If you’ve ever stepped inside a Good Earth store, in whichever city, chances are you’ve fallen in love with the luxurious lifestyle lair almost instantly. This home and apparel store doesn’t just look great, it smells awesome too. As creative director Anita Lal says, “We appeal to all senses, with the visually pleasing products, the smell and the music.”
While Calcutta is not on the Good Earth store list yet, a slice of it has come to town in the form of a pop-up, set up in association with Weavers Studio and t2, at Daga House on Ballygunge Circular Road. The pop-up with an array of lifestyle products and apparel will be on till February 5. Before picking up the shopping bag, t2 chatted with Anita to know the why and the what of the Good Earth Pop-Up.
How did you plan this pop-up?
It’s just by chance that I met Darshan Shah (of Weavers Studio) and she said why don’t we do something together in Calcutta and I said yes, why not. So we planned the pop-up. This pop-up is for two weeks, but right from the first day we started running out of things… now a truck full of things is coming. So the response is overwhelming!
So what have you got for Calcutta?
We had no clue what people would want, so we got a lot of our apparel, our dining range, home decor pieces, cushions, fabrics… all of which are doing very well. We are also taking orders and before we leave we will do all the deliveries.
There are some workshops planned too?
There will be some small events happening over these two weeks and it started with a table-laying session by Pavitra Rajaram from Mumbai. Then there is an organic bazaar and more such things.
Are you testing the Calcutta market with this pop-up?
We have stores across five Indian cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore) and with this we wanted to see if there is a possibility of a store here…. This was the first step to assess Calcutta and see what people are looking for, then we may come in. Calcutta is a price-sensitive market and that’s one of the issues. And Good Earth is a luxury brand… it is luxury for your everyday living.
Good Earth is perceived as a home improvement store more than an apparel store…
That was the case indeed, but now since we have launched our apparel line, it is doing very well. Everything in Good Earth is about sustainability… so all our clothes are made out of khadi or other hand-woven fabrics… then there is vegetable dye, brocades. We do two kinds of styles, one is Indian with luxurious fabrics, and the other is contemporary for the younger lot, and for people who want to dress contemporary.
Do you feel people have suddenly woken up to handlooms?
It shows that there is awareness finally, it shows pride in our heritage and concern for our artisans. For me it would be ideal if all of India just dropped everything else and went into handlooms and handcrafted. I don’t know whether the awareness is enough. It’s for the retailers, designers and consumers to be conscious. Our job is to present handloom and handicrafts in a way that it appeals, you can’t sell anything that doesn’t appeal.
Smita Roy Chowdhury
Pictures: Rashbehari Das
