KOCHI: Jatos Maria Tom, an entrepreneur from Ernakulam, has been running her wholesale venture Fab N Sew Garments for a decade now. Then 21-years old, Jatos started the company as a stitching unit in a rented space, accommodating a few employees. Fast forward to now, the unit is now a full-fledged wholesale business in Chully, a remote village near Angamaly. She has also been running an online retail unit named ‘Jatos Designs’ for the last two months.
The majority of employees in Fab N Sew are rural women. Inspired by her mother who still runs a stitching unit, Jatos employs married women at her unit to show them a way forward. “Many women, after having kids and a family, limit themselves to their households. Especially the mothers in rural areas depend on their spouse’s meagre income and consider themselves unfit for employment.I am hoping to give them a different perspective,” says Jatos. From cutting, stitching and packaging to dispatch, Jatos has trained the women singlehandedly to manage all the aspects of the business. “They also do the finishing works including, hand embroidery and embellishments,” says Jatos.
Fab N Sew has made many of these women aged between 50 and 55 independent. “They can pay for their kids’ education. Some even learned to drive and bought themselves a vehicle. Moreover, they have become confident,” says Jatos. Neethu Soni, and Vincy Pappachan now manage and run the unit.
Speciality products
Fab N Sew Garments mainly focuses on outfits for girls and sources them to the textile stores. The outfits are sold under the name ‘Milmio, ‘Frills and Bows’. The ten-year-old firm produces PPE kits and masks too. “Lockdown has made it difficult for us to raise capital in the market. So we started manufacturing them during the first wave of Covid,” adds Jatos.
The two-month-old venture, ‘Jatos Designs’ which goes by the tagline- ‘sewing your dreams’ is a couture collection that sells a signature line of clothing with unique designs. The collection comprises ‘Mom and Me’, with matching designs for the mother and baby, Just born gift boxes, baptism dresses, and also outfits for siblings,” says Jatos. A mother of two daughters, 31-year-old Jatos sources materials from Surat. The location of the unit also poses a challenge. “Since it’s a remote area, one has to travel around 20km to even send in a courier,” adds Jatos. But her workforce of strong women keeps Jatos grounded in Chully.