Successful Men's Sock Line Offers Low-Risk High-Style

17-Nov-09
Published in: St. Louis Post Dispatch
Author: Debra Bass
Description:

When you think of men's sock designers, it's hard to get excited. The vision blurs with images of standard browns and blacks tucked into polished shoes.

But then there's Vivek Nagrani.

He owns The Ovadafut Hosiery Co., a high-end stylish niche for the well-clad foot.

The brand specializes in luxe fabrics wrapped in whimsy. Even bankers in boring suits can get away with a little bright spot on the ankle. Nagrani's socks allow buttoned-up business professionals to express something other than calm, cool, staid responsibility.

And because the price (a special 12-pack once sold for about $175, but typically individual pairs average around $35), the socks have become a bit of a status symbol.

Nagrani's in town for a trunk show and a speech that can aide fashion designers and entrepreneurs of any ilk.

He was invited as part of at Webster University's "Success to Significance Speaker Series" Wednesday (Nov. 18) from 6 to 7 p.m. at Woody's Men's Shop, 10411 Clayton Road, Suite 104, Frontenac.

He'll discuss design, the process of creation and the travails of entrepreneurship.

The VK Nagrani label is distributed in men's specialty stores in the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and India. Each piece of the collection is created in limited production and never repeated. Nagrani says this practice has allowed him to work with the financial, political, artisanal and academic elite, including Benjamin Akande, dean of Webster's School of Business & Technology.