Not just another online designer brand

It has become extremely difficult nowadays to stand out with a clothing brand on the internet. There are simply too many choices to go for, but hardly many provide exclusive designs with a premium touch. Tapered promises to provide both and thus grabbed a lot of attention on social media platforms. 

Meet Raiyan Ahsan Chowdhury, a Civil and Environmental Engineering student who has been obsessed with designing clothes, and has always wanted to run his own business from an early age. That is how he eventually came up with the idea of starting his own clothing line. He also manages a youth organization named Oracle Youth Community and hosts a podcast to inspire people.

Being a tailoring shop, Tapered provides most things for your wardrobe but formal men’s wear is their ace of spades. Whether it is a crisp white shirt, a pair of tapered trousers or even a made-to-measure three-piece suit, Tapered has it all covered. Raiyan says, “The truth is, people usually like plain, timeless fabrics but here at Tapered, we generally try to find fabrics that customers themselves don’t know they like or need, whether that’s see-through, printed fabrics, funky katan fabrics or unorthodox wool fabrics, we try to bring something exceptional, not something widely available.”

Going through their online pages it’s quite clear that the prices are a bit higher compared to conventional tailoring shops or internet boutiques, when asked why that was the case, he replied saying--he aims to give a similar quality and fit as a high-end tailoring shop and compared to those, he thinks pricing is relatively affordable. “While that’s something I always have in the back of my mind, the current situation of the world made me take a seat in the back for now,” he adds. 

Tapered initially came into existence in a moment of an adrenaline rush after over a year of procrastination. “I’ve always been an enthusiast of fashion but I didn’t want to just come up with something that is like every other ‘online designer brand’, I just wanted something different; something I’m genuinely drawn to,” Raiyan says.  Taking trips to the tailoring shops with his parents since he was only 6 to 7 years old, whether those were to make fotuas or to select suit fabrics with his father, something about tailoring gave him a sense of freedom, he says. That’s something he wanted others to experience as well.

He was recognized as one of the upcoming talented designers of the country for which he was given an invitation to take part in one of the biggest fashion events of the year, held at hotel Le Méridien in the capital. While it was all going great for him, the closure due to lockdown did leave a bitter taste among most brands. “We’re hoping the authority extends the event in order to let us have more time to interact with the customer base upfront.”

According to him, Tapered’s best-selling product is its safari jacket. It is an effortlessly cool addition to any wardrobe that can honestly be styled regardless of the weather or what you’re pairing it with. Their pearl white trousers are also a staple as they go hand in hand with shirts, t-shirts, jackets and especially panjabis.

Tapered aims to be on the centre of runways, on the side of the biggest streets and most importantly, in the wardrobes of the fashionable, according to the designer. Tapered exclusively targets the people who understand fashion and are willing to level up their fashion game. Raiyan hopes to extend the line to accessories, more ready-to-wear collections and bring funkier designs. “If not anything else, I want Tapered to prove to people that they will look good in any outfit they wear with a heart full of confidence.”