Jewellery brand Amrapali has long been known for its unique tribal designs — the traditional peeking out from under its classy hat. But not any longer. With a new logo and contemporary designs, Amrapali’s makeover has been in the making for two years, reveal Tarang and Akanksha Arora.
The two were in Chennai recently to promote their Spring/Summer collection at Evoluzione. Between wooing the city’s bling-lovers with their brightly coloured necklaces and carefully arranging their designs in glass cases, Tarang and Akanksha find some time to talk to this reporter about the plans they have for Amrapali.
“The older generation had their jewellery, which they would pass down to their kids. So, people these days have all the classic stuff and now they want something new, something different,” says Tarang. “We were known for tribal silver jewellery and our logo was distinct back then — a tribal lady. But now, we want to be known for our contemporariness,” adds Tarang.
The change is noticeable. Their Spring/Summer collection is a riot of colours ranging from pinks and reds to purples and bright greens. The collection is inspired by the colours of Rajasthan, says Akanksha. But at the same time, there is a unique motif that keeps repeating — the lotus petal that is their new logo. Once the brand had expanded to include New York and London, the tribal woman was no longer enough.
“Indian jewellery is such that you can’t wear it with western clothes. 10 years ago, it didn’t matter. But now, everyone wears Western outfits and all of them want fine jewellery to along with it. With the re-branding, that’s what we aim to do,” says Akanksha. “The Indian DNA is easily identifiable in the new jewellery. But there is a common language now, one that non-Indians can speak too,” adds Tarang fondly.
The duo isn’t just stopping with a new logo. There are six new sub-logos that they plan to design later collections with, their revamped website is on the verge of being released, their online store Tribe is up and running, and there is visibly more engagement with their customers via social networking sites. “But we’re not going corporate,” chips in Tarang. “We want to keep that design house feel, but we do need to change with times. People expect us to be on Facebook and Instagram, customers want constant engagement with them. We need to be on our toes,” he adds.
The new energy is translating into their Autumn/Winter collection — an Indian gothic-punk collection titled the Dark Maharajah. “We’ll be using a lot of black and red. It was lot more difficult than we thought it would be, but I think we’ll pull it off,” says Tarang cheerfully.