CHENNAI: Sustainability is a necessity and not a fashion trend anymore,” says Vrinda Agarwal, founder of Mayori, a Jaipur-based conscious clothing label. After running successful outlets in Jaipur, Mumbai, and Bengaluru, the label has made its way to the city. The Chennai chapter was launched recently at Khader Nawaz Khan Road.
The entrepreneur-cum-self taught fashion designer has steadily been expanding her brand — an international take on Jaipur’s traditional hand block and screen-printing. “In 2016, when the brand was launched, I started out of a small room in my husband’s office. I wasn’t a designer. I had a diploma in Fashion Merchandising, so I was more of an entrepreneur. The knowledge from that and my family’s export business helped me in sourcing fabrics efficiently,” says the graduate from London School of Fashion.
The brand collaborated with Sueyoshi San, a renowned textile designer from Japan who has been working with Jaipur handblock printing for the past 25 years. The brand produced clothes that were an amalgamation of Japanese colour and design sensibilities with traditional Indian printing techniques. “We have incorporated international quality standards - azo-free, skin-friendly dyes and superior stitching techniques into each product.
The clothes are made of pure cotton and are washable at home. We also have a small silk collection,” she says. Mayori has conducted private shows in over 25 cities. From summer dresses, tunics, silhouettes, classic kurtas in print and solids, to trendy yet comfortable bottoms in seasonal colours, the label has it all. “We believe in minimalism. Any bottom pants in our store can be matched with any kurta here. So, there’s no recurring need to buy multiple pieces of matching kurtas-bottoms. Everything can be mixed and matched,” says the promoter of slow fashion.
The tagline of the brand is ‘Conscious Clothing, Conscious Giving’. Talking about conscious giving, she says, “For every garment that’s sold, the brand donates a utility product to NGO Annam, Mumbai. We give them in-house made table napkins, table covers, napkin holders and so on. They are sold in exhibitions and the proceeds are used to feed malnourished children with cancer. We have a beautiful working relationship with NGOs. Next month, we will be distributing antibacterial reusable sanitary napkins in villages in and around Jaipur,” she shares.
The brand is also moving towards sustainable storage and shipping materials for use in their warehouse and during transportation of garments. “The ‘zero single-use plastic policy’ is our mission, which we hope to achieve by 2020,” she says. Mayori has launched its latest collection ‘Summer Sonnets’, a range of pure cotton in pastels with a hint of ‘gota’. The garments are priced from Rs 900 onwards. The store is located in Bergamo Mall, KNK road