“Karma; what goes around, comes around,” he answered with a wry smile and head nod. It was three in the morning and I’d just asked a total stranger at Delhi airport, why on earth he was paying for my taxi fare while I held my blocked bank card in my hand, with my wallet empty and my transfer cancelled. This first encounter set the tone for the entire trip; where kindness and warmth underpinned every interaction.
Sailaway founder Holly Madge visits India every year, sometimes twice, in order to catch up with the tailors, keep a keen eye on the fabric markets and generally just soak up the atmosphere in the place where it all began. This was my first time visiting the country and my expectations ranged from the serene yoga-filled landscapes plastered all over Instagram, to the smog infested streets portrayed by the media. However, as often happens when visiting somewhere new, my expectations were soon dismantled and replaced instead with the intense reality of the place. The conflicting smells of busy streets and incense, the beating hot sun that’s soothed as soon as you step inside, the faces of real people in their city running mundane errands whilst draped in rich, elegant fabrics and bejewelled in semi precious stones. Hol knew it all too well and was by my side, leading me - amused at my wonderment yet recalling her own, through our fast-paced and fabric focused itinerary.
First stop; Delhi. Our trip coincided with the annual smog blanketing the streets. Though the factors that lead to the air pollution; annual agricultural fires, emissions, construction work to name a few - were worrying, the result is mesmerising. The city has a post-apocalyptic feel to it anyway, with jungle and wildlife bursting from the disintegrating architecture, nestled intermittently between grand architecture. The smog brings an orange hue that paints the place in the most beautiful sunset colours. Restricted to working in the daylight hours here we got straight to it. Our first, monumental task was choosing the materials for our new 2020 range and we were undoubtedly in the right place for it; a fabric store filled floor to ceiling with reams of the most vivid patterns I’d ever seen. It was heartening to think that if we weren’t here to claim it so much of this fabric would later be discarded as offcuts and sent to landfill. Hot cups of sweet Chai and conversation fuelled our decision making and what seemed an insurmountable task at the start, transformed after a few long days into a trillion sacks of our chosen fabrics. All that was left was the mammoth job of getting them into the tuk-tuk.
The next leg of our trip was spent in Jaipur, a city so full of life and washed entirely in pink. I immediately warmed to it, this was the India I was hoping to get a glimpse of. Local women, adorned in jewels and saris, roamed the dusty streets. Carts piled high with exotic fruits were wheeled around by donkeys and the bright lights of the market district flickered to life as soon as darkness fell. Elephants take their place next to cars and motorbikes on the main road, though it’s sad to see and your thoughts immediately wander to their welfare, the sheer size of them is astounding and their brightly painted haunches and bejewelled headdresses are so very distant from the (often) dismal District Line back home; you can’t help but look on in astonishment.
Our days there were spent getting into the nitty-gritty of the upcoming range with one of our tailors, Reggie and his incredible crew. To a textile newbie like myself, seeing a product come to fruition is remarkable. To have something that was very much an idea (far from fully formed) become not just a product, but the product we’ve been thinking about for years now in our hands, all in a matter of days is something I couldn’t quite grasp, it was magical. While there I got the chance to see the tailors in full swing, creating tassel fixtures, doing block printing and sleeve cutting. They were warm and more than welcoming throughout, happy for us to take a look. It became clear to me one of the main differences between business in India and the UK; is the total reliance on trust. For the first time, I understood why it was so important for Holly to visit regularly, not only to hunt for new fabrics and stay in the loop, but also to maintain the essential relationships that allow the business to thrive.
We left Jaipur and our mountain of material in Reggie’s capable hands to head on to the next leg of our trip, in Goa. Our journey was amusing to say the least, with camels on the highway, monkey-feeding breaks and stray pigeons in the airport - it all painted such a bizarre picture of the organised chaos we had immersed ourselves in. The moment we landed, the jungle that surrounded us created a heavy humidity that was quite different from the dusty air in Jaipur. We woke the next morning to waves crashing and the most colourful beach a few steps from our front door. Though time was once again of the essence here we did manage a morning dip before getting in the taxi to visit Bhanu, another of our brilliant tailors who possesses a knowing smile and the most extraordinary eye for colour. Bhanu is the woman behind our Special Edition dresses that are made from Sari off-cuts, often meaning they’re entirely unique one-off pieces. Her time is split between clients like ourselves - that order both her fabrics and her tailoring services - and her market stall, where she tests her creations on a variety of knowing locals and eager tourists.
Bhanu’s house is as vibrant as the garments being created within, with each wall painted in the brightest shade of purple, turquoise or yellow and then adorned with gold pattern over the top. Her son told me the stylish interior was due to the fact none of the family could agree on one colour, so they chose a wall each and let loose with the paints. The anecdote offered a perfect window into the inner workings of their family, where everyone gets involved. Bhanu’s son Akshay is studying business at college and has been running the accounts and numbers side of the company seamlessly for years. He now speaks English better than both Holly and I and is an absolute joy to work with. Her partner Amrut the handyman and comedy genius behind the sewing machine can create a dazzling piece in a matter of hours. Even her youngest son went and collected curry and coconuts for us whilst we sat, weary-legged on the floor of the living room, surrounded by the most pleasing array of garments piled up in stacks to the ceiling.
Our final stop was to see the lovely Sanju and his young family on the oceanside. We entered the beach hut where the warm Goan sunlight filtered through stacks of beach dresses and illuminated the vintage ‘Singer’ sewing machine at the front of the workshop, his little daughter smiling mischievously in her perfectly pressed school uniform as she fiddled with the foot pedal. Hol first met Sanju 7 years ago and they’ve been working together ever since to create and regularly update our range of beach dresses. His pieces are all block printed by hand and are such an alluring array of muted golds, purples, blues and grays. Days in the workshop were followed by fish curry on the beach and a Pina Colada (or two) in celebration of what really was an extraordinary trip.
Please ask us anything you wish to know about our supply chain, we adore telling people about the special relationships we have with our tailors and our time spent out in India.
Words and images: Maddie Meddings