Haute Cotton

At the very outset, Haute Cotton is not a mall. It has little space, and you are hard put to spend much time in there while shopping for clothes. And clothes are what Haute Cotton sells, for men. Set up in 1997, it is an exclusive outlet for the international casual wear brand Haute Coton. It has quite a range of trousers, shorts, shirts, Jeans and T-shirts - all of them casual wear. On the downside, the exclusivity of the brand sold means that not everyone may find stuff to their liking.

Fighting for mind space with half a dozen similar stores, this very hole-in-the-wall kind of outlet is able to hold its own against them fairly well. Haute Cotton hides some seriously hot shirts in those drab interiors. Designs so fresh and different, they make the iPod look like my old Philips tape deck. And all this for under Rs. 500. The trousers on the other hand are there just because they were forced to be.

A store only for men, Haute Coton runs two discounts annually. The Dec-Jan season has special offers of the type wherein you can buy two for the price of one, while the Jun-Jul season holds out discounts as heavy as 50%. And no, they are not clearance sales sugar-coated as discounts.

So the next time you go bargain shopping, you must check this place out before you hit Shoppers' Stop or Pantaloons. It's definitely worth the effort.