Bandhej, the brand Archana Shah has created and taken to laudable heights, made its first formal debut in Delhi recently with a flagship store. Established in 1981, Bandhej’s name has become, over the years, synonymous with the celebration and appreciation of indigenous craftsmen, offering a little piece of Indian heritage in both traditional and contemporary avatars.
Excerpts from an interview:
A little about this new store, and the what’s brought you to Delhi…
We are now looking at making Bandhej a national brand. So far, we had been concentrating and focusing on Ahmedabad. When we started in 1981, and the first store opened in ’85, we didn’t think that we wanted to take this nationwide. We did expand a little, and we have stores in a few cities. Now we are much more serious about expanding and making Bandhej a national name.
What did Bandhej, back in 1981, begin with and how has it changed over the years?
Since we started, we have been working solely with handcrafted products, creating small concept stores. And the kind of products we are looking at, it’s not possible to expand too much, since we can’t mass produce. So we are not looking at it in those terms. Instead, we are a very fabric-oriented brand. We are a very Indian brand, with Indian sensibility. The colour palette we use is very Indian.
How is this balance between traditional and contemporary maintained?
We try to use maps and write-ups in stores to generate interest and appreciation about the craft, familiarise people with it. And to stay relevant for the market. And we collaborate with the craftsmen. I have always looked at working with the indigenous craftsmen as a collaboration. We use the same work, but now it can also be produced using eco-friendly methods, organic cotton and much more.
Over the years, Bandhej has gone from being the only player in the market to finding itself flooded by competition. How do you stay relevant? and unique in the face of this?
When I started, the urban market had never seen something like this, so there was novelty to the concept. Then came the exposure and the craft melas and the whole ethnic wave happened. That is why you have to really interpret things very often. For any brand to remain relevant, you have to reinterpret yourself to times you are in. It is really what fashion is all about. Today, we like to look at craft as an evolved skill. We are using that skill, but transforming the product. You take a beautiful sari, and think about how to translate it into a contemporary outfit. Obviously you can’t cut up a sari today. So you rework it to make it suitable. There are many people today who love what they see in their mother’s cupboard, but they don’t wear it.
