CHENNAI: What’s a high-octane Deepavali celebration without its staples? Fabulous clothes, family time and lots of fun. Well, among others. If these three make it to your list, then you might just agree that this mother-daughter duo has made the festival perfect not just for themselves, but for some like-fashioned women too.
With their collaborative design label, Preethi & Sarala, Preethi and Sarala Nedumaran bring to you a whole new range of festive-wear to blow away your yet-another-celebrationwhile- social-distancing blues!
With Preethi Nedumaran’s work being in the glitzy world of movie business (be it designing clothes for the stars or making the occasional cameo and dance number) and Sarala’s years of experience making bespoke fashion come alive for her clientele, this collaboration was bound to be inevitable.
The consequences of the pandemic just happened to set the stage for their joint debut. Despite the uncertainty that seems to be the theme of the year, the hope that picked up around the festive season bolstered their business venture to the next step, they report. “We realised that people will still be buying clothes and that fuelled our confidence a little bit.
Besides, we thought it was a good idea to capitalise on the online space because no one is going to the stores physically to buy stuff; it means there’s more traffic for online platforms. We knew there will be a market, we just needed to understand which direction it’s headed to,” explains Preethi. If their Deepavali collection — showcased for sale on Tamara — is anything to go by, their sense of direction seems spoton. The long lines, silhouettes with a surprise, robust colours and the understated appeal of sparkle — at once fresh and new, and in line with Tamara’s aesthetics. And if you’re wondering if the two women stayed up nights on end to come out with these designs, wonder no more.
It was as easy as shopping for their own clothes, they say. “We always bounced ideas off each other. That was the normal practice; a constant in our way of working. So, collaborating on the designs was not at all a challenge. It was only about figuring out the branding — what name would we give, how would we manage the shoot. Those practical things were what took a lot of time for us to sort. I’ve heard people say that they and their mother do not have the same taste.
But my mother and I have the exact same taste in clothes. It’s supremely natural; both of us just complete each other’s sentences when it comes to design. If I picked up some fabric in green, she would just catch something off my mind and suggest if we can do a yellow skirt to go with it,” narrates Preethi. So, when it came down to designing a festive collection for their debut, things just fell in place, says Sarala. “We used to buy good materials whenever we went shopping.
We started to buy some more to match what we already had. With Deepavali around the corner, we decided to do a skirt-and-top festive collection. I used to design something; then ask Preethi for inputs. She would then bring in her design and we’ll sit to discuss how to work together on that. That’s how we brought out each piece,” recounts Sarala. Whatever their creative differences maybe, they assure you of a couple of constants that come with their label.
“What comes naturally to us is the vibrance that we like to retain in most of our collections. Also, we like to add a little twist that we personally do for our wardrobe. We don’t want to only do what will sell; we don’t want to let go of our that little zing — that little twist — that we usually add to our wardrobe, which has brought us to where we are. In this collection, this came out in the form of colours — a hint of bling to a subdued outfit,” shares Preethi.
While their festive collection has already drawn in some happy customers, they have plans afoot to get started on what they want the label to represent — clothes for the everyday woman. “The idea is to make clothes you and I wear. It would be something people across ages and body types would be able to get by. That is the crux of it. Our festive edits would come and go, but our baseline will be a daily wardrobe for women. That’s what we are working on,” she reveals.
While Sarala adds that they are looking to incorporate unique prints even in this everyday collection, not wanting to miss out on what they can bring to common-wear. Well, you’re going to have to wait a while to sample that. Till then, you have their festive collection to sustain you for the rest of the year!
(You can view the collection on their Instagram page: preethiandsarala, and purchase at tamarachennai.com)