Sunday July 8, 2007

It is all very material

By FARIDAH BEGUM

Given the precious little time everyone has left – as tailors have already warned clients of the cut-off date to accept jobs for the coming Hari Raya Puasa – textile shops are capitalising on the Mega Sale Carnival to give shoppers the best offerings at the lowest prices possible.

Photos by BRIAN MOH, AZMAN GHANI and CHUA KOK HWA

THE banners outside the shops say it all. For the past three weeks, every shopping area in Kuala Lumpur has been bursting with colourful banners shouting out the outrageous discounts offered.

Mix and match: Shoppers checking out the soft and colourful silks on display at Maya’s.

Anything between 10% and 80%! Everything goes!

It seems a good time for shops to put out their wares and sell them at especially low prices.

Imagine getting a silk material of four metres, just right for a baju kurung or baju kebaya, for less than RM200 or even better at RM100?

Not a wonder why foreigners, especially the Middle Easterners, are flocking to Malaysia for cheap and quality shopping.

Given the precious little time one has left as tailors have already warned their clients the end of August is their cut-off date to accept jobs for the coming Hari Raya Puasa, which is in mid-October, the textile shops are capitalising on the Mega Sale Carnival to give their customers the best stuff at the lowest prices possible.

Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman is one of the best places to shop for textiles that are reasonably priced and of the latest designs.

Lovely accessories: Scarves and selendangs to match outfits, readily availabe in a variety of colours and prints.

One of the shops, Maya’s Fashion Sdn Bhd, is a particular favourite as the proprietor themselves attend to customers and one tends to leave feeling satisfied with the purchase.

Their forte is in beaded silk chiffons that are particularly popular at the moment. Most of the elite crowd make a beeline for shops that sell this range as they are already luxuriously designed and beaded, so all it needs is a simple design to show off the wearer.

However, the range is not out of reach to those who refuse or don’t want to pay an arm or a leg for nice materials.

Ajay Kumar Ubrani, managing director of Maya Group, which also includes Maya’s Fabrique Sdn Bhd and Alta Vogue Sdn Bhd, said much of the textile business is in volume and it is good business to also have a more affordable range on their shelves.

“Most of the working women are very conscious of the way they look and clothes do play a big part, which is why buying textiles for clothes is not the same as buying other stuff like shoes or handbags.

Try this for size: Japanese tourists trying a T-shirt at a souvenir shop.

“You need to look around, pick out a few choices and even do a little mix-and-match, to see if you like how the particular material looks on you,” he said, discreetly pointing to the long mirrors subtly placed between the shelves holding bales of silks, opal silks, charmeuse silks and silk chiffons.

Ajay Kumar, who worked in his family textile business, learning the ropes from as young as 16 years old, is an old hand at matching different materials for effect. His expertise is very much sought-after by his customers.

He also gives further discounts on top of those already marked on the tags and his prices start from three pieces of four-metre each for RM100 to washable silks from below the RM100 mark.

On the other hand, just a few doors down the row, is Euro Moda, which is also popular for their affordable and upmarket range.

Paviter Singh, who is the group managing director of Euro Moda, which carries their higher range while Gulati’s shows off their affordable range, said the current sale is the best time for customers to pick up their Hari Raya materials.

“We have the full range, from the affordable silks to the current craze of chiffons and opal silks,” he said, when met at one of his “several” outlets along Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman.

He added that the beauty and grace of the national costume and those of our multi-racial society had many clamouring for the thousands of prints and plain materials available to be made into whatever the current fashion trends dictated.

Paviter said that women were conscious of how they wanted to look, whether it was for formal functions or even to work and a good piece of material, even sometimes at a more expensive price tag, gave them confidence to work better.

“Most women here prefer to have their clothes stitched, especially the baju kurungs and baju kebayas as they want to look exclusive and unique,” he said.

For the Mega Sale Carnival, which began on June 16 and will end on Sept 2, most shops, even those neighbouring Maya’s like The Silk Street, Harits, Euro Moda and Gulati’s, are having grand sales with competitive discounts.

The banner with the 70% sale sign is hung by almost all the outlets.

For those who are not so showy and want the good old cottons, georgettes and satins, shops across the street such as Nagoya, Harisons, Kamdar and Globe Silk Store have good quality materials with truly affordable price tags that would surely to keep shoppers happy!