Of princess, pastel flowers and homegrown slow luxury brand

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: Mostly in pastel shades, whimsical flowers trail the length of pallus, dupattas and the arms and body of jackets.

Painstakingly hand painted or hand embroidered, they would have been a family secret of the Ghatge royal women – a princess lovingly embellishing the clothes of her loved ones. But thanks to cricketer Zaheer Khan's astute business sense, it turned into a homegrown “slow luxury” brand, ‘Akutee'.

“Hand painted embellishments have been part of my childhood, my mum's been doing this for so long that I took it for granted. But my husband (Zaheer Khan) encouraged me to make it into a bespoke collection,” said Sagarika Ghatge, actor, model and former nationallevel hockey champ, who runs the label along with her mother, Urmila Ghatge.

The mother-daughter duo had unveiled their collection in Bengaluru at the Four Seasons. For the one-night-only event on May 16, the hotel's exclusive whisky parlour, The Collection, turned into a viewing room for a carefully curated collection of sarees, dupattas and blazers.

When they finally decided to take the plunge almost a year ago, ‘Akutee', princess in Marati, became the natural choice for a brand name, said Ghatge.

“Well, she is a princess,” shrugged Khan. Ghatge added that the name is not just a nod to her lineage, but also an ode to all the women in her family. “Akutee is a step back in time, to an era marked by impeccable taste and poise,” said Ghatge.