A fairly young company based on the cultures and crafts of India was ironically founded by an american in the 1960s. Basic hand woven, naturally dyed and block printed indian outfits and home accessories was the start of a revolution in India and abroad. The delhi university wouldn't exist without fabindia kurta teamed up with denims, a jhola and kohlapuris. A perfect artist or rock star look of every student!
Fabindia gave India an irreversible recognition for its skills and techniques. The airy cotton kurtas were nt great silhouettes but were great for teh scorching Delhi heat. Team a kurta with a salwar of your choice and match a dupatta - the possibilities or combination made splashes of colors and statements! There are still no rules to wearing a fabindia outfit - anything goes AND rocks!
in 2004 they added organic foods to their products - perfect timing as the whole world was hooting about organic food - The kind that comes in smaller packaging and twice the price and mostly dull colours. i don't know what the commotion is all about but whatever! Soon after was the introduction of natural / hand made personal care products.. Now India is known for its hand made things and beauty things and fabindia already had a set market... They didn't even make it look good.. The organic foods would lie in the corner table piled one on top of the other and people bought it.. They were super expensive too.. But here's the thing - foreigners come stuffed in buses to shop at Fabindia! It's a one stop shop (now MANY) to experience, buy and feel india! What's better is that it's cheap and makes great gifts for friends and family back home.. So anything they do works well.. I'm not saying that their products are bad.. They are good - but now they've reached a stage where anything they touch is gold!
I personally never liked those clothes.. I hate the block printing and the colors fade or run on first few washes. Also the designs are repetitive.. But that's my opinion.. i have friends who swear by the dark kohl eyes and chunky silver jewellery with fabindia looks!!.. BTW, they started their own line of hand made jewellery also!
They still have their original shop n Greater Kailash in New Delhi and infact with a shop for each division of fabindia - they have now practically taken over the whole market.. They have almost 9 shops now selling all sorts of goodies.. it's a must visit if you ever go to New Delhi. They have a fab cafe with organic healthy salads and drinks with whey and all sorts fresh fruits and vege juices too.. Bravo to this young company!!
So the brand identity - that runs more with the goodwill than the design, kinda took the design front for their personal care product packaging.. Nothing exceptional - very earthy and basic.. almost like the stuff they make. Although i've seen a lot of bold colors and awesome prints in their too - i wonder why they went with something so dulling.
This is what i mean - the moment you say - hand made or organic - people associate it with dirty earthy colors and recycled brown paper look and textured paper... Which SOUNDS great.. but i've never seen it look as good!
Lush does the same thing and makes it look like a million bucks! I might buy this product for its quality but i won't be excited to display it on my dressing table.
If they ad a corporate social responsibility aspect to this and go green - which i think they are moving to.. they will be the biggest ever !!
