Where tradition turns trendy

HANDLOOMS ARE synonymous with Co-optex, but here is a new entrant to this traditional scene. A millennial shop for handlooms.

With everything else going `global' in Chennai, this sector does not not want to be left behind. Enter Loom World.

Though showrooms for handloom fabrics abound, `Loom World' in Anna Nagar vows that it will be different as it is the first venture of its kind where weavers are to market their products directly to the consumers.

Customers usually hop from shop to shop to get different varieties of handloom goods. With `Loom World' coming up, the quest for variety in respect of handloom goods ends there.

Traditional silk sarees from Kancheepuram, Arni and Tirubuvanam, eco-friendly cotton sarees from Coimbatore, Salem and Paramakudi to fascinating furnishings from internationally renowned societies of Erode, Bhavani and Chennimalai. You name it, the `Loom World' has them. This apart, aprons, kitchen linen, furnishing, and flower baskets, which are exported by many societies, will now be available to local customers.

Nothing works like brands when it comes to sales growth, and traditional cooperative societies in the State are caught on the wrong foot in this area. Despite producing quality goods, their products are rarely identified by customers. For them `Loom World' is the window to the city shopper's world.

Cooperative societies are also not at their best, in the area of marketing. But `Loom World' is coming out with some aggressive marketing. To get the brand bandwagon moving, it will distribute 500 Loom World T- shirts free to school-going kids on the day of opening. As in other supermarkets, instalments, payments with plastic cards and e-commerce will be adopted to widen the customer base.

Another feature will be `customised' design, where customers can select their colour and designs to get varieties of their choice and taste.

To make the brand stronger, all products sold at Loom World will have the same brand, replacing the different society labels that they carried earlier.

`Loom World' plans to project a particular product on the first Saturday of every month.

Sarees of different varieties in one month and furnishing in the next, the pattern will be followed year round. Here, the traditional and the trendy meet. The D-Day is August 29.

By S. Vydhianathan

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