15 April 2013

H3O Apparel – Men’s Linen Shirts, Globally Inspired

H3O Apparel - Presenting Elegant Linen Casual Shirts


H3O Apparel - is a culturally, ethically and internationally inspired linen clothing line, created in association with fashion studio - Urban Purple to bring forward classic fashion elements from around the world into distinctively fashionable modern day wear. Our designs are intended to be the preferred choice of men’s linen fashion apparel suited for just about any occasion, setting and lifestyle.

Our mission is to design, and manufacture casual linen shirts of our global inspirations using highest quality linen fabrics and present it via specialty retail outlets, boutiques and directly to our customers through the company’s e-commerce website. At H3O Apparel we will strive every day to innovate, finding inspiration from cultures all over the world and interpret them in a way that is uniquely H3O and strive to be the preferred destination for the latest trends, essential styles, and must-have clothing.

Linen Shirts bu H3O Apparel

Linen Clothing line , Casual Lenin Shirts Line were just vague pictures which came up to me first as a casual interest and them I could see some passion in it. The story of how we started was one that evolved over the past three years as I traveled through countless countries in Asia and blessed with the opportunity to take in each of the different cultures. What struck me most was the uniqueness of the clothing and splendid fabrics that the locals actually wore for everyday events, work and more so at special occasions. Having become quite fond of how the garments looked, I decided one day to pick myself up a few and try them out. I remember visiting a few of the local Malls and was surprised with the realization that such would not be an easy task. The stores were a virtual sea of shelves and racks riddled with the standard fare of western fashions, just as if I was shopping in a mall in the United States. It was certainly not what I had expected and getting another polo or western shirt was something I was not really interested in doing.

I soon realized that most stores only allocated a very small section to these local items and it was usually in some far off corner. Well, to make a long story short, I pick up a few items and then began to add to my small collection as I traveled throughout other countries.

Interestingly enough as I wore the garments throughout my many international stops, I found myself receiving numerous compliments and inquiries as to where I picked them up which I found very interesting.I liked some of the items so much that I asked my mother back home in the US, a lifetime seamstress, to make me a few more and to incorporate features that I felt would make them more modern. She was extremely patient with me as we debated over fabrics and buttons. Not before long my closet had a pretty decent sampling of personally designed clothing items incorporating these international influences that I found I could wear just about anywhere. Since then the compliments have continued.

It was at this point that I felt convinced there were others like me that both longed for and would appreciated similarly inspired clothing items. So having had a pretty decent set of successful entrepreneurial experiences under my belt I decided to explore this as a possible avenue.  It was at that moment that H3O Apparel was conceived. The name H3O has its roots in a tattoo my wife got during a very challenging time in our lives. It stands for the unity and strength of our family, where in the letters represent our first initials of our names and the number three represents our three children.

Those close friends that I shared the idea with indeed responded very favorably, but most ended their opinions with “you must be insane”. Rightly so I guess, since all my professional experience was in the high technology area. That was about eighteen months ago. Since then I have been fortunate enough to bring on board several partners to help me cover various aspects of the business, and after much effort devoted to designs, strategy, finance , eCommerce and operations we were able to finally launch our Linen Clothing site on April 11th of this year.

One such partner that enabled our launch of 100% Linen Casual Shirt Collection is Paromita Das from Fashion Studio Urban Purple. Early on I looked all over the world for a turnkey design studio that would support our small start-up on designs, samples, strategy, marketing and manufacturing. Most engagements turned into disappointing dead ends due to various reasons ranging from language barriers and unresponsiveness to excessive cost. That was the situation until that day I stumbled upon Urban Purple Fashion Studio and quickly received a very quick response to my inquiry.

Paromita was very welcoming to a small venture such as ours. She approached our inquiry with an open mind and soon became a believer in our vision and now is a key l part of our design development process and manufacturing flow.  Initially her ability and willingness to work with us through design iterations and small batch orders within reasonable budgets was what first attracted us to her, but soon after other equally critical attributes such as her expertize, accessibility, responsiveness, creativity and emphasis on quality became equally important and in totality continue to strengthen our business relationship. We at H3O Apparel look forward to bringing our vision to fruition and growing our business together with Paromita Das and Urban Purple Fashion Studio.