Description : There was a vision to make couture available to all that dreamt of it but could not afford it. Raymond was cognisant of the fact that awareness levels for designer wear was increasing in the country. The rise in demand for ‘value for money' products and increasing fashion awareness had seen the market for ready to wear increasing but it did not fulfil consumer aspirations of owning the designer wear.

Understanding this need gap in the market an innovative venture was conceptualised by the inimitable textile giant, Raymond Limited. It was an ideal marriage of two parties, a Corporate with strengths in marketing and retailing and the designers gifted with immense talent. Raymond brought together some of the finest Indian designers to introduce a radical and an unheard of concept, ‘Corporatisation of Designer Wear' with its Pret-a-porter brand Be: .

The uniqueness of Be: stands in the fact that this is for the first time in India any Corporate House deemed it necessary to corporatise designer wear. Be: heralds good times not only for consumers but also for the designers. It brings in a ray of light for the designers for whom retailing has been an arduous task and exposure confined to a very niche audience.

Be: brings a large collection of designer products to a large audience that is increasingly becoming aware of designer wear and dreams of possessing one. Affordability, Accessibility and Acceptability are the three attributes that characterise Be:

Be: houses, designs of some of the finest Indian designers like Anshu Arora Sen, Ashish & Smita Soni, Krishna Mehta, Manish Arora, sister act duo Magnetic Rag- Gauri and Nainika Karan, Priyadarshini Rao, Puja Nayyar, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rohit Bal, Rina Shah, Savio Jon, Sujit Mukharjee , Vidhi Singhania, Shantanu & Nikhil, Akbar Shahpurwala with the recent addition of Wendell Rodricks. Be: also has their own label created by the Be: in house designers.

The first Be: store was inaugurated in New Delhi in July 2001 and today is a chain 17 stores including international presence. Be: has a multi city presence with 15 stores in India . Be: has a store each in Ahmedabad, Ludhiana , Hyderabad , Chennai, two in Bangalore and Kolkata , three in Delhi , four in Bombay . Be: also has an international presence with two stores in Dubai , UAE. The Be: chain will continue to expand in India and abroad.