Ladies’ apparel shop in Alamgiri Bazar now a must-do in tourists’ itinerary, too

Srinagar: A Srinagar businessman has become a torchbearer in using social media to raise one’s local business to global heights. Khalid Bashir Bazaz, 41, had started a small ladies’ apparel shop in Alamgiri Bazar area of Srinagar some 17 years back. He had been making a living but the business was far from being called a flourishing one.
“I used to sell clothes even without earning any margins at times, just to ensure I don’t accumulate leftover stock in my shop,” Bazaz told Kashmir Reader. “And then social media happened.”
A few years of social media exposure have done wonders for Bazaz. He is no longer a small-time shopkeeper, but an entrepreneur providing employment to more than 48 people through his business. He has added four more shops, and a manufacturing center as well.
Bazaz says that social media has been the sole reason for his mercurial growth, after years spent struggling to make a mark.
It so happened that a few years back someone told Bazaz that he can utilise platforms like Instagram and Youtube to expand his business.
“I got the accounts made and initially the response was a little cold,” he said, “but as we kept updating regular content, netizens started showering their love endlessly, taking us where we are at the present moment.”
Bazaz has managed to garner 2,43,000 followers on Instagram, where he keeps uploading videos and pictures from his showrooms. People from not only Kashmir but from different parts of India, the United Kingdom, the United States, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Dubai, and many other countries follow his Instagram account, ‘Lady Hut Apparels’.
“They do not only follow us but also order from us, and we are delivering our products across India and all these countries I have mentioned right now,” Bazaz said.
His YouTube story is even bigger. His account on the video sharing platform, also called ‘Lady Hut Apparels’, is a verified one with 3,97,000 subscribers. His videos on the platform are being watched thousands of times across the world.
The social media impact has been such that Bazaz has now trademarked and registered his company by the name of Lady Hut Private Limited.
“We are designing and manufacturing traditional suits for women here in Kashmir and are shipping them across the world. It has been possible because platforms like Instagram and Youtube have turned the world into a global village,” he said.
His influence has reached a level where tourists, coming from different parts of India, put visiting his store into their itinerary. Hundreds of people from across India have visited the Lady Hut Apparels store in Alamgiri Bazar this year, and Bazaz feels quite elated about it.
“It is wonderful that we have been able to touch millions of lives across the world, sitting here in Kashmir,” he said. He hopes that more and more people will keep showering their love and make Lady Hut an even bigger brand.
“I want to be able to provide employment to as many people as can. That will be a small contribution towards building a better Kashmir, a better society,” he said.

Reader correspondent