Meera Ganapathi and Purvi Shetty are like the old grandma in Goodness Gracious Me, who believes everything can be made at home. But luckily like the pudgy old lady, these two young girls don't go about town with an aubergine in their creative hands. Instead, they blog. And that's why their blog proudly declares that it's born of the “Humph! I could make that at home” ideology.
Meera and Purvi started Two Material Girls on February 14, 2012. It's a Do It Yourself blog that gives readers and bloggers a host of ideas to re-jig clothes, shoes and accessories from their existing wardrobe or just go ahead and create something new rather than blow up their pay at a renowned store.
“Meera and I had been exchanging ideas and notes for three years on how to make things at home. Most of the things you buy are worn a couple of times and then put away. They're not worth the money spent,” says Purvi. Agrees Meera and adds, “The idea to start the blog came about one day after we visited a shoe store where we really liked a pair of glitter shoes. The pair was priced at Rs. 3,000. We realised it was something we could create at home. That's how we started.” The duo believes not only can money be saved this way, but you can also be proud that you created something trendy all on your own.
Brainstorming
Bangalore-based Purvi is a Public Relations manager, while Meera is a creative supervisor in an advertising agency in Mumbai. Every week, the 26-year-olds brainstorm and come up with new ideas for the blog. So far, there are vibrant shoes with glitter, buttons and lace among other things, dresses with pockets, bags made out of old ganji, hair bands, umbrellas... the latest being cupcake lights. “It's all spontaneous. For example, Purvi wanted to make cupcakes. She had the cake liners ready and then saw her fairy lights lying around. So she went on to design the cupcake lights,” laughs Meera. Similarly, Meera had decided to make a necklace with sequins but the next thing you know they were sitting pretty on a pair of ballerinas making the ragged old pair look all glitzy and fun. “Not just fashion accessories, we also work on hairstyles and home decor and shortly, will put up recipes. The first one is definitely going to be a dessert recipe...something befitting the mango season,” says Purvi.
Simple creations
All their creations take anything from 10 minutes to a couple of hours to make. And they assure that the materials required are reasonably priced and easily available. “We make a conscious effort to use materials available in India. The foreign blogs and sites mention products that are not available in India or are hard to procure because they are known by a different name here,” adds Meera.
And with that the two go back to designing stuff for the weeks to come while I scour my wardrobe for things that have been languishing for a while. It's time to give them a makeover in The Two Material Girls style.
You could look up The Material Girls on Facebook or visit their blog www.twomaterialgirls.tumblr.com.
