A few years ago, I made my first trip to Singapore – the bustling finance capital of Asia. Being in the apparel trade, I could not resist taking some time off vacation mode and strolling through Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands mall. Given that Singapore has a sizable Indian population, I hoped to see at least one Indian label in one of Asia’s largest luxury malls. To my dismay, I saw none.

That made me wonder. India has become one of the IT hubs of the world, it is gradually morphing into a manufacturing hub, but none of our brands can make it to a prominent Asian mall. If we can manufacture Louis Vuitton bags, Jaguar cars, Zara apparel, Monti fabrics, can’t we have a brand that stands for quality? If Indians can manufacture for Saville Row and Jerymn Street, what holds us back from establishing a Saville Row concept in India?

With these thoughts at heart and ambition in our strides we launched Vitruvien. Different from the outset, Vitruvien aspired to dress men not in off the rack standard sizes, but in shirts custom tailored to perfection. Inspired from Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawing of the perfect male specimen – Vitruvien aims to blend art & science, fashion & fit to create that perfect shirt for our customers.

Thanks to the support & encouragement of our Indian customers over the past year and a half, we are poised to take a tiny step towards our daunting and ambitious dream – to put India on the bespoke map of the world. To build a brand that is global in its manifestation and Indian at its core. A brand that stands for quality not price. A brand that does not stoop to routine discounts despite what e-commerce trends dictate.

We are not that global brand we wish to be yet. We are honest about it. But this is our ambition, our goal. And today we embark upon it.