Mamtaa Gupta

Mamtaa is a born retailer, fondly known as ‘The Entrepreneur Alchemist’. A woman of strong mettle and enthusiasm, A textile and fashion and Interior designer. Who has been mentoring startup’s, individuals and brands for over a decade now. And designing Textiles, Fashion, Home Decor, Home Furnishing, Jewelry, Furniture and Retail Stores New to the city of Mumbai in 2003, she got a call to organize an international three day conference for a FIWE, with women entrepreneurs from India and Saarc countries were participating, the organization needed a volunteer. From planning the menu for over 200 women to negotiating the rates with the hotels,to networking with the local support groups and media,she did all of it in a span of two months! In her journey of 30 years, she has trained over 500 rural/ under educated people in embroidery, tailoring, cutting, designing and retailing. 1984 – Her Journey began with doing a thesis on Kanjivaram silk saris while studying textile design.And then bringing it to limelight while encouraging a women entrepreneur/designer from Chennai to convert the concept into Cotton Fabric and bring the same for an exhibition to Delhi. Usha Raghunathan, the lady, did do exactly that and Mamtaa managed to get her entire batch and the faculty to bunk college and attend the exhibition. Soon enough 30 of the 36 cartons of fabrics were sold out. Usha did not want to carry those boxes back and asked Mamtaa to find a shop, who would stock. Same day Mamtaa, convinced a shop in M Block Market Greater Kailash – 1 to stock the fabric. Mrs kapoor the owner went along and bought 4 boxes of fabric. Mamtaa told her the fabric would give her an edge over the neighbouring shop Kadambari.
In 1983 – 2nd year of college ,she discovered that a popular shop then called Handloom Emporium, had hired a professional person to do the window displays and the young lady responsible for the same had just completed her education in fashion and returned from Europe.So every thursday,missing on the lunch break, Mamtaa would walk across to see the show window. Her passion for fashion, retail, design, fabric, colours was visible from the early age of 4-5, as she started designing her own clothes. Her maternal grandad had a small shop ‘Hatti’ and she would hang around there all the time. Her father who was then having his office in Delhi’s Cloth Market, and so her brush with fabric,colour,wholesale began very early.Soon enough her father got into the business of garment exports.And age 10,onwards Mamtaa spent all her free time in the factory, learning everything there was to learn ,nothing was too small, nothing was too big. In 1984,at the age of 19, Mamtaa started developing the first range of stitched salwar kameez under the brand name ‘Kutir’, thus bringing into existence an entire apparel category, as well as, industries that turned into a source of livelihood for many. She ran Kutir for 18 years (1985-2003). During her tenure with Kutir she adopted a village in Bhuj Kutch,way back in 1991 and went on to open franchise stores,starting with Chennai in 1995. In 1986, Mamtaa opened her first retail store for Kutir and soon had her collections with her label ‘Kutir’ selling in London, The versatile nature of her creativity and designing skills became apparent as one constantly saw, collections after collections from the ‘House of Kutir’ using every indian fabric,every traditional craft and embroidery and surface ornamentation and yet coming up with collections which were fun and contemporary. 1986, she had done adaptations of dhoti’s for women (a traditional garment worn by men).At some point in her journey with Kutir she was impacting over 5000’s workers. With equal ease she is able to study and understand and design and customise for a large variety of stores/boutiques in other countries. For. Eg. At one point in 1996 she was creating unique collections for 5 boutique who were on the same street of Vancouver and competing with each other.And each one knew she was working with all 5. She is a believer of Nothing is Impossible and Everything that needs to be done has to be done. The year 2003 saw the birth of ‘Mamta Kheror Design Studio’, when she designed & created & manufactured the Arabic Jalabiyas from high end wedding wear to party and formal wear.And a pret fusion line for the Indian Audience .She participated in a fashion show in 2005 in Dubai,where her design got featured in the front page of Khaleej Times as representation of the Motexa fair. She also created using the medium of zardozi embroidery textile wall art for an Australian Textile Gallery.Saving the dying art of Zardozi and using the technique to create products beyond fashion is something she is always working on. 1996 to 2006 she created exclusive collections for boutiques in Kuwait, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia and all were for the Arabic women and the amazing part was that,each of these boutiques had a unique independent customer base,so the collections were different for each store,yet they were created at the same time. In 2005,she also co created a social network called Balle Balle it’s Friday, and this led to her meeting 1000’s of people from different walks of life. Soon, after that, she co-founded ‘Tribal Route’ in 2006 and created and designed and retailed, furniture, home furnishings, jewelry, and every possible lifestyle and textile accessories. In 2010 she founded Blue Lotus, which led to the multi brand retail store, ‘Buzzaria’ in 2011. Buzzaria holds more than 50 brands ( All from India, all start ups ,all working with the concept of Made in India) today under fashion and lifestyle segment. Under the umbrella of Blue Lotus she has created about 14 brands,one of them being Buzzaria. As a creative visionary, Mamtaa is passionate about creating. Anything catches her eye, she begins to think about how to retail it and market it.For her ‘Entrepreneurship’ is about efforts, passion, creativity,collaboration, dreams,efforts,networking and resilience. She has been a mentor with BizDivas for 3 years in a row for their annual project “Mentoring Walk” and this year has been accepted by Cherie Blair Foundation as a mentor for their next mentoring program. She is currently mentoring and guiding students, entrepreneurs and professionals. Her goal is to impact 1000’s of students & individuals. She has an active fashion community on Facebook,with the aim to create a fashion E paper. Recently mentored 27 contestants of Mrs India Beauty Queen.on the topic that there will be only 3 winners at the end of the contest,and how to accept the same.How to deal with all the negative emotions which come into play at a human level. In 2016-17 Mamtaa participated in India Runway Week,She showcased a collection under her brand Mimathyma. Made in Bagh and Crochet. This resort wear collection,is one of a kind.Her she has designed the fabric,the outfits,the accessories and the look of the models. Recently she opened a new store opposite Qutub Minar,dedicated to indian Heritage and Culture. This store is a show window to all tourist,how beautiful India is and how talented the craftspersons in India are.