After celebrating 25 years of being in the fashion world, last year, with an eponymous coffee table book, it was time Suneet Varma — the toast of Delhi’s fashion circles —opened a sprawling store in the city. As Varma looks forward to seeing a lot more of Mumbai, he shares his enthusiasm as he breaks into laughter every few minutes.

Suneet Varma’s new store at Kemps Corner. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

One such reason to laugh is the location of his new store — Kemps Corner. The venue has turned out to be a fashionable spot with stores of designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, and Shon Randhawa’s heritage revivalist label Patine, all housed in the same building. “It is such a coincidence: Shon’s store is next to mine at DLF Emporio in Delhi too! I called her up, we joked that we are this monogamous couple who go everywhere together,” he shares.

Though he has been selling out of multi-designer stores in the city mostly, Varma tells us that he always felt the need to open one huge space after two of his stores at shut shop last spring: “I will still be retailing out of multi-label stores, they are a result of the vision of the person running the store. A flagship store, instead, always embodies the brand,” he says.

Bombay love
Varma admits that the lookout to find the perfect place for his flagship store has taken a while. “I liked Bandra as it was closer to the stars, but most of my clients come from South Bombay. Once the location was set, everything was smooth. People are professional and paperwork is not sluggish. Even my interiors were done on time,” raves Varma.