Great Expectations

2009 is going to be a big year for Brass Tacks. Aside from a tie-up with a weaver’s cooperative in Andhra Pradesh, and hopefully retailing at a store in Hyderabad, this past December’s sales have been my highest ever and I choose to see it as a sign of things to come in 2009.

I announced my Winter Collection on December 12th, and ever since then the store has been really busy. I worked hard to make sure this collection would be a good mix of “safe” styles (which are basically classic styles like Bishop Shirt, Gupta’s Garden, and Marina Beach that I know most people will like) and a few experimental ones like Kolam Kurta, Knotted Neck and Marsupium. Kolam Kurta has a knot at the neck and making the pattern for that style was really difficult, although we did have a Japanese book (called Pattern Magic) that had detailed diagrams. My favourite this collection was Marsupium, a top with two layers of cowled fabric forming an open pouch in front. So far Kolam Kurta is flying off the shelves, but Marsupium has been purchased only by a few people who do not live in Chennai. Knotted Neck, a style with a high collar stitched down to a knot at one point, has also been received well.

When I first started designing for Brass Tacks, I found that my styles were very conservative: regular shirts with darts and plain A-line skirts. I guess a lot of that was a reflection of my design and pattern making skills, but I also thought that making regular well-cut clothing would be enough. Now I’ve realized with more exposure to fabric and fashion, my own taste has changed and I long not only for well-cut clothes but also more adventurous clothing that is reflective of myself as well as the Brass Tacks brand. I’m now working on some interesting styles for the Spring and Summer collection and I have some fun ideas for the photo-shoots for those collections as well.

Below are the creative shots for the Winter Collection (the one with the umbrella is my favourite).

Pournami (Eri and Tussar silk top)


Kolam Kurta (Cotton kurta with a knot at the neck)


Abies Alba (Silk ikat dress)

Keeping My Store Dry

Last week I had wanted to write a follow up post on the National Institute of Design (I visited their textile design faculty head in Ahmedabad after my trip to Bodhi in Baroda). However, a cyclone in Chennai kept me busy making sure my store stayed dry and I had to work extra hours at the store because my sales staff didn’t make it on those rainy days. The effects of the cyclone made me think a lot about the lack of certain public services like reliable transportation and water drainage on the roads that affect just about every business and organization. Well it’s actually not just businesses but also homes because my sales staff couldn’t make it to work for 5 days due to no bus service on their flooded streets.

A week before the cyclone I had some experience with making requests from the Government Corporation Assistant Engineer about a leakage in my building. What I learned was that a lot of paper work and sending in complaints at every level (Junior Engineer, Assistant Engineer, Zonal Division Officer, Deputy Director) did help. Perhaps because the work I needed from them (locking up the doors to the toilet on the second floor so that the leak could be arrested) did not need much money or effort, I managed to get their help. I also had the support of a few other businesses in the same building, but not from all of them. At times like this you really get to see how disillusioned people are with the government and most of the tenants in my building would not talk to the Corporation about the leakage problem or give any financial support to build/renovate another toilet privately. Anyway, that matter is temporarily solved and now I am back to writing letters about the poor drainage on our roads.

During the cyclone many parts of the city were like rivers- with water up to 12 inches high. Even on the roads close to the beach the water would not percolate- simply because the roads were built thoughtlessly right up to the pavement with no room for water to drain into sand. A few years ago the government made it mandatory for every house to practice water harvesting (letting roof runoff water drain into the soil), but a little bit of rain in the city and it’s clear that there is no water harvesting facility on the streets.

This time when I went to meet the Assistant Engineer he seemed tired of hearing one complaint after another from me! He asked me to speak to the Metro Water office. I went to meet the Metro Water Officer (fortunately these offices are not too far from my store) and he passed the responsibility to the Transportation Authority at Ripon Building.

Tackling small hurdles like these can take up a lot of time and still leave you nowhere. I got busy with my winter collection so I stopped following up on the drainage issue and like for most other people in the city now, the cyclone is a faint memory because it’s back to warm and sunny weather. But next week when I am done with sending out press kits and launching my winter collection I will get back on the job. At the least, I am curious to learn what it takes to get the government to provide a simple public service.

