Over the years, Vimor has worked with numerous weavers. Every weaver amazes us with their sensibility, thought-process and inspiration. An incident with a weaver that I recollect from time to time is that of “Blue Mania”.

We had a young weaver who was enthusiastic about working with Vimor. The sarees already produced had uncanny colour combinations but his determination had no bounds. That is how he started working with us. Over the years that he has set looms to Vimor’s designs, his work got better, the sarees more beautiful than ever.

After our initial discussion, we had a few designs that needed to go on the loom. Every saree had a line of hideous blue. We explained via instructions, drew out our designs, used shade cards all in an effort to make him understand and convince him to remove the blue creeping in, yet our weaver never budged.

Design after design came with the hideous blue. I was so frustrated and upset that I asked him in Tamil, “Have you got a “blue mania”?'' The weaver was taken aback by my rant. 

But the next time we corresponded on the telephone, and I asked who I was speaking with, he identified himself as “Blue Mania”. Since then, that name stuck. Even when he visited us for my daughter Vipra’s wedding, my tongue was caught. I had been referring to him and conversing with him as “Blue Mania”.

I used to find it strange that in most of the villages we visited, doors were always painted in bright blue. We do not pay attention to the ingrained memories of weavers who come from villages where the local environment defines everything. From colour and motifs to style and design at large. Something that we cherish here at Vimor since “Blue Mania”.

Pavithra Muddaya, co-founder and lead designer at Vimor.