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Her silks rustle in cyberspace

South Indians in America are snapping up Rekha Prasad's Kancheepuram saris online

Photo: Murali Kumar K.

SILKEN SPLENDOUR Rekha Prasad Photo: Murali Kumar K.

What do south Indians in the U.S. do when they want traditional silk saris for their daughter's wedding or their mother's 60th birthday? Log on to the net and order online for a Kancheepuram at Classic Silks from their catalogue — that seems to be a preferred solution. Or ask its owner, Rekha Prasad, to design and get them one in the twinkling of an eye.

An enterprising investment banker in New Jersey, Rekha started Classic Silks with a passion for the gorgeous rustling silks. She's crunching numbers from seven to seven, before working on her saris till late into the night. In fact, a lot of her orders come in at night.

Living in the U.S. for the last four years, she discovered that South Indian silk saris were under-represented at Indian stores there. "Most stores didn't have access to a source or didn't have the expertise to tell if the sari they had sourced was a genuine Kancheepuram." And she didn't like the idea that this silken splendour would be lost to an entire generation.

A friend from Andhra Pradesh living in the U.S. once called Rekha frantically asking her if she could get her the traditional while silk sari with red border for her daughter's wedding that was finalised in a rush. Rekha had seven days to go. But she made sure the sari was couriered to her in three days. "Even her relatives in India wouldn't have been able to manage that," says Rekha, visibly proud of her network.

Her network consists of cousins in Chennai. "Very often women who come from the U.S. won't find the kind of saris we get made, even if they looked for them here," claims Rekha. "We add value by selecting the right ones." She also selects colour combinations and designs and has them made if her clients approve.

Last year, she sold over 200 saris online, and the number just keeps growing. "I started Classic Silks when the Internet boom began... when I realised I didn't need a store to sell saris," says Rekha. She doesn't look upon this as a business. "I don't do it for a profit. It's my passion and I do it as a community service — to make these saris available when they are needed most."

With cross-cultural marriages being the trend, the weddings are held in the U.S., and saris are needed not just for the bride but even for the American mother-in-law! In such cases, Rekha makes sure that the blouse measurements are emailed, and the sari is shipped with a stitched matching blouse to boot!

Her clients include Indians who buy them as gifts before landing in India for a friend's or relative's wedding. Moreover, with new customs catching on in traditional weddings, she sometimes gets requests to make colour-coordinated sari-blouse sets for four bridesmaids!

Apart from the large south Indian community snapping up her saris, there are a quite a few Maharashtrians and Gujaratis among her clientele.

"Money is never an issue for people who want these saris. In fact, saris in the lower range don't sell much," she says.

Her bridal collection is priced between Rs. 16,000 and Rs. 30,000 ($400 to $700). To get the sari to the U.S. in a day's time by air courier is an additional Rs. 300. Many Indians living in the U.K. have made requests to deliver her saris to their relatives in India!

You can view her collection on www.classicsilks.com

BHUMIKA K.

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