Day 2 - Visit to Apsara Silks

I first met Anand Goenka from Apsara Silks at TexWorld in Paris in September and was impressed, not only with the quality of their range, but also with its leaning towards the Western market. Many of the Indian companies in Paris were showing highly skilled and complex hand embroideries, but with a distinctly Indian look. Apsara's designs compare well with those that I currently use from UK companies. Most of the Indian companies were showing silk dupions of a high quality, but I was won over by Apsara's silk satins, the quality of which seemed to be lacking at TexWorld. This and their flexibility of service persuaded me to take a detour from my month on a Goan beach to see more of the Apsara range and their production processes first hand.

On picking us up from our hotel, Anand tells us that Bangalore is experiencing a boom time. When you consider that its leading hotel 'The Leela Palace' was recently voted the number 1 business hotel worldwide by Conde Nast readers, beating rivals such as the Peninsula in Hong Kong, you see that this city is a force to be reckoned with. Over the last 6 years, high tech companies have based themselves here due to Bangalore's high proportion of college graduates - the city has a long held reputation for having a highly educated population, indeed Anand himself holds a Masters in Business Studies from Boston University and travels extensively, visiting customers all over Europe and the USA.

Apsara's manufacturing mill is based 60 miles out of Bangalore and boasts state of the art technology, with weaving on Sulzer and Rapier power looms and digital printing with the capacity to print up to 16 million colours per metre! After half an hour weaving through Bangalore's crazy traffic, we reach Apsara's sampling unit, where designers use the latest CAD software from Belgian company Sophis to produce and turnaround samples, usually within 7 days. Many one-off designs are produced here and existing designs adapted to customers requirements.

 









  

Anand shows me a myriad of wonderful fabrics - Apsara produce wonderful home furnishings such as cushions, bedspreads and table runners and 'Hermes' - type printed silk scarves, as well as the beautiful hand-embroidered and beaded silks that I am particularly interested in for my Occasionwear collections. It's like being a kid in a sweet shop and my eyes are on stalks. I have to stop myself day dreaming,  imagining how wonderful each fabric will look in a certain room of my humble Yorkshire abode and get back to the matter in hand.

 

Apsara uses highly skilled staff and Anand explains that for every 10 workers one overseer is required and another to watch him and the original 10 worker's output! This and the quality of European beads, sequins and dyes, keeps production consistent, but is a costly necessity. After what seems like minutes, but turns out to be 3 hours, drooling over their wonderful designs, Anand takes us to his family home, introducing us to his father, Vishnu Hari Goenka, who founded the company in 1988 and we sit down to a vegetarian meal prepared by Anand's mother and new wife. Indian hospitality is legendary and delight after delight appears with Anand explaining the preparation of each dish to add to our enjoyment. 

Whilst sitting in the traffic jam that is the return journey to our hotel, Anand lists Bangalore's tourist highlights - in his own words "Bangalore has no architectural highlights at all!" He then helps us plan the rest of our day with a visit to the shoppers’ paradise of Brigadier Road and the Leela Palace Hotel Arcade, which is home to international designer boutiques and an array of high quality Indian handicrafts and jewellery. Jewellery is an especially good buy and my husband has to prise me away from an emerald and diamond ring (£540 is an extremely good price for 0.6 of a carat of diamonds and Colombian emeralds, but I'm afraid he's not in a buying mood!)

Instead, we follow Anand's suggestion of a speciality coffee and gooey chocolate cake of the 'to die for' variety in the Leela's cafe, in the magical setting of lush gardens, dressed with festive Christmas lights. When the mosquitoes appear at dusk, we adjourn to the 'Library Bar' for cocktails (o.k.…admittedly 2 bottles of Budweiser. This hotel ranges from £300 a night, so cocktails require a mortgage!) After 3 rounds of drinks (just so that we truly appreciate the ambience of the hotel, which is based on the famous palace at Mysore), we hit MG road and the bright lights of Bangalore's night-life. As if the culture shock wasn't enough, we find ourselves in a bar decked out like the fuselage of a plane, with waiters dressed as cabin crew. Bangalore's bright lights are turned off at 11pm (i.e.: all the bars shut!) and another crazy tuc-tuc ride to our hotel ends a brilliant day.  

More next time,

Fiona

Fiona Thomson Design