#PastForward: The story of Bengaluru’s very own Pavithra Muddaya and Vimor!
In Bengaluru’s ever-evolving fashion landscape — where contemporary couture coexists with a rich textile heritage — one name continues to stand apart, shimmering like a guardian of tradition amid shifting trends: Pavithra Muddaya. For connoisseurs of handloom, she is not merely a designer; she is an institution. Though she modestly describes herself as a, “designer who was forced by circumstance to be one,” her work speaks a far more compelling truth. Pavithra has become the quiet yet resolute custodian of Southern India’s weaving legacies, often standing alone in her fight to preserve heritage in an era where powerlooms dominate the market. Across regions such as Dharmavaram and Anekal, she has helped revive the craft through design intervention, ensuring that weavers continue to find buyers who understand — and value — the painstaking artistry of their craft.
“We often forget how important a role weavers play in our lives. Imagine being without cloth before the machines took over. Once you realise the important role they play every single day, then the idea of reviving their crafts or giving them livelihoods with dignity that they can depend on — suddenly become paramount,” she reflects, as we speak with her in her warm and serene home below the Vimor Museum of Living Textiles in Austin Town.
Pavithra’s story cannot be told without tracing the origins of Vimor, Bengaluru’s most beloved sari label and store. Founded in 1974 as a mother-daughter partnership, Vimor was conceived as a sanctuary for authentic handloom. At a time when the city was expanding rapidly and the middle class was beginning to dream bigger, they (Pavithra and her mother, Chimy Nanjappa) realised there was an urgent need for a space where handloom lovers could buy directly from trustworthy sources — spaces in which the weaver was neither invisible nor undervalued. Vimor offered both transparency and dignity: enthusiasts could purchase saris confidently that the weaver had been paid fairly; and weavers, in turn, found a perfect mentor for their craft.
“The idea was always to stay small, stay connected and ensure that handloom was also available to the growing middle class across the city. Handloom has always been seen as something very expensive. We wanted to ensure it was more affordable for anyone who had a penchant for it,” Pavithra explains, echoing her mother’s ethos of accessibility over exclusivity.
Vimor’s beginnings were modest yet deeply intuitive. Initially, the brand repurposed discarded or ageing temple saris — breathing new life into textiles steeped in cultural and spiritual resonance — and sold them to large national handicraft and handloom houses. Over time, this blossomed into a sartorial house in its own right, one that collaborated directly with a close-knit network of weavers. Together they reimagined traditional patterns, revived forgotten techniques and restored the quiet grandeur of everyday textiles that had long been overshadowed by more ostentatious styles.
As Pavithra recalls, “we experimented with colour, with borders, with motifs that were lost to time — to make these saris more popular with a more modern consumer, who wanted handloom for the urban working woman. It had to be affordable, attractive and still be authentic to the craft and has now lasted for 48 years, with many of our designs still in production.”
In 2019, she realised another dream, one that had lingered in her imagination for years: the creation of the Vimor Museum of Living Textiles. Far more than a static archive, the museum is a deeply personal tribute to middle-class India’s rich yet often overlooked relationship with handloom. While many museums celebrate garments commissioned by royalty and nobility, Pavithra sought to honour the textiles that shaped everyday life — the saris worn without fuss or fanfare, chosen not because a trend dictated it but because they simply felt right — designs that seem to be lost to the vagaries of time.
“What has been done for this craft and its manifestations for the middle class in India? The Vimor Museum of Living Textiles is just that. It celebrates and preserves the rich legacy of handloom that the everyday person wore and patronised. It’s a musuem dedicated to what women wore without caring about trends. It’s what they wore because they wanted to to wear it and that’s what we hope to showcase here. We also hope to be a space where weavers can come to learn from and contribute to our extensive traditional design archives,” she concludes.
Email: romal@newindianexpress.com
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