Suta sends handwoven love from looms to both mothers and daughters

What do you get when two self-proclaimed ‘sincere nerds’ who pursued engineering and MBA and have a flair for fashion come together? You get Suta.

A brainchild of Su-Sujata and Ta-Taniya, Suta was born when the duo realised that more than their corporate jobs, they were bent towards entrepreneurship.

“After studying, we took up corporate jobs in the same city. Su went on to do PhD and Ta was a strategy consultant,” the duo says, adding, “We liked what we were doing but knew in our hearts that we would do something of our own, someday.”

Both Su and Ta reminisce that the only thing they talked about over tea and travel were their dreams. “We started with wedding photography, painting, and then product photography,” they say before adding that while creating their own products to shoot, they realised that they are much more passionate in finding the right fabric and obsessing over it during their photo shoots than the shoot itself!.

“Our immense love for handloom and art made us take a small but steady step towards Suta. Thus, in 2016 we quit and started our journey with Suta. There was no looking back.”

Ask them what they think is Suta’s USP and the duo will tell you that they managed to send the handwoven parcel of love from the looms to mothers’ as well as daughters’ cupboards.

“When Suta was born, a lot of saree enthusiasts were born with it, especially young girls,” Su and Ta say, adding, “We make sarees that a 3-year-old to a 100-year-old girl can drape. It’s fuss free.”

The duo says they introduced the saree as a daily wear.

“It reeks of innocence yet looks like the sexiest wear. I think that’s our USP,” Sujata adds.

Suta has two factories in villages in West Bengal where their weavers work. Over multiple visits, the founders started meeting their families and realised that they were all very warm and open to learning. One thing led to another and soon they started employing the daughters, sisters and wives for various activities.

“On one of our yearly meetings, we realised how empowered and happy the women were. They were stronger and more vocal about their ideas. At that moment, we knew that the company’s transformed vision is: To empower women and touch as many lives of women as we can in the journey.”

Having preferred comfort over design as youngsters, the entrepreneur duo, when they started Suta, decided they would focus on the quality above everything else.

“We loved what our aunts and grandmothers wore and started looking out for fabrics that were similar.”

After a lot of research and visiting different villages, they found out that mul cotton is the softest yarn to work with and is super breathable and comfortable.

“We use natural fibre for our weaves. Until now we have been mostly working with cotton. But now we are experimenting with eucalyptus fibre and silks. The results are amazing,” the duo reveal.

While working as an e-commerce may help the brand reach more people at a shorter amount of time, both Sujata and Taniya agree that the best thing about B&M is the ability to see, touch and feel products as well as take items home immediately.

However, not to be outdone, Suta has managed to overcome these problems by having super-fast deliveries all over the world. Furthermore they have overwhelming flow of testimonials which show new customers the trust and love people have for Suta and the brand itself has also been a part of many films, television serials and advertisements, re-enforcing trust.

As for Suta’s future plans, the duo reveals that in the short term they would like to replicate their model of adopting villages.

“Now we have two factories in two villages in West Bengal and are working with three villages- one in Odisha, MP and Banaras,” they say adding, “We intend to expand to the southern and north eastern parts of India and work on more exquisite art forms that are endemic to these regions.”

As for long term plans, both Sujata and Taniya conclude, “In the long term, we want to see Suta as a symbol of purity and known for its excellent quality of hand-woven fabrics from all over India.”

Suta is also planning to get in to infant wear with their handmade feather light fabrics as a new product line. This is a secret they have let out for the first time.