{"id":26834,"date":"2020-08-11T10:22:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-11T14:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/?p=26834"},"modified":"2024-11-18T19:41:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T00:41:27","slug":"student-entrepreneur-brings-south-asian-fashions-to-rent-the-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/textiles.ncsu.edu\/news\/2020\/08\/student-entrepreneur-brings-south-asian-fashions-to-rent-the-runway\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Entrepreneur Brings South Asian Fashions to Rent the Runway"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Juggling the demands of being a full-time NC State sophomore and Park Scholar<\/a> as well as running Sani<\/a>, a South Asian fashion company, may seem daunting. But Ritika Shamdasani bubbles with enthusiasm and energy. Good thing, because the company is taking off in ways she never imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n The three-year-old company Ritika runs with her sister, Niki, began when the sisters recognized an unfilled fashion niche while shopping for an upcoming Indian wedding. \u201cWe were disappointed that we could not find the outfits, nor a shopping experience that we loved. We realized that many others were also settling for subpar options in this category of clothing,\u201d Ritika said. <\/p>\n\n\n \u201cThat summer we designed a collection of outfits to test the idea of what would soon become Sani,\u201d Ritika continued. \u201cWe made all the pieces in our size so that if they failed, we would have some outfits to last us for a while. We never planned on starting a business together, but when we saw the response from that collection, we decided to start Sani. It turns out that my sister and I have very complementary skill sets, and while we fight like normal siblings, family is at the foundation of this business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n \u201cAbout a year after creating Sani, my sister and I listened to the How I Built This podcast<\/a> where Jennifer Hyman (the CEO and founder of Rent the Runway<\/a>) talked about how she cold emailed Diane Von Furstenberg, her first designer on Rent the Runway,\u201d Ritika explained. \u201cThat inspired my sister to cold email Jennifer Hymen because we had always thought they would be the perfect partner for Sani. And she got a response!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n Sani recently had several of its designs featured on Rent the Runway<\/a>, the prominent national fashion website created to rent high end designer clothing to customers. Sani was rocketed into the national spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\nRent the Runway Picks Up Sani Designs<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n