LogoLogo
0 ₹0.00
0 ₹0.00
Menu

The Legacy

Vimor, meaning ‘pure’, is a brand born out of love for India’s handloom heritage. We have been around for nearly half a century, working towards designing and creating exquisite, authentic, unique, exclusive handwoven sarees. Along the way we have worked towards documenting and reviving design from heritage textiles so that women of today can own a piece of our woven heritage and create connections with their history, stories and memories. We are a brand that stands for the revival of the time-honoured art of designing handloom sarees. Our focus has been on creating and supporting the handloom saree weavers through revival of old designs. All our revival sarees are either from Vimor’s own collection or from our customers’ own sarees. We do this by documenting the designs, techniques and stories and use them to inspire traditional handloom weavers to continue their craft and by finding buyers for these heritage designs. We believe that handloom textiles are our common heritage and that every woman should be able to afford and own a piece of this heritage.

 

Mrs. Chimy Nanjappa and her daughter, Pavithra Muddaya established Vimor in 1974 and started off by selling old saree auctioned by the temples called Temple Sarees. Slowly when these auctioned saree began dwindling, our focus shifted to recreating them keeping in mind the scalability and financial returns of the designs. We started training and encouraging small town weavers to re-create and produce traditional, marketable sarees that suited our aesthetic sensibilities. Design is central to our work and Pavithra continues to be actively involved with documenting design, motifs and weaving techniques. Respect, empathy and integrity are the foundations on which Vimor was built, by motivating and building confidence in weavers to believe in their art. We believe in hand-holding small-time weavers to help them transition from weaver to entrepreneur. Advances are paid with 100% buy-back allowing weavers to work in a risk-free environment. Till date there has been no ownership of weavers and looms. All our work is on trust that has never failed us.

Our belief has been that a weaver should be able to create a beautiful piece without worrying about how he is able to sell it. We also make sure that when we stop a design that we are always ready with the next design so that his loom never falls silent. Today 90% of the weavers who have worked with us have become successful businessmen. What’s more, their sons are now confident enough of carry over the lineage. This has not only sustained continuity in work, but also guaranteed employment for years to come. We have succeeded in keeping the second-generation weaver from migrating to cities, losing their social standing and also have done our bit in helping conserve and preserve our handloom heritage.

The Family

Vimor was started by Chimy Nanjappa who was the first manager of Cauvery Arts & Crafts through the 50’s and 60’s. She was selected by Mrs. Pupul Jayakar to handle the saree section at the World’s Fair in New York and Montreal in the later 60’s. Her love of textiles started in Cauvery and grew over the years; after her husband passed away she started Vimor in 1974 in partnership with her 16 year old daughter Pavithra, as a means of livelihood. They started by selling old temple sarees and when these weren’t available easily, they began recreating them and this is how the business was born.
Pavithra Muddaya trained at the Weavers Service Centre and Design Centre – this hugely impacted her design sensibility and technical know-how. She has documented and recreated all the designs we have developed over the years. Besides training weavers across regions, she has been part of many Central and State Government initiatives for the upliftment of textiles.
Vipra and Arup are a part of the third generation running the business. They spent a lot of their childhood looking at beautiful sarees and learning along the way. Today Vipra manages the store and handles the business aspects. Arup joined Vimor with his range of colourful Lungis/Sarongs.

Vimor Handloom Foundation an extension of Vimor was set up in 2004 to deepen and institutionalise impact with a vision of empowering weavers through conservation of handlooms, educate citizens on handloom inheritance, research, document and innovate environmentally friendly sustainable products.

 

  1. To preserve our handmade textile heritage, by empowering weavers through revival and design intervention
  2. To provide sustainable livelihood to those involved in the handloom industry through mentorship
  3. To add value to the existing knowledge bank, educate the common man on our handloom textile inheritance, and conduct research and documentation
Learn more
X