra Ahmad: Challenges are definitely there when you are running your online business in a place like Kashmir. My business totally depends on the internet and it is difficult to engage with customers via Instagram, Facebook, and Whatsapp, on low speed 2G internet. Sometimes there is no internet for months together and it is a terrible situation for those who are running online businesses. Lack of the internet takes a toll on everything like buying materials, designing a product, getting them stitched, photoshoots, uploading and editing, and packing the product.

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