Virgio, a rapidly growing fashion-tech brand, has been making waves with its unique approach to sustainability and supply chain innovation. Virgio has been receiving overwhelming customer response before its UAE launch and that was the reason the team decided to officially expand into the UAE. In this exclusive conversation, Amar Nagaram, Founder and CEO of Virgio, discusses the brand’s expansion into the UAE, its supply chain-driven approach, and the experiments shaping the future of fashion.
You already had customers in UAE, when you planned to launch here. But how did you prep to venture out the operations?
Before the launch, we had to ensure our operations were in place, especially considering the UAE’s preference for COD (cash on delivery). We partnered with local logistics providers to streamline deliveries, returns, and customer experience. Post-launch, the response has been phenomenal. Three key areas of interest have grown for us: first, consumer engagement—our website traffic surged, and even our sustainability page has been receiving significant attention, proving that UAE customers value quality and ethical fashion. Second, media interest—Shilpi, who manages PR, has been handling an influx of interview requests. And third, unexpected but exciting, is investor interest from funds in the region.
Are you actively looking for funding, or are you focused on growth with existing resources?
We are currently well-funded by prominent global investors. Our focus has been on building infrastructure and scaling operations rather than seeking additional funding. Virgio is much more than just a D2C fashion brand—we see ourselves as a fashion supply chain company. Fashion today isn’t differentiated by designs; trends move at lightning speed. What sets a brand apart is how quickly and efficiently it can identify trends, manufacture quality products, and deliver them on time. We’re investing in building a robust supply chain that aligns with this vision. That said, we are running multiple experiments, and if any of them take off in unexpected ways—like our UAE launch did—we might consider raising additional capital to scale faster.
Can you share more about these experiments?
The core challenge in fashion has always been the disconnect between the manufacturing cycle and the purchasing cycle. Brands that have successfully closed this gap have outperformed the market. We are taking a different approach—can we make products after receiving an order? That would be the ideal zero-inventory model. We’re working on developing a supply chain that enables us to manufacture garments on demand while maintaining quick delivery times.
To draw an analogy, think of the 10-minute café models in India. They pre-prepare ingredients so that when an order is placed, the dish is assembled and delivered within minutes. We’re working on identifying the “ingredients” that would allow us to manufacture fashion on demand while ensuring our delivery SLA (Service Level Agreement) of 3-5 days remains unchanged.
Would it be accurate to describe Virgio as an inventory-light yet highly trend-focused brand?
I’d put it slightly differently. The fashion industry today is divided between ultra-fast fashion brands, which prioritize trends but cut corners on quality and ethics, and sustainable fashion brands, which prioritize ethics but often lack trend relevance and affordability. Consumers are forced to choose between the two. At Virgio, we want to eliminate this compromise. We are building a brand that is trendy, affordable, and ethical. Our sustainability focus goes beyond the narrow industry definition of landfill reduction. A large portion of waste happens before a product reaches the consumer.
For example, in India, fabric wastage during cutting is typically between 17-25%. Since fabric accounts for about 60% of manufacturing costs, that’s a huge inefficiency. By optimizing cutting processes using technology, we’ve reduced wastage to 7-9%. This allows us to pass cost savings to consumers while maintaining quality.
In the Middle East, delivery speed is crucial. How are you managing inventory while ensuring fast delivery?
We’ve partnered with strong logistics providers in the region to ensure seamless fulfillment. Currently, most of our inventory in the Middle East is stocked upfront to meet delivery expectations. Our experimental on-demand manufacturing model is still being fine-tuned in India, and once we perfect it, we will gradually introduce it in the UAE and beyond. The goal is to strike a balance—leveraging inventory where necessary while moving toward a more agile, demand-driven model.
The Middle Eastern fashion market has unique preferences. Are you tailoring designs for local tastes?
We are taking a data-driven approach to this. Rather than relying on human intuition, we use technology to track global fashion conversations. What we’re observing is that fashion preferences are becoming increasingly global. From Lucknow to London, Gen Z is asking for similar styles. That being said, if we detect strong regional preferences—such as increased interest in modest fashion—our designs will evolve accordingly. But these shifts will be driven by customer demand, not internal assumptions.
Are there plans to expand beyond the UAE into Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, or other Middle Eastern markets?
Absolutely. Our ambition is to be a global brand. Dubai serves as a perfect testbed for expansion, given its diverse population and retail ecosystem. We are closely monitoring Saudi Arabia, which has immense potential. However, our tech indicates that Saudi has unique market nuances that we must address before expanding aggressively. As we refine our model, we will strategically expand into other regions based on data-driven insights rather than assumptions.
Finally, how would you sum up Virgio’s vision in one line?
Imagine an ultra-fast fashion brand—but with ethics. That’s Virgio.
When you mean tech, you’re basically customer listening using your AI?
We have an internal project called Tesla—Trend Early Signal Learning Analysis. It listens to fashion conversations and helps us predict upcoming trends. A simple example: the colour of the year was announced around December 12th or 13th. By January 2nd, we launched our first collection featuring that colour in our Bangalore store. It seemed like we launched it in just 20 days, but in reality, we had been working on it for 47 days. Our tech identified the trend early, and when the official announcement came, it validated our prediction. That’s how we stay ahead.
Just as a side note, do you see a future where you patent this technology and open it up for the fashion industry?
If I patent it, only we benefit—not the industry. We have no intention of patenting it. Coming from a tech background where everything is open-source, I believe in sharing what works at scale. When this proves itself further, I’ll be the first to announce it and let others use it.
That’s a bold stance, but doesn’t that mean losing a competitive edge?
Trends are signals—just directions. The real impact comes from how you interpret and execute them. The same trend can be realized in multiple ways, but Virgio will always have its own signature.
There’s always been a debate in fashion—does affordability drive sales, or is it value? Luxury is a whole different space, of course. But in your experience, what sells today and how will it be in the next five years?
Let me start with our target audience. Our ideal customer persona is a 27-year-old woman—the oldest Gen Z. Why? Because Gen Z has three unique traits. First, they experiment with fashion more than any generation before them. Second, they influence older generations instead of the other way around. Third, they actively care about sustainability—not just as a dinner table conversation but in daily decisions.
They don’t care about legacy brands; they care about authenticity. If you tell a compelling, genuine story, they will listen. And why 27? Because by then, she has purchasing power and can appreciate quality. Unlike ultra-fast fashion brands that cater to college students purely on price and trend, we want to create value beyond that.
By designing for a 27-year-old, we naturally appeal to consumers from 24 to 35, and even beyond. I recently spoke with a customer who looked fantastic in our dress—she was 44! That’s the beauty of what we’re building.
From a broader perspective, as economies evolve, consumers prioritize value for money over sheer affordability. They no longer pay premium prices just because a brand has a big name. They need transparency, they want to know the backstory, and they are willing to pay for brands that offer real value. That’s why we have a ‘fair pricing’ tab on our website, breaking down costs like no other brand in the world—except maybe one, and even they don’t go as far as we do. If you stay authentic and communicate value effectively, you will always find customers.
Looking ahead, how do you want to close 2025 for Virgio?
We want Virgio to be one of the most recognized brands for good fashion in the Middle East. Every other metric—growth, revenue, expansion—will naturally follow if we achieve that. And by ‘good,’ I mean good in trends, design, sustainability, and pricing. That’s why we call ourselves the only good fashion company. We aren’t optimizing for just one thing—we’re playing the long game, and we’re ready to do it the hard way if needed.
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