We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shivani Mehrotra a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shivani , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today How did you come up with the idea for your business?

Vismaya is a brand of women accessories and was founded by sister – brother duo. It is a brand which was passed on from our grandfather to father and now to the two children as family legacy. Family owned and operated, it is a brand that means “wonder of life”. With that in mind, we wanted to create something that was beautiful and wonderful and also evergreen. The family legacy which was a gift to my brother and myself was the best asset we had and inspired us to take the brand from one level to the other.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Family legacy and our rich heritage was the reason we wanted to launch this brand. There is so much knowledge of rich textiles in our family that it only made sense to create wonders that were for everyday use, comfortable and available at a reasonable price.

We are proud of this 3 generational business which gave us a purpose and meaning.

Vismaya started with scarves that were created using soft fabrics and high quality. Today the brand has name associated with bandanas, wearables, scarves and various textile based accessories.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Time and again, business has seen many trends and cycles which have lead us to see both the up and down of running a fashion/ lifestyle accessories brand. We have seen scarves go through a roller coaster cycle of up trending and then downtrending which as a business owner can be very discouraging. We had to pivot each time there was cycle which was a threat to the brand. One of the many examples is post covid times which saw the onset of a downtrend in general with fashion accessories. We immediately created bandanas which turned out to be a best seller item during covid and post covid days. Our bandanas are soft, high quality with a touch of beautiful embroidered words of an emotion that is felt by most like “Give Love” or “Be Kind”. People gravitated towards the emotions and the beautiful prints of our bandanas it became a must have accessory for your every day outfit.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

We also launched new products like tote bags, cell phone/ bag straps, small travel pouches that gave our customers a variety to pick from and Vismaya should be known for products beyond scarves and bandanas. To provide a platform for upcoming artists to showcase their artwork, we started collaborating with small artist and have their artwork on various products offered by Vismaya.

The decision to pivot was validated when we saw a positive response to our new products and ideas. We learnt that we have to continue to innovate and create products that resonate with our philosophy and that resilience and the ability to stay afloat amidst challenging times was important for survival and thriving in a challenging business environment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.vismaya.com
• Instagram: @vismayacollection
• Facebook: @vismayacollection
• Linkedin: Shivani Mehrotra