Growing Up & Scaling Down

Gold-trimmed shirt made of the sheer kasavu cotton fabric; a trial product we created back in 2005.

When we started Kara Weaves back in 2006-2007, we wanted it all. And like any new found passion, we went a bit overboard with having a vast product range that included not just the towels and robes (that you now see on our website), but also cushion covers, curtains, bedspreads, pillow occurs, duvet covers, bags, skirts, shirts, wraparounds, table cloths, tea cozies, table napkins with several colors and patterns for each. At the time we thought the best way to plan the inventory was to let our shoppers decide what products worked and what did not. Did that strategy work for us?

Clockwise from top: bed linens, sheer silver motif curtains, bags, cushion and curtain panels, tea cosy and napkins

Unfortunately, this turned out to be an expensive experiment: our stocks of products made of the fine cotton+metallic weave (kasavu) languished away while the towel (thorthu) products just flew off the racks. But why so? 

• Reason 1: Maybe this was since the big press features we got during that time focused on the towel fabrics more. 
• Reason 2: We also attributed this to the fact that at a given time, a household can never have enough towels or bathrobes, but you could only have a certain number of curtains, cushion or duvet covers. 
• Reason 3: It might be hard for anyone to make an impulse buy with a product (curtain or duvet covers) that directly impacts the color scheme of your room or that needs to conform to exact measurements.

A custom-designed jacquard motif in gold for the sheer curtain panels

Another difficulty we had (in retrospect, duh!) was being such a small team and trying to keep track of such a complex inventory. With some of the products like the cute little bags above, we ran into issues of keeping up with fabrication quantities. We gradually narrowed down our product range and firmed it up to what you're seeing currently. That's not to say we don't care for these products anymore; I'm sharing these images with you so you know how wonderful these fabrics truly are!

The best use we found for the extra stock of these beautiful curtains and bed linens was to gift them to our wonderful friends and families. In the meantime, we're actively working on adding products more carefully to our repertoire now. I've put up a few of the sheer panels in my tiny Boston apartment; so many years later, I still love the light through them!

The curtains I still use: those from our first Kara experiment years ago!