An exclusive exhibition for plus size women, The White Tulip, was held today at the One O Five gallery. Organized by Dipashna, a 33-year-old renowned clothing brand, the event focused on offering affordable, fashionable and comfortable clothes for all plus-sized women. The exhibition showcases wide variety of dresses, not just kurtis and sarees, but also evening gowns, short dresses, summer dresses, and ever beachwear.
While explaining the cause and inspiration behind this interesting exhibition, Dipna Kripalani, co-owner of Dipashna, said, “I was a plus-size for a long period of time and I use to have my own share of struggles. Especially, during the wedding shopping of my sister, I was not able to find the perfect apparel, finally, I had to get everything customized from Mumbai and Delhi. but during that time, the shopkeepers were so rude and i would face a lot of backlash in general due to my figure. It’s then, that I got this idea that i have to face so much that there must be others like me as well who would have to face much worse. To fill this gap between the inclusion in fashion my sister and I decided to curate affordable, fashionable and comfortable clothes for all plus-sized women.”
The collection has everything above size XL From short dresses, tops, summer dresses, long gowns, Indian Kurtis, ready-made saree Blouses, beachwear and many more such amazing apparel. Aashna Kripalani, Dipna’s sister and a co-owner of Dipashna, said, “Since a lot of people who are on a heavier side do not like to wear sleeveless clothes, we have a lot of variety in shrugs as well, to cover up.”
Aashna, meanwhile, described this business as something that runs in their veins. The siblings have always been surrounded by clothes and their Mother’s impeccable entrepreneurial sense towards this business. “We have grown seeing our mother showing customers around, how she used to deal with people and how all her customers were well-attended Contended. Earlier I and my sister use to work in corporate firms and later we realised that why instead of helping our mother and taking the family business ahead.”
On the other hand, Dipna said she her journey so far has been very pleasant. ” I get bored of things very easily, but this is one thing that I have still not gotten bored of, it’s kept me going all the time. So, many customers have become family. It’s almost as if I have evolved along with the business,” she said.
The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by Dr. Falguni Vasavda, a TedX speaker and Professor & Chair, Strategic Marketing Area at MICA. In her address during the event, Dr. Falguni expressed her admiration towards this initiative. She also highlighted the problems faced by Plus-sized women and said that more brands should take up this cause. “This kind of exhibition is very much a need of the hour, I would say, because there is no inclusivity of fat women as far as fashion is concerned. Usually, we get clothes which are very dull and bland because if you are fat then you cant be a ‘Fashionista’. This is the perception of the industry. Either they don’t understand your body cut shape size hence these generic brands like pantaloons, for example, would create clothes which will make you fatter and are not in accordance with your structure.”
She adds, “Also, even if there are brands that are selling clothes for plus size, they make it premium and very costly. I have been an old Dipashna customer. Here you a lot of variety in every range. Pricing here is also very reasonable, so I’m sure that Ahmedabad will benefit from such an exhibition.”
