Sustainable indie label Chidiyaa is in complete sync with the conscious millennial’s fashion identity. The breezy, eclectically styled saris by the Gurgaon-based label have been winning Instagram and the mind behind Chidiyaa, Pooja Rajput, reveals that an environmentally-sound process of design and production is priority No 1 for the label. Chidiyaa started its roll in 2016 and has consistently worked with artisans across the country to produce hand printed and handwoven saris featuring heritage block prints and weaves. The label has also held pop-ups in Kolkata quite a few times.
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“People in Kolkata take time to accept a brand, unlike Delhi. Kolkata buyers are very loyal, they need to understand a brand. So even though I don’t have a lot of first-time buyers from the city, the number of repeat customers is really high, compared to any other state,” Rajput tells us.
Chidiyaa has a brand new line-up for the summer featuring an impeccably effortless range of handwoven saris, dresses, kurtas. We talked to the founder to understand the ethos of the label further. Read on:
Tell us about your summer line-up
For our new line, we are working with a lot of summer colours, there are alot of lime, blush, sea green shades. We have saris in chanderi, blouses in mashru silk, we have dresses, kurtis, dupattas in mulmul. Also, we have used our in-house motifs for the first time; we have introduced a summery hummingbird print on the numbers with flowers and traditional ajrakh borders.
Chidiyaa exclusively produces handwoven clothes. Tell us a little about your process
We work only with handwoven, hand block printed numbers which are created by our artisans based out of Bhuj in Gujrat and Phulia in West Bengal. The saris, for instance, are woven in Phulia and are then taken to Bhuj to be hand dyed and block printed with the motifs which have been converted into wooden blocks. We also use traditional ajrakh blocks, they are usually along contemporary lines because we try to focus on one element at one time, to stick to a sense of minimalism.
Why do you feel Chidiyaa resonates so well with millennials?
Chidiyaa works really well with the younger lot because we work with really easy fabrics like mulmul or chanderi, which are also very easy to handle. I also think our designs connect with the millennials because they exude a sense of traditionalism but they have a modernist vibe, it’s very easy to wear be it to work or as occasion wear.
How challenging is it being a 100% sustainable label especially amid the slowdown?
There is no challenge, because there’s no better time than now to be conscious. People now understand why we need this, and it really depends on the people and the market. We do not really want to cater to people who do not see the relevance of sustainability. So people who don’t understand what we are selling or why we do what we do, are not really our demographic. The Covid crisis has affected our offline sales in a way, since we have stores in Delhi and Gurgaon and they are located in malls, so that has taken a toll on offline sales. But our online sales have been more or less consistent.
Mulmul saris by Chidiyaa are priced at Rs 3,200 and the linen saris are priced at Rs 10,800