Chandrayee Chattopadhyay, CEO and Co-founder of Kreativ, is an undergraduate student, pursuing Geography Honors from Presidency University. She owns a start up Kreativ of 6 months and they have been getting immense response for that. They had an idea that something like paper clothing can also survive, and hence they launched their own startup.
Lets know how she got the idea of this startup.
1. How the idea of a startup on paper clothing got developed ?
Clothing is not only something related only to your clothes but it considers all your accessories from used in your hair till your foot. I studied in a school which was very culturally active and valued ethnic beliefs. Once we thought of participating in a fashion show and representing our school. We were the first batch and our school gave us the permission on one condition that everything we were starting from the buttons of the dresses till the shoes has to be hand crafted. We had a limited budget and had to find a way. One day I was passing by a very well-known store and saw a few mannequins dressed up in paper clothes (I have also worked for this brand later making one of the gowns for them). That gave me the idea to try this on my team and it was an immense success. Hence with the support of my co-owner and school-time buddy with a budget of only 2000 bucks that we saved from our pocket money we open Kreativ in May,2016.
2. How is paper clothing durable ?
As I said earlier clothing concerns everything you wear. Yes, paper clothing is durable, actually the major part of it is, we are using lacers and varnishes to make this water-resistant. Till date, we have made semi waterproof clothes and fully waterproof jewelry out of paper. Japanese washi paper has been used in more and more fashion items since its production methods were designated as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage. The World right now is going ga-ga over paper pieces of jewelry.
3.Why would people prefer paper clothing than other materials ?
People should prefer paper clothing over other materials because it is one of the lightest things to wear on earth. It will make a style statement wherever you go. It is cheap and hence you can fill your wardrobe with it and discard whenever you feel like giving up.
4. Why do you want to bring back old trends and not continue with the existing ones or bring some new trends ?
Old is always gold. We do not want to bring back old trends but to reinvent them in a Kreativ touch thus creating a new trend. We all learn from what is there in past but most of the time we discard them once we discover something new. This is the reason we the team of Kreativ want to show, the history of fashion is a modern way but with the stories and culture they carry.
5. Are people satisfied and content with the products made out of recycled products ?
People themselves do a lot of recycling at home to save money. So they are also satisfied and content about products made from recycling. To answer this question I will say we are only 6 months old and we have been featured in 12 newspaper and 3 blogs. We sold 1500 pieces of jewelry, made over 300 thread locks, and supplied near-about 30 paper dresses in various events. In a span of 6 months, we are organizing our own exhibition this December where we can show the people the style of paper clothing. This response wouldn’t have happened if people wouldn’t have been satisfied. Yes, obviously it takes time to bring a new trend. But I am happy that people are trying something new.
6. Where these paper products can be used?
Well, we have a lot of uses. We are the first paper clothing start-up of India. We have a lot of unique products starting from paper jewelry till paper ashtrays and paper bowls at a very minimal price. Our other uses include upcycling. We take old jeans from customers and turn them into bags, dungarees, goodnight slippers. We also make the couch for pets from unused old tyres. Our latest use is quipu thread locks.
7. Why do you think thread locks will be better than the modern and easy technique of writing? What is the reaction of the buyers towards it ?
Quipu or ‘Talking Knots’ is the nickname for a truly unique way to ‘write down’ information, knots tied into strings. Used by the Inca, this is the only known writing system of pre-Columbian America and dates back at least 4,600 years. ‘Talking knots’ were widely used for taxation, census taking, historical information, astronomy, and possibly even maps. Quipus have been discovered on various maiden’s hair who were sacrificed during the Inca civilization. Quipus have been used in a varied sense. Sometimes color symbolized the mood of the person and sometimes the type of knot could be read as alphabets. Hence we bring to you this trend back by combining it with the modern day thread lock. A lot of people do thread locks in parlors and places like Goa but they don’t know this angle of the story behind it. So whenever they hear this part of its history, which we always tell them before doing the thread locks they are very excited and keen to try this old way of talking with hairs. Hence, we are getting a marvelous response.
8. Are people in India accepting this kind of clothing ?
Anything new takes the time to shine. Hence this is taking the time too. I can’t say about India because we are only 6 months old and first of its kind we have just spread our wing in West Bengal. I can say the response is marvelous. We are in the process of making our website after which the whole of India can access to our site and see our work. We hope the best for that.
Look at work on facebook page
