VINAYA WALAVALKAR

Syne Coutinho
a name to reckon with

The fashion world and Goa has lot of similarities. But there are hardly few who could actually encash on it. But Syne Coutinho did it.

Meet Syne Coutinho, a young lady whose journey has the capability to inspire many who want to turn their hobby into profession. The fashion world and Goa has a lot of similarities but there are hardly few who could actually encash on it, however, Syne Coutinho did it.
“I am not from a fashion designing background, I have done business management so to speak, but I always loved the idea of art and fashion…So I decided to follow my passion and started working on my line of clothing ,” narrates Syne sitting at her store in Fontainhas.
For Syne, it was an exhibition of her first collection at Hotel Mandovi that shaped her ambition into reality. “Since it was my first time and in spite of my technical ignorance, my passion for art and colours played a big role into making the exhibition into a great success,” she says. “This encouraged me to have my second exhibition for the winter season at the Goa Marriott resort, which was also a big success. After the tremendous response shown in my brand, I decided to start a workshop which provided design and styling to my clientele and from there on the brand began on a small scale.”
The first milestone in her career was the opening of her first flagship store in 2006 at Sao Tome in Panaji which was followed by another store in Margao in 2011. After 10 years in Sao Tome, she decided to move to a bigger space in Fontainhas within Panaji city. “In this modern vintage style store we have a large variety of clothing and accessories,” she says.
“Having in-house trained tailors make it easier for us to deliver only the best to our customers. The products at Syne are carefully picked and selected in order to maintain the uniqueness and finish of the brand,” commented Syne Coutinho.
Though from the outside her journey seems to be easy, she did have her share of troubles.
Coutinho says that her journey so far was not simple nor was it easy, there were difficulties which she had to face but she believed that success does not come easy. She has a philosophy that life would be useless if everything came easy. The joy of the challenges strengthens your passion.
“Sharing a few problems that I faced would be that of availability of labour. Labour is a big challenge in Goa as it is very difficult to find people who will understand your sensibility and turn it into reality and even after you train someone to for your needs, they want to leave and join elsewhere, hence finding faithful labour is also another herculean task to do,” Coutinho laments.
Coutinho says that it has been a great learning experience for her because she is able to meet a lot of artists along the way making it a very exciting journey.
However, her journey does not end here. There are more milestones to be set. She hopes to have an in-house cafe at Fontainhas so that the customers can enjoy her collection with the beautiful surroundings of Fontainhas.
“We will be constantly having in-house fashion shows to showcase the upcoming collections,” she adds.