Tradition in a box

BENGALURU: Even if the weather is not at its brightest, quite literally, it should not affect the joyous mood of festivals. And if you are someone who usually goes for last-minute preparations, then Aamna Khan, co-founder of the label Crafts by Bink, has got you covered. Removing the hassle of running to different stores for different items, this Onam, Khan has come up with a Kasavu Kit. 

The kit is a busy-women-friendly, festive fashion box that contains the Kerala-style off-white Kasavu saree, a tailor-made blouse, fabric jasmine flowers, silver, mirror-work jhumkas, chandan and bindis, a satin scrunchie, and safety pins. “We wanted to do something for Onam. This has everything that you need, which essentially targets the working women,” says Khan. 

A USP of the kit is that it has a ready-to-wear Kasavu saree, especially addressing many who struggle to neatly drape a saree.“A ready-to-wear saree basically saves time. That is a problem many of us face, including myself. I am not good at draping a saree, which is how the idea came about,” says Khan, adding that it is as good as sarees being draped in a traditional way. Khan also took care of the fact that people are too busy to step into their neighbourhood tailors and came up with a solution for that. “When somebody places an order, designers visit their homes, take their measurements, and make it to order. So you don’t have to step out or go to the tailor,” says Khan. 

The kit costs  Rs 3,199, Rs 3,599 & Rs 4,299 for different variants of the saree. “We have three different varieties, which are mostly on the design of the blouse. For instance, the kit worth Rs 3,199 has a basic design while the higher variant has an elastic blouse,” she explains. To Khan’s surprise, the response has been overwhelming.

“We planned on selling only 50 kits because we had just two weeks until Onam. But 2-3 days into the campaign, we were sold out, and then we ordered another 50 kits and we sold that out too. We ended up selling 2x number of kits that we had planned on selling,” she says.