Handbags with a Designer’s Touch Celebrate the Rural Indian Woman

The handbags are made of natural fabrics which incorporate some novel touches, like the layers of silk sari patches as ornamentations.

The handbags are made of natural fabrics which incorporate some novel touches, like the layers of silk sari patches as ornamentations.

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: Indian fashion took a page from the latest trend in retailing, the Pop-Up Shop, to showcase the creative designs in handbags, featuring some handcrafted fabrics and unusual compositions with others.

The three women behind the Earthredz brand of handbags, from left, Vandana Prakash, Mercedes Ortiz Monasterio and Kalpana Peck at their Pop-Up Shop in the Kirby Center this past Saturday, May 10.

The three women behind the Earthredz brand of handbags, from left, Vandana Prakash, Mercedes Ortiz Monasterio and Kalpana Peck at their Pop-Up Shop in the Kirby Center this past Saturday, May 10.

Open just for the day this past Saturday, May 10, the shop Earthredz was named for the company headed by three local women who hail from other parts of the world by way of the west side of town where they live with their families. All three met through their children, at the Village School near Diary Ashford, and started trading some ideas that could pool their talents.

Kalapana Peck, from Bangalore, is the designer among the three who used her 20 years of experience as a clothing designer to come up with an imaginative line of handbags, purses and clutches made of a blend of natural fabrics, though for the past few years in Houston she has worked as a yoga instructor.

Vandana Prakash, from Dehra Doon, used her skills in marketing to start building the sizzle for the 6 month old company, doing plenty of research with the other two women for the past 18 months prior to launching on this endeavor. The majority of their lines are manufactured by suppliers in New Delhi but a key ingredient comes from the village looms of South India. It is a banana fiber that is used to make the handloomed fabric and the material is soft but rustic in its finish.

Mercedes Ortiz Monasterio is from Mexico and brought her IT skills to help create the website and market through the internet social media and other sites to promote the new venture. One strategy is to give 5 to 10 percent of the sale price of each purse towards “Project Loom” which will purchase more looms for the rural women in India who produce the banana fabric. Indeed, slides showing the village women working at their looms looped through on the wall throughout the day.

The three women pooled their talents and resources to market the handbags, even showing at the Dallas Merchandise Mart at their first trade show.  But when they opened the Pop-Up shop in the Kirby Center between West Alabama and Westheimer (just down from Pondicheri restaurant) they were pleasantly surprised by the number of people who came. “Indian Consul General Harish came for the lamp lighting ceremony”, explained Vandana, “and then we were engulfed by people looking to shop”.