It’s not often that style meets affordability, particularly in a city that’s not exactly known as a fashion destination. Katha, a new boutique on the Kumarapuram-Murinjapalam road, effortlessly weaves together the two with panache, presenting an eclectic collection of saris, dress material and dupattas that are chic as well as easy on the pocket.
It’s the first boutique in the city of the Chennai-based eponymous wholesale fashion label, which has several stores across India, including two in Kochi.
“Katha only retails natural fabrics, traditional handloom silks and cottons, in their many forms and weaves, sourced from karigars [artisans] from all over the country. That’s why we don’t have chiffons, georgettes or any other synthetic fabric. Each handloom fabric is then given a Katha stamp of class with block prints, hand embroidery, machine embroidery, natural dyes and so on,” says Sonia Sreekumar, the proprietor of the two-month-old store.
The lawyer-turned-businesswoman says that it was her love for shopping that prompted her to open a boutique of her own. “I shop a lot in search of reasonable yet unique weaves, a segment that I felt was missing in the city. I also enjoy interior decoration and thought that it would be nice to do up this space that I had as a boutique, particularly because there are not many upscale boutiques this side of town,” she adds.
Just about every item at Katha is unique, each with some wow factor or the other, be it in the fabric combinations, colours, embroidery, prints, or weaves. Take the collection of ‘Chikankari cotton Kota’ sets. If one has a white Kota top embroidered with finely detailed flowers in Chikankari thread work in pink, another has a top dyed in three colours (hot pink, white and black), embossed with the same embroidery, handmade by karigars in Lucknow.
Each such set comes with matching dupattas, also in Kota. The Kota silk sets, in a range of complementary colours, are also worth a closer look as are the sets in Jacquard cotton, Maheswari weaves with geecha silk borders, pure cotton with self prints, jute cotton, jute and pashmina silks, washed Kotas, linens…
“The dupatta for each piece is very different,” says Sonia. Indeed, search and you’ll find that Katha does have some stunning dupattas. The light-weight Kota silks, for example, come with stylish block printed Kota dupattas. Some Chanderis are teamed with jute cotton dupattas, while jute cotton tops are often paired with Kota ones. A jacquard cotton in pastel shades has a spectacular dupatta with wavy muga print in purple to match its border, while a washed Kota set comes with an stunning embroidered one.
Another Kerala kasavu cotton set with yellow paisley embroidery has a gorgeous matching dupatta with tissue borders. The sets are priced between Rs. 800, for the colourful printed cottons with mal dupattas, to Rs. 5,400 for elegant Tussar silks in red and black with Pasmina dupattas.
Apart from a collection of semi-stitched salwar sets, Katha also has a small but fine selection of saris such as supernets in contrasting shades, with cotton blouses, Bengal cottons and Assam silks with block prints, Calcutta printed cottons, Maheswari silks, Rasipuram cottons with rich pallus, Kerala saris with appliqué borders and so on.
The prices range from Rs. 1,050 for the Kerala saris to Rs. 8,000 for a traditional Kalamkari hand-painted sari in shades of blue and green. “Many customers like saris and sets in bold colours, particularly youngsters. I’m studying customer trends and augmenting stock based on their needs, but Maheswaris and Chanderis in both cotton and silk seem to be the most popular with the women of the city,” says Sonia.
