How Garden Vareli revived the fortunes of saree Fashions in India in 1980s & 90s
Saree, Indian fashion’s oldest unstitched garment, has over the years evolved from just a daily-wear for women to a fashion-wear. And one of the brands that contributed immensely in reinventing saree as a fashion-wear is Garden Vareli. In the 1980s when saree was mainly plain and traditional prints in cotton and silk, Garden Vareli entered the market with geometric patterns, bold florals, georgettes, chiffons & crepes and much more. On top of it, it ran an out-of-the-box advertising campaign that completely changed the perception about Sarees for women in India.
Garden Vareli was one of the first saree brands to advertise in print and on television. It started advertising with a series of print ads which featured Persis Khambatta in the 1980s. They went to create memorable ad campaigns with three successive Miss Indias – Namrata Shirodkar (1992), Madhu Sapre (1993) and Aishwarya Rai (1994). Lisa Ray also featured in their ads in the 1990s. The series of ad campaigns in the 1980s and 1990s beautifully communicated that wearing a saree is not a “mommy thing” and a woman can be just herself and not always be just a mother, daughter, wife or sister. The ad campaigns celebrated the sexuality of women without being vulgar. The brand made saree as a smart, bold and sexy attire for modern women. Garden Vareli, with its fashionable and memorable advertising campaigns, managed to revive the fortune of saree fashion in India. The unique feature of Garden Vareli’s TV advertisement was also their memorable jingle composed by Vanraj Bhatia and arranged by Ranjit Barot. Famous fashion designer Late Wendell Rodricks began his career by designing for Garden Vareli.
Garden Vareli, which started as an aspirational brand, lost its way over the years as it could not embrace the changes in market trends. The brand, that was resonating well with modern women almost 3 decades back, was neither innovating in terms of new designs nor reinventing itself. Moreover, it not only couldn’t strengthen its loyal customer base of saree buyers (which are now grandmothers now), but also failed miserably when it launched ready-made men’s shirts and trousers under the Vareli brand name. Garden failed to capitalize on the brand image and could not evolve to become a complete fashion brand for modern women by introducing other range of products than just sarees and dress materials. It ran it’s last TV campaign in 1995 – almost 25 years back!!!
The last two decades were not great for the company as the competition became more intense and other brands started eating up their market share. The company was financially struggling for many years. It’s last year’s turnover was INR 2,899 cr but the losses amounting to INR 207 cr. Finally, The Chatterjee Group (TCG) bought the company for INR 747 crore.
It’s the end of an era. But thousands of people associated with saree manufacturing & trading in Surat will remember the brand Garden Vareli and its contribution to revive the fortune of saree fashion in India. And we certainly will fondly remember its memorable ads!