Fresh Air, Fresh Ideas

Whenever I feel burdened with mundane work to the point where I’m losing sight of my goal and I don’t have enough time to design, I usually plan a trip to meet with suppliers. These trips always motivate and refresh me, reminding me of what’s more important than the small details: the bigger picture in relation to the handloom and textile crafts industry in India.

July and August this year were difficult months with staff issues, so as soon as they were somewhat under control I took off with my mom on a short trip to Ahmedabad and Baroda. In Baroda I went to visit Mala Sinha, a textile designer who graduated from NID. Mala runs her own company called Bodhi, and she prints her own designs on saris and yardage.

Touring the Bodhi workshop was like discovering my dream factory. A “colour kitchen” has dyes neatly stored with apparatus to make sure the correct dye amount (it’s measured and weighed) is used for each shade. Recipes for shades and colour combinations are documented for each print, and this is done separately for each fabric because different yarns have different capacities to absorb colour. I have had many experiences with my handloom and block-print suppliers not being able to match colour swatches or not being able to replicate their own work in the same colour shades. Mala makes it look so easy with her documents for how to replicate each print. If only other weavers and printers had her vision. Mala should really get invited to run a training workshop that other printers and tie-dyers can attend!

Another feature that motivated me at the Bodhi workshop was the use and recycling of rain water. Rainwater is collected in large tanks every monsoon and that water is used for washing and dyeing. The used water goes to a filter system with Canna plants that clean the water. That water is re-used again for fabric washing and dyeing. Seeing the impressive system there reminded me of another one of my long term goals: helping my suppliers set up infrastructure that is more environmentally friendly. My fiance was the one who first commented on the effluence created by dyeing when we visited my leheria supplier in Jaipur. Most craftsmen have a small setup with no treatment plant for their waste water, so it just flows out to the drainage system and will probably damage the soil. Bodhi’s water treatment plant is simple and effective, and a fabulous example to anyone who wants to be responsible about their production process.

Below are pictures from the Bodhi workshop/factory.

The precision required to measure dyes.

[Colourful] Grey water before the purification process and the Canna filter bed.

Mala Sinha of Bodhi

Butter Biscuits Door Delivered from Airtel

A couple of weeks ago I shifted my production unit from the heart of the city to the outskirts (in the hope that moving closer to a large bus terminal will make it easier to recruit tailors). A week before the move I called Airtel to tell them that I would need my landline and broadband connection shifted to the new office. I asked how long the entire process takes (from disconnecting the old landline and setting up the new one) and I was pleasantly surprised when they said it can be done on the same day. I made a request for that day to be Saturday, the day of our move. Incidentally if you call Airtel’s toll free number to ask for a shift in location they ask you to call their landline service centre (044-42112345) that isn’t toll free unless you are calling from an Airtel landline.

On Friday my old landline got disconnected. I called Airtel and Kavitha, at their office, said that this could not have been avoided. I asked to speak to her supervisor, and Kavitha replied confidently saying her supervisor would say the same thing. She also said her supervisor would call me back in 10 minutes, but no one called back from Airtel that day. The next day I was busy with my move, but I got a call on my cell phone from a technician asking me when he could come to the new place to connect my new landline. I asked him to come to the new address that afternoon but he did a no-show. I called back but no one picked up. I called the Airtel helpline number and no one picked that up either. All day on Saturday, Sunday and on Monday (Diwali) no one picked up either phones. On Tuesday morning I called the Airtel helpline again. This time Diana picked up and said my new connection would be fixed the same day. I asked to speak to her supervisor but she insisted that she could handle my problem and would not transfer me to her supervisor. Annoyed and worried that my complaint was not really registered, I called back a couple of hours later. This time I spoke to Zia who assured me that it would be done by the end of the day. I warned him that the office closed at 6pm so a technician had to start his work at the office before that. By 5:45pm, no one had arrived. I called Airtel and spoke to Karthik and then Selvakumar. Neither of them were able to pull up my complaints on their computer. In other words, there was no complaint registered with them that I needed this connection done as soon as possible. Finally one of them agreed to transfer me to their supervisor, Lakshmi. She assured me that they were going to treat this as a priority and that the new connection would be completed the next day morning.

