Women's Day 2025: Creativity, sentiment, and novelty define this nascent Kolkata fashion brand
While Kamolini Chatterjee had been re-designing and upcycling her own saris with the help of a ‘pucca darzee’ for years, the pandemic days gave her new vigour and zeal to help and sustain the livelihood of the artisan and the journey of an entrepreneur started finally in 2024 with the launch of Kay’s Kreations. She mentions, “We have two parts. First, upcycling of existing saris provided by people who are interested in preserving a sentiment or creating a brand new one in synch with fashion and style. Second, a new range of designs based on mix and match of fabrics and colours which are available through offline exhibitions at the moment.” We speak to the multi-faceted powerhouse of creativity to know more about her journey.
Excerpts:
What's your creative process in making truly statement pieces?
Upcycling as a process might seem easy but when it concerns upcycling someone else's favourite or sentimental sari it goes beyond designing. It has to do with the person, the looks, the color preference, sentiment, and if there is anything particular they would want. The exercise proceeds with the vision of how creatively a new design can be generated out of existing saris. It is very much about understanding the mind of the wearer,r keeping in mind the type and strength of fabrics, the colour combinations, and the persona of the wearer. And with the climatic conditions in our country, I prefer to concentrate on breathable fabrics that are easy to wear, maintain and are conducive to us. There may be work with the same colour palette, patterns or styles but the designs are different and unique and definitely a single one available.
What do upcycle and sustainability mean to you?
Sustainability to me is an environment for sustaining an existing structure with natural products, less use of natural resources, energy and re developing and preserving something that can withstand a longer period of time.
As a new brand what excites you the most and what challenges are you facing?
Designing something in my mind till its completion is the most exciting part. Challenges that are most faced by us is the demand for new designs and styles all the time. Getting the right fabric, matching or contrasting colours and to be able to deliver the best and up to a buyer's satisfaction is also demanding.
What kind of jewellery or accessories would you recommend?
While wearing a sari one needs to decide how to accessorise it either with a neckpiece, earrings, nose pin, septum, bindi, a different kind of drape or a hair style depending on the look and the feel of the sari. There are jewellery made of metals, fabrics, beads, sea shells so all these could be part of the style statement depending on the wearer. Fashion and style also depends on the occasion, the time of the day, and season.
What is your vision with Kay's Kreations?
To have more craftspeople whom we can sustain and support and venture into unisex garments.