Meena Bazaar

Meena Bazaar, the ethnic wear retail brand known for its exclusive and exquisite range of sarees, suits, link feanonik lehengas, kurtis, gowns, anarkalis, has become a synonym for heritage fashion wear. The brand’s Hyderabad store design gives a contemporary twist to traditional forms and motifs that are iconic of the city. The store designed under the direction of Deodutta Mulye, Director, JCA Architects, offers a tribute to Hyderabad’s rich cultural diversity and royal legacy and portrays the city’s elegant fashion sensibility inside the store. Spread across 4,000 sq ft, the store is divided into 2 halves – the front section comprises readymade and premium fabrics, while the back section is for lehengas and sarees. “As the store layout was physically divided into 2 halves, it made sense to invite the customer with ready-to wear garments followed by customised products and wedding outfits inside. The store had good heights which were used aptly by having chandeliers and VM wherever possible. We thought of creating a colour palette and a pattern for this exclusive women store which would speak for itself. So ideally we have used lot of pastel pinks in various finishes like wallpapers, textured and digitised printed laminates, and traditional motif curtains along with glossy golden metal rack designs.” The first big challenge for Vishal came in the form of store’s opening getting delayed, scheduled for December 2018 and pushed to April 2019, followed by multiple changes in design and customizing changes to meet the business needs. JCA architects gained insights from Vishal to understand how the spaces work for them and, once determined, formed design to compliment the owner’s imagination. Deodutta throws more light on it and explained, “The biggest challenge in the store was about maintaining a nice seamless design story from virtually one half of the store to the other half, which was accessed only by a 7’0” wide passage which was aptly resolved by etched mirror panelling.” Originally started with a small store selling printed sarees, Meena Bazaar today has expanded its presence, added new stocks and is also planning to cater to the tastes of young audiences. “We are now located at Road no 2 which is considered one of the most premium locations in Hyderabad. Previously we used to cater, mostly, to ladies looking for sarees, but, we have now got into readymade lehengas in a big way. We are seeing more sales now compared to before. Our business with time has increased and figures are going higher. The old look and feel has changed and we are equally focused on capturing the younger market with our new designs. I am happy with the effort from JCA architects and Deodutt has done a fantastic job,” Vishal concluded.