By Sushmi.
How this started.
SUSHMI started in 2014 from a small online store in the United States. I was shipping sarees to Indian women in the diaspora who could not find good handloom abroad. The first orders went to women I had never met — trusting me with the cloth they would wear to a wedding. Twelve years and one rebrand later, that trust is still the entire job.
Why handloom.
There is no shortage of cheap sarees in the world. There is a shortage of cloth a daughter will borrow. We chose handloom because every other choice is the easier one — and the easier ones do not last the way handloom does.
What I look for in a piece.
Weight, weave, the back of the pallu, the blouse piece. Four things that tell you almost everything. If a saree fails any of them, it does not go up on this site — no matter what it cost us to walk away from.
What I worry about.
The looms. The next generation choosing to learn them. Whether the takli wheels in Ponduru will still be turning twenty years from now, and whether a girl in our part of the city will still be in school next term. Both of those are part of why this brand exists, and part of why it cannot stop existing.
What I want for you.
That you wear the piece more than once. That your daughter borrows it. That you remember where it came from when someone asks. That is enough.
— Sushmi