THE ZARI STORY
HOW DID ZARI COLLECTION START?
On a whim!
It was 2004. Suku won a trip to India at a golf tournament and off we went with no idea that his round of golf would change our lives. We stayed with friends in Delhi and on our last night we were introduced to a young Indian couple just out of design school. The couple showed us some amazing colourful handmade silk scarves they had designed. Suku and I love bright colours so we were immediately drawn to them. Our last rupees were spent on 70 pieces with absolutely no idea what we would do with the scarves back in Malaysia. “I suppose we could give them away as gifts”. So we thought!
But along came the American Association of Women’s charity bazaar in Kuala Lumpur and we nervously spread the scarves across a table and waited. Then the doors opened, the shoppers arrived, and our table was completely empty in two hours. I will never forget arriving home that night with pockets full of cash (no credit card machines then) and thinking what to do next. However, Suku was on the phone to India in a flash and ordered 300 more scarves. And so, we continued to increase our sales – no Business Plan, no budget, no hesitation!!
Subsequently, Suku and I left our jobs, formed a company and further extended our range. We travelled back to India, sourcing more scarves and shawls, beautiful hand blocked household textiles, hand stitched vintage throws, jewellery, hand loomed block printed floor rugs... all the things we personally loved. Later we filled shipping containers with old furniture and household items. The furniture was a great success, but we very quickly learned that we could only sell furniture items that would fit into a car – packing and transporting from our house where we did most of our sales was beyond our abilities.
Twenty years on we still have no shop, no staff, no advertising but we developed our brand, and we still have our fantastic mailing list of around 3,000 people who support us at our bazaars around Malaysia in malls, hotels, private houses and our own homes in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. And there is Suku, a wonderful communicator with a knack of engaging customers – he remembers names, what they last purchased, shows them how to wear scarves and shawls, and entertains them with stories about our trips to India.
Many trips followed to India. We spent time chatting to foreign buyers and local designers over cups of masala chai in the garden, and doors of opportunities opened for us. It has been hard work but so much fun and we learned to laugh at the mistakes we made over the years. Suku and I continued with determination and now, together with our carefully curated range of unique products, Zari Collection was established
