Vimla Crasta has absolutely no training in dress designing. But, today she has a large number of clientele that flocks to her store, on 100 Feet Road, Koramangala, to pick up party wear. Wait! Don’t rush off, it’s not for women but for girls aged from zero to 12. She loves children and says: “There’s not much done in India or children and it’s also hard to find tailors who are willing to make clothes for them. So I decided to start with something small and the last 24 years have led me to start my own outlet here.”
Called Magic Threads, this store was first set up in Richmond Town as Little Magic and later renamed as Magic Threads. “I worked from my mother’s apartment. It was a residential area and I decided to move here,” says the self-taught designer who started designing clothes just for passion.
“It all started out with a trip in Salem. I saw the fabric industry and picked up a few meters on an impulse and created a couple of clothes for children and they were sold out. That’s how my journey began,” recalls Vimla.
“I believe that if you have the drive to do something then you will succeed. For me, running this store is more about inter-personal relationship with my customers rather than pure business. Now I have the second generation of customers, that is, women who bought clothes from me when they were children now come to buy clothes for their children! It’s really flattering,” beams Vimla, who now runs the store with her niece Natasha Balan.
Natasha, who is more into technology has been the strength to add in that modern touch to her aunt’s talents. She has designed a play area for the little children in the store. “This helps the parents browse through our collection while the kids are enjoying themselves,” explains Natasha, who also adds that most of the fabrics are not local but are imported. “Especially the flowers and the embellishments are imported and they are all attached to the dresses by hand,” explains Vimla.
The dresses are sleek and stylish with a little lace here and a little ribbon there with pretty flowers and the works. They offer clothes for baptism, christening, flower girls, wedding wear and party wear for young girls and also have a range of ethnic wear for girls which will be available during Pongal, Deepavali and so on.
She also has a range of designer high heels for the girls! “Heels are in and most young children love wearing them, though I am against it, they insist on buying them. So I have a very limited collection of them,” explains Vimla, who then adds that she also plans to start off a boy’s collection soon. As of now they have a very limited range for the boys.
“We also custom design the clothes and soon plan to start off an online store,” explains Natasha who has used the store space even for weekend workshops for parents and children to “help them bond. Being a working mother myself I realised that I hardly spent any quality time with my children.”
So they also conduct crafts workshops, mother toddler programmes, dance activities and so on every Wednesday and Saturday. “It’s either just one weekend programme or stretched over eight weeks,” explains Natasha.
Magic Threads can be contacted on 41265111 or go to mymagicthreads.com
