BRAND NAME - Bombay Browny
FOUNDER - Khyati Doshi
STARTED IN - 2019
USP - Luxury Designer Bedding
A bedding brand rooted in the spirit of the city, Bombay Browny’s dreamy white range of home textiles aims to change the way you sleep. Centred around comfort-first, the young designer bedding brand offers home textiles made with highest quality cotton and boasts of a staggering 420-thread count. Founded by ISDI and NABA graduate Khyati Doshi, Bombay Browny’s bedding options merge the luxury of good quality with good design. The interior design graduate speaks to Blur The Border about why focusing on high quality bedding products is important and how it affects our sleep.
Khyati's Picks
Who is the one influencer you wish to see using your products?
Amrita Thakur and Dipa Khosla (also love her baby Dua Buller)
Is there a podcast/book/social media handle that you’ve found helpful for your business?
Podcasts by the Leap Club
If you could collaborate with any Indian or international brand, who would it be?
Mattina Moderna, Dusendusen, De Gournay.
BTB: What is the story behind the name of your brand?
KHYATI: When I started this business in 2019, we formerly went by the name Eternal Whites - a brand name my father had registered for his boutique projects. Earlier this year I wanted to rebrand it to something that felt like me, as I believe that a brand should also have a personality. I have my own blog that I started in 2018 with the same name - Bombay Browny, tales of a brown girl living in Bombay where I would post about art, design, culture. When the time to rebrand came and so many doors were shutting, I realised what I was looking for was standing right in front of me - Bombay Browny official - a marriage between my passion and my purpose.
BTB: You studied design at NABA Milan. What inspired you to return home and start a home textiles/bedding brand?
KHYATI: I studied interior design at ISDI Parsons in Mumbai and then transferred to NABA Milan for the final 2 years of the degree. Being away from home actually allowed me to look at the beautiful fabric of our city and culture through a whole new lens. I have been drawn to textiles and have been fascinated by the soft and understated value they add to our spaces. So I feel it was the natural way of course for me to select home textiles as my brand.
BTB: What gap do you aim to fill in the market, through your brand?
KHYATI: People tend to spend more on what the world can see and often overlook or compensate on self-care. We want to promote that comfort is a luxury state of mind and that you deserve the best, even when no one is watching. Where we sleep and how we sleep is extremely important to our overall well being and that is something our brand is looking to raise awareness around. I think we have also been lucky to build a community of people who resonate with this idea.
BTB: What is your professional background and what role did it play in your journey as an entrepreneur?
KHYATI: I worked with BARO in the sales and marketing department, which really helped me understand the importance of client relationships and community building. As a small team, we juggled between many roles and that ability to fill in the blank spaces whenever needed and show up for my brand is something I definitely learned from Srila and Baro.
BTB: As a young entrepreneur in the luxury bedding business, how do you ensure the impeccable quality of your products while also establishing a strong brand presence in a competitive market?
KHYATI: Our parent company has been a supplier to some of the finest luxury hotels worldwide, providing beautiful quality bed and bath linen that has been spun, processed and stitched in India. Having their support definitely means our quality stays top-notch. While the market is pretty competitive, I feel that if as a brand we stick to our value of being authentic and relatable, we might have a good thing going for us.
What is the show/book/song you are currently obsessing over?
Show - The Summer I Turned Pretty
Song - Bleu by Fred Again
My last purchase from a homegrown brand was…
Milano black dress and Limoncello top from Aureole.
In my spare time, you’ll find me…
lounging in comfort or exploring the outdoors, especially green spaces.
Homegrown brands I am loving right now...
Obataimu, Subko, Abode Hotels
BTB: Your designs are clean and minimalistic. How do you convince your customers to make the purchase from a young brand like yours, especially in the e-commerce model?
KHYATI: Apart from spreading awareness on our social media, we have recently started hosting ‘Sleep Concerts’ - an offline event that allows you to experience our quality before you decide to make a purchase. We have hosted four of these so far and it has been a huge success. It has helped us to truly connect with our customers and vice-versa.
BTB: What are some non-commercial victories you have achieved that have helped your business?
KHYATI: I would say building our community. We launched right before the pandemic hit and it was a terrible time to start a brand. But being stuck at home, we did a lot of activity on our social media around wellness and self-care, where we interacted with breathwork facilitators, a life and health coach and even conducted a yoga nidra session. Doing all of this has helped us grow our community organically and created goodwill for the brand, which I would say is one of my biggest victories.
BTB: How do you structure your 9-5 as an entrepreneur? Do you find that it’s hard to take time out for yourself?
KHYATI: Initially it would be difficult to strike that balance as there would be days when work would take over the weekends as well. I am an extremely selfish person when it comes to my space and wellbeing, and that’s a quality I am happy to hold onto. Ever since we rebranded to Bombay Browny, I have managed to put together a routine that works for me while ensuring that work is not affected. I start my day around 11 AM and get all the urgent tasks completed like dispatches and accounting, etc. Post lunch, I get into my creative zone where I focus on new ideas, business development. I try to squeeze in walks when I am on calls to ensure I meet my daily step count.
BTB: How do you unwind during your spare time?
KHYATI: I am a creature of comfort and a total homebody, I love relaxing with gentle yoga flows. I am more of a visual learner than a reader so I love to kick back with a beer or herbal tea and catch up on OTT. Apart from this, I have been trying my hands on a DJ console with my partner and that’s been a great post-work activity for us. Simple stuff makes me happy and rest and comfort makes me happiest!
BTB: What are some challenges you’ve encountered so far? And what are your biggest takeaways?
KHYATI: Being in a very competitive market where content is consumed at such a high rate, I think managing time spent behind social media has been a challenge. Another big challenge for us has been financial investment, especially as a bootstrapped brand. Our beautiful products are expensive and while we want to keep our product basket growing - the cash flow management is spread pretty thin between marketing activities, overheads, product and packaging etc. The biggest takeaway is to show up consistently, every single day just like the sun. A quote I believe strongly in - ‘Done is better than perfect. Some days you just gotta get it done’ - Faye D’Souza.
BTB: How do you see your brand evolving over the next 5 years?
KHYATI: I Over the next five years, I would love to take the brand global - a modern brand that is rooted in Bombay but made for homes across the world. Our brand slogan is ‘An Ode to Home’ and we want to create a dialogue with our audience to dissect and understand what are the things/sentiments attached to the idea of ‘home’ and then create or curate products that feel like home to them.
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