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Ready with a bagful of designs

A Kottayam girl is designing bags with an Indian touch for the cognoscenti in the West. Sreeja Nair tells K.Pradeep that accessories have come into their own

INTO HAUTE COUTURE For Sreeja Nair, bags of opportunities beckon. Right: Bags designed by Sreeja PHOTO: K. K. MUSTAFAH

Designing bags was not in her DNA nor had she ever thought of this as a career option. Today, the bags designed by this demure Kottayam girl are sold in some of the most fashionable outlets in Europe, like Antik Batik, Monsoon Accessorize, Guru, Midwest of Cannon Falls and Anthropologie tags. The bags she designs are well known but Sreeja V. Nair, the designer, is unknown, understated. A product of Marian School and K. G. College, Sreeja has a bag for every occasion and season that is simply rocking.

Accessories and their role in dressing up have only lately dawned on the average Indian woman. A combination of snazzy rows of beads around the neck or the effect of a bracelet, an embroidered satin hobo bag, a colourful scarf, or a jazzy belt can be simply amazing. The trick to dressing up and dressing well is getting the accessories right.

Demand for accessories

Accessories are at last getting their due. There is now a growing demand for bags, belts, scarves and shoes. Designing them has become an in thing among the fashion designers in the country. And making her presence felt in this scene is Sreeja.

She started designing classy bags just three years ago. And already her collections have been sold in some of the major stores in Europe. The fashion cognoscenti have been quick to embrace her designs.

Sreeja stumbled into designing bags by sheer accident. At the International Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, she did the two-year course in Garment Business Administration. It was all about buying, merchandising, retail operations, and fashion coordination. Sreeja was being groomed to join the administrative side of this booming industry. "After I completed my course, I joined Varnali, a 100 per cent export company in Delhi, dealing with home furnishings, accessories and garments, as a merchandiser. I worked here only for six months before moving to Ranika Exports, also in Delhi. My job here included sampling and even a little bit of designing. Slowly, I was doing more of designing than merchandising," says Sreeja.

High standards

The four years at Ranika provided the creative opening that Sreeja was looking for. "Ranika, an export company, have some very good clients like the London-based design-led retailer Monsoon, its specialist fashion retail chain, Accessorize, and many other very popular fashion outlets in Europe. Most of my work was for Accessorize. Every year, for the two buying seasons, their designers would come down to Delhi. They would then state their requirements, colour, theme, and shape specifics. They would then leave it for us to work, setting a deadline for completion. We then use our `karigaars' or expert workers and throw in our creative inputs. The prime aim is to make sure that the visual appearance, quality of materials and the finish are perfect enough to attract the customers."

They need to go through a process that involves many stages before it is met with the approval of their clients. "On an average we design around 50 samples, in two or three colour combos. Most of our work is on fabric, with sequins, beads, metallic thread, leather-appliqué work. We go through all these stages before a design is finally approved."

Ranika specialised in the embellishments on bags. "For this we use loom embroidery like Aari or Zardosi work and also machine embroidery. The fusion of these kinds of works made the designs simply beautiful." Soon Sreeja's chic designs, simple but not ditzy shapes caught the eye of many international clients. She had that knack of zapping them in fine fabrics, like glossy satin in warm, balanced colours, covering them with stones, beads, ribbon ties and more. And with an aesthetic mix-match of materials her bags acquired a sizzling look. The exotic floral soft bag, the flower and sequin clutch bag, the metallic gathered frame clutch bag, the Oriental embroidered fusion shoulder bags, or the lovely little bags in black, grey or pink with dazzling gold or silver, Sreeja has made them all. "I owe a lot to my mentors, Nila Mehta and Mala Shukla, who found that I could do this job and gave me the confidence to pursue a career in this field. Now, I even do a little bit of garment designing."

With handbag collections becoming a fashion trend, only next to the wardrobe perhaps, Sreeja has now begun working on her own. "You can call me a sort of freelance designer. Though I still work only for Ranika now, I have plans to begin something of my own and there are also offers from a Chennai-based garment company. I have designed a new collection that mainly includes lace work, encrusted with big beads and stones, cord work and use of metallic elements. The collection focuses on using different techniques to give it an embossed look.

Local materials

"Nowadays I travel to Delhi during the season, say for four months in a year, finish my job and return. I have thought of trying out bags made from our own material, like the handloom fabrics and `kasavu.' I have made a few samples and it certainly looks good. With a few more `karigaars' coming down from Bengal I hope to diversify into using more of indigenous material like coconut shells, embroidery etc."

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