By this time I was frustrated, but more than anything else I was just irritated! All those calls (that I was obviously charged for since I couldn't make them from my not-yet-connected landline) and all that time being asked to stay on hold had still not resulted in a registered complaint! The next morning no one arrived. I called back and spoke to Vasanth, then Gopinath, Dilip and finally Preethi. They all said it would be done by the end of the day. I decided to just wait until the job was done but also sent in a complaint via email to Airtel to the following addresses:
care.tamilnadu@airteltelephone.com
Nodal.TN@airtel.in
nodal.southabts@airtel.in

I didn’t hear back from anyone via email other than the auto response saying my complaint would be attended to within 24 working hours (does that mean 4 days of 8 hours each?) Meanwhile a technician came to fix my landline on Wednesday and my internet connection was fixed only on Friday, a week after my old line had been disconnected.

The following Monday I received a tin of Butter Biscuits (made from margarine) from Airtel. There was no note or letter, so I assume that this is their way of responding to my complaint. I wish there was a way I could tell them (and have them register what I want to say) that refunding someone’s phone bill might melt their frustration away a lot more effectively than margarine.

Structured Creative Thinking

Last year when I opened my store, many people felt the sizes in my collection ran too small, and that most of my clothes were sleeveless (not a great thing in a conservative city like Chennai). It may be true that while starting out many designers (including myself) are less willing to pay attention to environment as they are to their creative visions. However in my case I tend to tune out all notions of practicality while brainstorming. Going forward, I have to be conscious of my audience while putting together a collection.

During my design process, I tend to look at each style in isolation rather than the entire set as a collection. The brainstorming sessions are usually done with some good music playing in the room (Femi Kuti is my recent favourite) and it’s also important to have some snacks handy (anything salty and crunchy). Then, I begin to go through inspiring pictures that I collect throughout the year. As I go through these (pictures of clothes, furniture, architecture, colour combinations, plants) I usually think of a theme and then I begin sketching while keeping that theme in mind. I don’t like being tied down too strictly to a theme, so I never choose anything too literal; this past summer’s theme was fruit and flowers of summer, and this monsoon collection was inspired by ancient maritime trade. Since I like to work with a variety of fabrics in each collection, I do try to stick to a colour story that works for the mood of that collection. These may sound like clearly defined guidelines that I work with, but I find it easy to stick to a colour story without that hindering my creativity (my suppliers and their ability to match colour shades is another matter).

The design process is followed by editing (“would I really wear that?”, “that looks interesting, but it is classy?”) and then re-designing for the styles that were scratched out, followed by more editing until I have a collection. Subject to fabric availability, some styles have to be changed at the last minute, but that is an issue more related to my fabric supply and the textile industry at large rather than the editing of the collection. Now to this entire design process, I need to add another structured guideline. The business side of my brain has been urging me to adopt some structure to my process, and now my task is to ease my creative side into the process.

The structure: I would like to have certain criteria that I must fulfill with styles in every collection. The criteria relate to my customer base and their tastes; each collection must have at least one sleeved style for work and evening wear, at least one style that is flattering for larger sizes, and at least one sleeved tunic. That doesn’t sound too tough when you think of the criteria themselves, but when you are down to 2 fabrics you haven’t assigned to any style as yet, and your creative brain is told you can only design a tunic or a sleeved garment for a plus size with these fabrics, it can get hard.

The good side is that working with these criteria, aside from the good business sense, gets me started on the editing and the streamlining while I'm still in the sketching phase. This past Monsoon collection I have made an effort to design more sleeved garments and I think they appealed to more people as a result. I haven’t overcome the difficulty to design with guidelines though- I mean, if a sleeved tunic doesn’t sell then clearly it means that I didn’t succeed in designing a sleeved tunic that is a stylish piece as well. I’m trying though, and hopefully with time I’ll be able to fulfil my criteria without playing it too safe.

Until then, I have this very expensive and gorgeous Varanasi silk fabric with zari jamdani that I must make into a sleeved evening garment and time is ticking!