After graduating from IIT-K and IIM-A, I worked for 9 years in consulting as well as a couple of media and content startups. I came from a small town in Punjab and had never even thought of starting a business ever.

I saw an opportunity when I saw how much my wife had to run around to get contemporary dresses stitched for herself. She is a handloom, handicraft and saree enthusiast and wanted similar craftsmanship for western clothing too. At the time, no one was making these at an affordable enough price-point for her. And I had a hunch that this was a situation not too unfamiliar for a lot of you.

Decades ago everything was handmade and now almost nothing is, except for maybe luxury designer wear. I realised that people will, and in some cases had already begun to place a higher value on handmade goods. And that a brand that stands for high quality, handmade products, with India’s rich handloom expertise - should do well. It would in fact be a luxury in this day and age, but I still hope to make it an affordable and accessible one.

Since this realisation, I have visited multiple handloom clusters in states like Bihar, Gujarat, Bengal, and others over the years. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of garment and home fabrics being handwoven in the most remote corners of the country, majority of which was going out of India for exports.

On one of these tours, I finally met my co-founder Dipa. She is a prominent figure in Bengal’s handloom weaving fraternity, and a champion for women empowerment in her small town. Dipa had been designing exquisite handloom Bengal cotton with weavers in her nearby cluster for the last 20 years. She has helped up-skill local rural artisans, many of whom have suffered domestic abuse, to create hand embroidery, stitching, quality checking and much more, making them truly independent.

We somehow clicked and struck this beautiful partnership, that is Sarron. All of Sarron’s clothes are handmade by these artisans. Each artisan has more than 6+ years of experience, with some having worked with Dipa for more than 15 years. They don’t have to travel hundreds of kilometres to find a livelihood in big cities, can stay with their families, and get paid fair and above-market wages. We sincerely hope you keep on supporting their craft.

Arshpreet
Co-Founder, Sarron