CorrespondenceReply by Tuesday

— Contact

Write Monday morning, you hear back by Tuesday afternoon.

If we don't reply in two working days, resend with more detail — it almost always means the first one wasn't specific enough to answer well.

A writing desk in warm linen — half-finished handwritten letter, fountain pen across the page, terracotta ink bottle, jasmine sprig

Writing back, slowly.

— Tell us who's writing

For the editor

Submit a question for next week.

Anaita answers a handful of reader questions in every Tuesday issue. The specific ones make the cut — be concrete about the buy or window you’re asking about.

— What makes the cut

  • ·Specific category or attribute — “zari co-ords” beats “festive wear.”
  • ·A window you're weighing — pre-Diwali, monsoon, wedding.
  • ·Your scale — so the answer is calibrated to your buy depth.
  • · Whether we can credit you by name, brand only, or anonymously.

— A typical first conversation

What the first call actually sounds like.

  1. TrendSense

    So tell me about the brand.

  2. Founder

    Bridal, mostly. Twelve people. Two stores, one online. Six hundred SKUs at peak.

  3. TrendSense

    When did you last over-buy zari?

  4. Founder

    Last monsoon. We carried the dead stock into Diwali. Some of it is still on the rail.

  5. TrendSense

    Tell me about that. What did you see that made you buy deep?

  6. Founder

    Two of our designers had it on the runway. The Instagram engagement was up. The Mumbai store had a strong May.

  7. TrendSense

    And the Delhi store?

  8. Founder

    Flat. I told myself it was a seasonality thing.

  9. TrendSense

    That is the one the engine would have flagged. One signal moving, three flat — watch, don’t load.

  10. Founder

    In hindsight, yes. In the moment, I had the budget and the calendar pressure.

  11. TrendSense

    That is exactly when we are most useful. Let me show you what the brief would have said.

Composite of three first calls. Names and details changed; the texture is real. If the form below feels formal, write the way you'd write to Anaita — she replies in plain English.

— Before you write

What we don't do.

Stated bluntly so you don't waste a Monday morning.

  • We don't sell outside Indian D2C womenswear.
  • We don't work with white-label agencies or resellers — only the brand directly.
  • We don't onboard stores without verified Shopify or point-of-sale data.
  • We don't sign NDAs on a first call. Plain English first.

— Letters to the editor

Got a question for next week's issue?

Submit a question and Anaita may answer it in the next Tuesday brief. The most useful ones are specific — a buy you're weighing, a category you're unsure about, a window that's coming up. Selected questions are answered by name unless you ask otherwise.

Write to the editor

— How it works

Submit Monday, see it in Tuesday's issue. The contact page feeds the magazine — every brief starts as a letter.