Huri Baxani, second-generation owner of Stylemart, dies at 78

SINGAPORE - Businesswoman Huri Gobindram Baxani, who helmed heritage Indian fashion boutique Stylemart on Selegie Road from the 1970s to 1990, died on July 28. She was 78.

Best known for elevating Stylemart, she took over the business from her father and founder Gobindram Baxani, transforming it from a menswear tailoring joint to Singapore’s go-to for imported, high-end Indian womenswear.

A first-mover, Huri Baxani’s Stylemart became the de facto supplier of up-to-the-minute Indian styles at a time when Indian fashion in the city-state was limited to more traditional sari shops.

Today, in its third act under the leadership of Baxani’s daugher – fashion designer Kavita Thulasidas who took over in 1999 – Stylemart deals in Indian bridal and occasion wear, including Thulasidas’ couture designs.

When Thulasidas joined the company at 18 in 1992, she pitched an original fashion collection and by the next year, had held the first of what would become annual Stylemart runway shows. The social event, which at one point was attended by some 600 guests, was put on pause during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Thulasidas’ luxe pieces are sought after by brides, politicians and royalty from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo, where she opened a boutique under her own label in 2019. In 2023, the Stylemart owner showed her Spring Summer 2024 collection at Paris Fashion Week after winning a national design competition.

In 2025, the brand was recognised under the National Heritage Board’s SG Heritage Business Scheme for its role in preserving craft and culture.

Baxani was instrumental to the brand’s elevation into an institution of Indian dress. It began as a tailoring shop at Changi Village in the 1950s that sewed uniforms and suits for British Royal Air Force officers. During this period, Baxani’s father managed tailors from Bangladesh, India and other parts of Asia.

In the early days of Baxani’s big pivot into womenswear, she worked out of the family home, converting a room in the landed house into a boutique and, according to the brand’s website, making saris there too. She hosted sari parties on weekends and sold pieces out of a suitcase.

In 1980, she opened a store at 149 Selegie Road with the Stylemart name, carrying imported high-end ethnic fashion sourced on merchandising trips to India. It shifted to Parklane Shopping Mall for 10 years, before moving back to its current Selegie address.

In 1999, amid the Asian Financial Crisis, Baxani handed the reins to Thulasidas, then 24.

Baxani then moved to Bangalore, Karnataka, where she temporarily “retired” before opening an upmarket spa in what was then India’s Silicon Valley in 2007.

Within three years, her New Asian Woman spa – which provided Balinese treatments – was franchised, opening two new locations at a boutique hotel chain in Hyderabad and Bangalore.

In 2010 she told The Straits Times: “I guess work is my stress-buster. I can only relax when I’m working.”

Baxani’s cremation will be held on July 30 at 4.15pm at Mandai Crematorium Hall 1.