Thaindian News

New Delhi, Aug 12 (IANS) Fabindia, the country’s largest retail platform for handcrafted and natural products, has added a new item to its accessories portfolio - crafts-based jewellery. Company officials said the range, sourced from 21 states across the country, is an extension of the Fabindia brand aimed at offering buyers the complete ensemble so that they do not have to source jewellery from somewhere else to match their clothes. And it also hopes to lure new buyers.

The collection, priced between Rs.100 and Rs.8,000, comprises ethnic jewellery in silver, beads, thread, wood, bell metal (brass and copper), clay, ceramic, leather and glass - representing the wealth of the indigenous crafts of the states from which the company also sources its cache of textiles.

The collection - of traditional as well as contemporary jewellery - is available in three designs - Anusuya, the classical range; Ananya, the unusual and contemporary designs; and Amna, the trendy and casual range.

The jewellery will be available in select Fabindia stores in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, Chandigarh and Chennai in the first phase.

In Delhi, the collection will be available in eight of the 17 Fabindia outlets and in four of the seven stores in Mumbai.

Product development head Shilpa Sharma said the new product line will allow customers to accessorise the garment offerings. “The synergy with our existing range is clear. We are offering our customers the complete ensemble look,” Shilpa Sharma told IANS at Fabindia’s crowded jewellery and home accessories outlet in Khan Market.

The company hopes to lure new segments of buyers with its jewellery collection.

“There is a vast crowd of youngsters who prefer wearing jeans and T-shirts. They do not usually wear Fabindia clothes and nor are they interested in home accessories. We expect the jewellery to pull them to our stores. The appeal of jewellery cuts across all segments,” Sharma explained.

The collection, Sharma said, has been sourced from both designers and craftsmen.

“There is something for everyone,” said Priya Rao, the head of markets, commenting on the price range.

The jewellery range will be sold in India for the time being. “Though we have eight stores in the Gulf and a growing presence in the region, at the moment we are not sending any jewellery out. We will market it in phases as this is a new line of business for us. We are trying to brand the unbranded,” Pableen Sabhaney, head of communications, said.

The company, set up in 1960 by John Bissell, links contemporary urban markets with traditional crafts-based, largely rural producers. It hawks merchandise and products that emphasise an alternative to the mass-produced and offers livelihood to village artisans.

The company’s ability to balance the creation of sustainable jobs in the rural sector while posting healthy profits in a field dominated by non-profit groups and government-aided organisations made it a Harvard Business School Case Study in 2007.