#mustvisitstores

Shahpur Jat struggles to differentiate out in the competitive retail climate while new businesses continue to favour the Delhi shopping district.

The 11-year-old studio was turned into an e-commerce fulfilment centre last month by the womenswear firm Nitya Bajaj, which is owned and operated by designer Nitya Birla. Birla has made Shahpur Jat, a market bustling with independent embroiderers, dyers, pattern makers, small garment factories, and boutique designer studios, her first home even though she is still looking for a location for the new store. So why do you want to go? The proliferation of numerous brands in Shahpur Jat is posing a challenge for businesses that are growing or exploring new markets.

Birla is alluding to a jumble of retail establishments that have altered Shahpur Jat’s appearance during the past ten years. In addition to office spaces and several vendors, the market, which is situated in South Delhi adjacent to upscale residential districts like Panchsheel Park, currently houses over 200 retail stores in the fashion, culinary, décor, and furnishing sectors. It provides a cornucopia of possibilities for fashion customers, including “famous” A-listers, boutique businesses with Instagram cred, and companies you might not be familiar with. Its wide range of options also contributes to its popularity. “The fact that a visitor can buy across price points and for any occasion — not only for big budget weddings — is a major reason why the space has thrived,” says Vrinda Sachdev, the co-founder of Indianwear label Qbik who opened a store there in 2011. Despite Sachdev’s apparent optimism for Shahpur Jat’s retail future, she shares Birla’s worries about everything from the market’s specific operational issues to the contradiction in the market’s identity.

The Evolving Dynamics The first phase of the statewide shutdown to stop the spread of COVID-19 began in May 2020, and like many other shopping districts, Shahpur Jat found it difficult to get going. In the same month, The Voice of Fashion published an article with opinions and forecasts about the industry’s future along with several worries from designers. These included overhead costs that kept eating into profits despite no sales and the idea of social isolation, which was necessary to stop the virus’ spread but was only a pipe dream due to the cramped environment. Similar issues may have existed at the time in many shopping centres, but Shahpur’s particular anatomy made it more difficult.

The problems are caused by the market’s status as an urban village, where the majority of the properties are owned by long-term members of the Jat community. Due to the “shared” and homogenous decisions the villagers typically make as landlords, some, like Birla, think this community-driven model crucial to its economy. Others consider the approach to be complex, with holes in the infrastructure’s or safety’s compliance with industry requirements. It follows a similar design to other urban-rural regions that are part of the Lal Dora scheme, which dates back to the early 20th century and was initially intended to separate the residential sections from the agricultural space in Delhi’s villages. Historically, these areas have been excluded from both commercial bylaws and local ordinances. “On paper, Shahpur Jat is considered a village, with none of the legal compliances applicable, even though it finds itself centrally located on the maps of Delhi,” explains designer Karan Torani, who opened a studio there in 2018, left in April 2021, and built a factory in Noida’s industrial district.

The Delhi Development Authority, the government’s agency for city planning, was recommended to take control of these areas earlier this year by the National Capital Region Planning Board.

Fueling Emerging Talent

Shahpur Jat continues to nurture upcoming talent seeking to succeed in a cutthroat industry, despite logistics being a pain for many enterprises, particularly those who have made the leap from small to middle to large scale businesses. “I have a deep love and emotional connection to Shahpur because I started my adventure there in a tiny room, and we grew together. For us, it was the location where everything came together, according to Torani.

Younger companies based in the area benefit from the neighborhood’s mobility and availability of autonomous workers. “We began operations in 2015, and one of the key factors in our decision to locate there was its accessibility, particularly to NCR regions like Noida and Gurugram. The conscientious clothing brand Theorem writes in an email that rentals are reasonable and manageable even for sustainable businesses, adding that the holiday season is a deal-breaker for company.

Shahpur Jat’s “feel” and the culture-community-fashion discourse that ranges from billboards welcoming consumers to “Fashion Street” and “Designer Street” to the exclusive pedestrian-only area Dada Jungi Lane inspire certain people as well. “Mirakin was established in May 2015, and a year later, we moved our studio to Shahpur Jat, where we have been ever since. According to Shailja Choudhary, creative director at the company that sells 3D printed jewellery with an emphasis on repurposed sterling silver, “For us, it was the entire fashion culture and mood and of course the wonderful market space.” She continues by saying that while the epidemic reduced foot traffic, it also resulted in a spike in “serious” customers.

Visiting Shahpur in 2021

With the pandemic update of masked faces, food hawkers with gloved hands, and sanitizers at numerous shop windows, a bustling crowd lines the sinuous passageways and sharp crevices of the market on a Saturday afternoon near the end of November. Dreamcatchers are hung amid the tangle of power wires above, but there are also areas with colourful graffiti alongside handwritten signs advertising khaka masters, garment finishing services, and dry cleaners. Maggi and chai stands continue to coexist with boutique labels like Khajanchi, Gaurav Gupta (not the fashion designer), Bhavya Basin, Paaki, and Shiva Jangra, who predominately sell wedding apparel.

What comes next for Shahpur, then?

Sachdev thinks that Shahpur Jat’s appeal will continue to be fueled by the luxury of choice it offers, despite Qbik’s recent opening of a new store at the gated shopping complex in the Chattarpur neighbourhood known as Dhan Mill Compound, where upscale fashion and design brands coexist with gourmet coffee shops and chocolatiers. Birla, however, does not believe that the area is affected by the “Hauz Khaz Village syndrome,” which saw a retail collapse in the once-bustling market over the previous five years. Shahpur is far from going out of business, she continues, even though the overall mix of brands and goods may alter.