March 2007

 

THE SPORTING LIFE
Queue Fuses Fashion
With Sporty Aesthetics

By Doha Challah

I’ve had the pleasure of being close friends for a while now with the designers behind the fashion brand known as Queue. Born in New York, Sarada and Lucky Ravindra moved with their parents to live in Lake City, Florida when they were three. They attended the prestigious Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Wellington, Florida (which explains their affinity to the sporty lifestyle). After that, they left for Washington D.C. to attend Georgetown University. They then lived in LA for a year before they came to Miami to go to Law School. And their post-academic life has been no less of a whirlwind! In between a crazy schedule that demands constant travel to different cities, I caught up with the twins over coffee at Miami’s Brickell Key Island to discuss their brand and the fashion industry in general.  

DC - Considering you went to Law school, what inspired you to start your own clothing company?

LR - We thought about it when we were undergrads first, however we started it after law school because we decided that would be a better time to do it. What inspired us was our lifestyle. The aesthetic of the line is that it’s sport chic. I guess it was the result of our personal style.

DC - How would you say the brand evolved over the past couple of years?

LR - The brand originally started off a little bit more casual in nature, because of where we were at in our lives at that point. We were more inclined to wearing sportier, more casual things during the day, whether for Yoga or something like that. But over time it actually developed to what it is today, which is a more contemporary fashion oriented line. It’s a fusion of fashion and sporty aesthetics which is basically reflected in the look and feel, not actually functional athletic. So the line evolved to where our lives evolved to - kind of like I want to wear these clothes when I’m maybe out in the evening or going to work. It’s slightly more updated according to where we are in our lives now which is late 20’s versus being young, more casual, and more sporty.

DC – Nowadays, celebrities are a driving force in fashion; does anyone come to mind whose style inspires you?

SR - It’s pretty impossible for me to say that I would look to somebody else as someone who I think is my style icon or somebody that I would mimic or emulate. I admire certain people for their fashion sense and individual sense of style. I think style is such an individual thing, and a form of self expression, because that’s the way I look at fashion.

LR - I would like to say that’s how I feel about it too.

DC - Describe a typical day in your lives as designers?

LR - Tasks are basically divided. Sarada does more of the administrative business things, and I do more of the creative work and design. Our days are kind of separate until at the end of the day where we talk about what’s happening on both ends. So a typical day for me is spent by working on the collection, samples, creative, and any kind of print work.

SR - My job is probably less exciting for the most part. It’s generally about the operations, speaking with whoever our business contacts are, whether it’s a showroom, a buyer, a publicist. Whatever it is that is not necessarily actual garments. We’re both involved creatively in terms of putting the line together. She’s obviously more so, but I definitely give input and thumbs up at the end of the day.      

 

LR - Whatever the issue is whether it’s a creative or administrative thing, we always address it together.

DC - How are you perceived in your native country of India? How does you background influence your style?

LR - We only go back once every couple of years, because most of our family is here in the US. That’s why we don’t have an actual physical connection to India, even though we go visit some of our remaining family there every two to three years. I guess it’s because of the nature of our lifestyles and the way our life turned out in terms of leaving home early and growing up living everywhere. India itself in terms of the country, the culture hasn’t really impacted our identity so much and that’s probably because it hasn’t really influenced us especially from an aesthetic point of view.

DC - What was the key piece that put Queue on the map?

SR - Probably the jumpsuit, it was a one piece tube top jumpsuit.

LR - We did that in our first season and we still sell it to this day because it’s still being requested. It received a lot of press and got a big feature in InStyle magazine. Also, Kim Cattrall wore it in Sex and the City, and it was shot editorially in a few other magazines. So you can say that particular piece got a lot of exposure and has been our most defining look.
 
DC - Children’s wear is a very big industry; would you consider creating a line for the little ones?

SR - Sure, I think it would be great to get involved and branch to children’s wear. Not to divert from the question but it’s what it would be to do menswear or get into accessories. Just because I feel that the aesthetic of our brand can be well translated into different categories and consumers for that matter.

DC - This spring season is all about the sporty look, how do you distinguish your brand from the others?

LR - In the larger scheme of things I guess “sporty” is one of the biggest trends this season and a lot of companies are addressing that by adding pieces to their line that reflect it. Our line, however, maintains that look and feel no matter what the trend is. The entire collection generally caters to that look. In terms of specific pieces, there’s nothing new or different because we always do that look anyway. So it’s more about what we felt worked this season, like using softer colors, light flowy fabrics, super soft Rayons.

DC - You sell your clothes at exclusive boutiques in Miami, New York, and Los Angeles. Any plans of opening your own store?

SR - It would be fantastic to have your own retail location especially for us, since our brand is more lifestyle driven so it’s a great opportunity to put our image out there for consumers to see on many different levels. It would mean more inventory and more items to complete the look of the line - because usually boutiques don’t buy your entire line.

LR - From a branding point of view, a retail location is ideal. But only when your brand grows to a certain point do you consider retail. In terms of location, I think we would gravitate toward our strongest market.