BENGALURU: Passionate about arts, crafts, and repurposing things, Yashodhara Marar and team have launched a saree line, ‘Mrinalini’, to help weavers connect directly to wearers at prices more reasonable than big brands out there. The pandemic affected weavers like the rest of the world, and they had no help at hand.
“My aunt and I got calls from weavers, who we always bought our sarees from. They were desperately looking for a channel to reach out to customers as they had absolutely no income,” says Marar, whose personal collection is mostly directly bought from weavers, a lot of who have been working out of their homes.
According to Marar, despite generations in the same profession, one of the weavers did not even have yarn to weave and many from the next generation were moving to nearby cities to hunt for jobs since they saw no future in this age-old business. “This was the point we realised that we are on the verge of losing our country’s tradition and heritage. We connected him to one of the NGOs that helps weavers procure yarn, and that made a huge difference to him.
That is when we decided to formalise and become the link between the weavers and wearers,” says Marar, wife of Hari Marar, MD and CEO, BIAL. Mrinalini was born when four friends with a similar vision came together – Shivani Chandran, Hamsini Hariharan, Vijaylakshmi Rajagopal and Marar. Mrinalini has sold about 900 sarees to date. “The idea is to help the weavers move their stock. A lot of profit doesn’t even go back to the origin – that is the weavers. We intend to keep this business small and support the cause,” Marar says.
Each weave is spectacular and unique, and as a nation, we were running the risk of losing weavers to other jobs, says Marar. “SHYV, which stands for the first letters of our names, comprises the mangalgiris, silk cotton and Bengal cotton while Mrinalini comprises a luxury collection with silk. These are two distinct brands selling two very different sarees,” she says. Although a saree is a traditional outfit, they are trying to make the look more trendy by producing sarees which can be worn in a contemporary fashion. “There is a huge scope in making it relevant in terms of design and style. It is time to realise that the saree is a hit,” says Marar.