Retailing With A Kashmiri Touch
Kashmiris are perhaps the most enterprising retailers of handicrafts in this country. There is no nook or corner in which their carpets, furniture or papier mache products have not been displayed.
However in most places, these are retailed out of obscure little shops. So when a store like Saga is set up, with a predominant Kashmiri flavour to the products on display, it makes you sit up and take notice.
After seven years of retailing successfully, the second Saga store has just opened in Mumbai. Housed in a seven-storey building, if anything, the shop redefines luxury, stocking everything from cigars to cosmetics, and of course, the ubiquitous carpets.
Unlike the store located in New Delhi's Jungpura, which caters mainly to foreign tourists, the new store situated in upmarket Bandra aims to catch the eye of the Indian elite. The plan is to start a chain of Saga stores all over the country and even abroad. From the Cottage Industries Exposition (CIE) stable, which already has many outlets in India and abroad, the Saga stores aim to be a notch above the top. Right from the display to the designer products retailed here, everything is classy and sophisticated. The local flavour is important for the visiting tourist.
Not surprisingly Saga has devoted a large carpet area in the shop for rugs and dhurries. However, unlike the Delhi store where a complete basement is taken up by carpets, here these share space with other objets d' art.
Some of the carpets on display have a long history. For instance, there is a 300 year old carpet, carefully framed and hung on the wall, which has an incredible 2,000 knots per inch. Obviously, this is not for sale. But on sale are others in silk which change colour because of the weave. Says S B Datta, general manager, CIE : "Quality is guaranteed as raw material is supplied through us. CIE imports the Chinese spun silk and our carpet suppliers number around 1,10,000. Since it involves no middlemen, the prices are reasonable." Be warned though, there was one carpet which cost Rs 60 lakh.
Datta claims that internationally CIE stores have attracted celebrity clients like Hillary Clinton and Madonna. The interesting thing about shopping for carpets here is that designs are modified according to the furniture they are going to be under. Whilst the popular carpet designs known to every Kashmiri artisan such as the Tree of Life, Bukhara, Shalimar, Kashaan and Hamadaan are here, others can be made to order.
Saga has a range of furniture in oriental enamel and silver _ from four-poster beds, sofa sets, boxes or accessories. Similarly, there are intricate marble table tops inlaid with pearls, lapis lazuli, malachite and other precious and semi-precious stones. To complete the range, Saga has handwoven silks and fabrics with gold and silver thread.
Since Kashmir is a primary source for handicrafts, there are also the usual papier mache products. The store is also trying to bring back into vogue traditional gold jewellery inspired from temple art.
In short, Saga has perfected the fine art of retailing authentic Indian craft, expectedly with a more than heavy tilt towards Kashmir.