Titan is an Indian women’s jewellery and watchmaker brand under the Tata Group conglomerate. Known for their repertoire of poignant, progressive work, Titan now wanted to continue that legacy in Irth, a women’s handbag brand.
I developed the brand platform and the key messaging for the launch press and outdoor work.
Like all women-centric brands in 2022, Irth initially wanted to have a cultural opinion on the hot-button issues of the day. And yet, as the conversation around modern womanhood continued to evolve, I realized that the most radical opinion on feminism was to have no radical opinion on feminism at all.
What helped this line of thinking was the bags themselves. Each bag came with with organisers, shoulder pads, keyholders and other utilitarian things not seen elsewhere in the women’s handbags category. This product truth of ‘beautiful bags designed for practicality’ became the basis of the work instead.
It’s a well-known reality that a woman’s choice of style often ends up giving her a ‘definition’. Black bags are boring, beige dresses are prudish, that sort of thing. Whether it’s on the red carpet (“what are you wearing tonight?”) or out in the busy street, these outdated associations all bring their own unwanted baggage.
And so was born the articulation of ‘Yours to Define’. A poetic, understated reminder that it’s what you put in your bag that gives it meaning—not anything else. Better still, the cultural stance resonated with our key audience, given that the word ‘Irth’ is Hindi for meaning or definition.
The work expanded on the live-and-let-live philosophy of the Yours to Define platform, and uses breezy, open-ended language to make a nuanced point. Throughout, I also made a concerted effort to avoid ‘labelling’ the women whom the brand is talking to, which meant getting away from outdated talking points that are anchored in caricaturized labels like “rebel queen” or “epic girlboss”.
A long-form launch ad that was deemed too long for print.