One afternoon, SP Arun Kumar chanced upon a pillow at his home in Madurai. It changed the course of his life. “It was stuffed with old baby clothes that belonged to my sister and me,” recalls the 29-year-old. Kumar felt the fabric, ran his hands through the embroidery that his mother had done. “It was unlike anything I saw at the regular textile stores,” he says. “The clothes were simple, made of the softest cotton, and the colours were mild and pleasant.” Kumar, who then worked as a web-designer in Chennai, thought, why not make quality baby clothes? He didn’t like city life anyway and saw the business idea as something that would take him back to his roots.
“My sister Ponmani and I came up with the concept for a line of clothes that are suited for our weather conditions and are kinder on the skin and environment,” says Kumar. That’s how Ambaram came to be. Started in December 2016, the company makes hand-woven clothes for new-borns and babies up to the age of one. According to Kumar, Ambaram means fabric in ancient Tamil.
Kumar says that hand-woven cotton is better suited for South India’s weather. “Knitted fabrics, for instance, are not breathable. Wear them in the hot sun and you can see how the material doesn’t let sunlight in.” Kumar says that nylon and polyester are a big no-no. “Dressing up babies in such fabrics, according to me, is an act of violence,” he feels. “We strive to go the Gandhian way — we source fabrics from Gandhigram at Dindigul and from handloom weavers in and around the weaving clusters of Chennimalai,” he adds.
Ponmani, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fashion and Garment Design, patterns the clothes. The Ambaram team is all for no frills — their range consists of off-white jablas with pastel borders and tie-ups, shorts, and nappies. “We wanted to keep off zippers, buttons, and elastic that can hurt baby skin,” explains Kumar. The brother-sister duo is now working on clothes for kids up to the age of five. “We plan to introduce frocks and kurta-pyjama sets with simple thread work,” he adds.
Ambaram’s USP is its gift box — a combination of jablas , nappies, bibs, shorts, a bracelet made of vasambu (calamus root), palm leaf rattle, and a handmade cradle mobile. Kumar sources the rattles from palm-leaf artisans in Thiruchendur and Ramanathapuram. “We wanted to provide an eco-friendly alternative to the flood of plastic toys in the market.”
Most of their orders are online. They market their products on their Facebook page and by word-of-mouth. Ambaram’s unit is at Puliyanur village, Villupuram. “When we first visited the village, we saw most parents there worked in far off places and visited their children only during weekends. Their children grew up with their grandparents and lacked a connect with their parents,” says Kumar. Along with Ponmani, he stared a tailoring school to provide women there an alternative livelihood. “Today, we have a team of three that works for us,” he says. “We hope the unit becomes self-sustainable.”
