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Book Box | The art of brand storytelling with Suta Sarees
Explore the art of storytelling with Taniya Biswas of Suta Sarees, where every outfit carries a tale
Dear Reader,
When I began teaching at business school, I realised I needed a wardrobe. Years of being a writer had allowed me to get away with sloppy dressing, calling it ‘shabby chic’ and letting myself off the hook.
But to stand before a class of twenty-somethings, I felt I needed something different. The embroidered salwar kameezes from my banker days were long gone, buried below layers of baby clothes, old school uniforms and other bric-a-brac. And so it was that Suta sarees entered my life.
Scrolling through Instagram the colours blazed out at me, splashes of crimson paired with Prussian blue, and exquisitely embroidered blouses with beautiful green, white and brown bird motifs against a blue background. Wearing these gorgeous sarees were two sisters — each one striking in different ways, sometimes ruminating, other times laughing, and at all times completely at ease. Turns out they were the founders of the brand Sujata the Su and Taniya the ta of Suta.
I discovered that Taniya and I shared a common IIM Women’s alumni group and that we both enjoyed reading. Thus, our relationship began around sarees and stories.
Recently, I invited Taniya as a guest speaker for a session on brand storytelling. It was an inspired choice — the students listened spellbound to Taniya’s stories — everything from how Suta began, to the story of a surprise visit from film director Karan Johar’s stylists to Suta sarees for lead actors!
It's a conversation that’s perfect for this festive season of sarees and dressing up — here are edited excerpts for you:
Tell us about your childhood.
Baba (my father) worked in the Railways and my mother is a homemaker. We lived most of our life in Bhubaneswar. Baba was always into health-related books and overly consumed the newspaper. He used to give us tips from his findings in the books. Ma read some monthly Bengali magazines. Dadu (my grandfather) read a lot of Bengali literature. He had a great collection. Sujata and I learned to read and write Bengali during our summer vacation Kolkata visits and then he started suggesting books. I enjoyed that.
How did clothes and stories come together for you?
During festival days we couldn’t afford to buy new ready-made clothes to wear every day like some of our relatives did. Ma had a brilliant solution to this problem.
On family holidays, my father would hire an Ambassador car and we would go driving around to the nearby villages. We did pit stops near rivers where we spread our picnic mats and ate, climbing trees to pluck tamarind. The highlight was stopping at artisans' and weavers' homes and watching them at work. We learned a lot about textiles from them. Before we left, Ma let us pick two metres of fabric each. We had to draw designs for the dress we wanted and then Ma would stitch that dress for us, even though she wasn't trained to stitch. With her stories and magic, we felt the most beautiful in what we wore. And each dress had a story behind it.
Tell us one such story.
One time I wanted a lot of pleats on my dress which was upcycled from Ma's saree. But when I wore the dress, I didn't like that I was standing out in the school even though I loved the dress. Then Ma's words rang in my ears — own up who you are and what you love. And I did. I received so many compliments and warm hugs from teachers. It changed me. Looking back, I can see how Sujata and I always stood out in the crowd and how our mother taught us how to be comfortable in our own skin.
Coming back to your reading life, has your reading changed over the years?
I used to be an avid fiction reader and after 3-4 years I've moved to books on life, entrepreneurship, and people.
When your nephew Ram was very little, I remember you gifted him a book subscription. Now you are raising your son to be a reader.
I was initially lost as a new aunt on what books to offer kids, but with a book subscription, it was easy. The only way to get kids to read is by showing them how it's done, how it's a part of your daily life and they copy you they want to become you. Just giving them books and asking them to read doesn't work.
One of my favourite books is The Jungle Storytelling Festival by Janaki Sabesh. It's a sweet tale about animals coming together for a festival of stories. It encourages imagination and creativity.
Your husband Aditya is a reader too — you both met when you were working together at IBM right? Are your reading tastes similar?
I believe that partners should have overlapping passions else it gets tough. We both bond over reading and cooking. Aditya is an avid reader and is more disciplined. Whenever I get a good suggestion from a friend, I pass it on to him. It's his task to buy and keep it on the bookshelf. It also is an unsaid thing that he reads any new book we get first and I take his suggestions. He knows what keeps me hooked and suggests accordingly. We recently read Start with Why by Simon Sinek and Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.
Do you re-read books?
I keep going back to Rabindranath Tagore. His lyrical, philosophical prose and poetry are magical. The home and the world are infused with deep spiritual and emotional resonance. Its elegant simplicity and depth are what I love. Like the story Kabulliwallah - that’s a story we even enacted ourselves, it’s so powerful. It talks about love, separation, and the innocence of childhood. Such simple stories teach us so much.
And lastly, any recommendation for a book on clothes and fashion?
Sustainable Fashion: Antidote to Fashion Pollution written by my friend Vino Supraja. Please read it.
That’s all for this week. In the meantime, do send in pictures and stories behind your favourite outfits — would love to hear your fabric stories. And until next week, happy reading!
Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com
The views expressed are personal
