Tuesday, November 2, 2010

MORA: Ritika Mittal

This is a post that I couldn't wait to write and so I moved it all the way up my post queue!

MORA's birth began with its founder Ritika Mittal's wedding- It is a lovely long story that I'm trying to get shorten and still keep its wow factor in fact. Ritika wanted to wear cotton or mulmul sarees for her wedding (much to her mother's horror- I can imagine this!) as she was tired of the 'The same bling and borders, the same copied cuts and yokes, lacking in ingenuity altogether!' Ritika's obstinacy paid off and she prevailed. Her wedding sarees turned out gorgeously beautiful (I've seen the photos- the 2 adjectives are absolutely necessary to describe them!) And out of this and a rickshaw ride and a phonecall for sale of 8 sarees was born MORA.

 Ritika gave up her full time job and turned entrepreneurial.The result are her fabulous designs


She also designs lovely duppattas :)

I think the North East ones are my favourite as I already own a Kalamkari on silk sari as a part of my wedding trousseau(And yes, I had to go to war with my mom for letting me wear anything but the traditional South Indian kanjeevaram saris)

If you are already amazed at Ritika's talent, you need to know more. Ritika-the woman who personally backpacks to remote villages in the North East (Yes- ULFA territory!)  for months to source her material. Her stories from her travels are wonderful and can fill another blog post :) You can find her travel stories and lovely images from the North East on her blog, on her travels for MORA, here.


MORA recently set up stall at the Kala Ghoda festival 2010, and 'real women' read doctors, social workers, entrepreneurs sashayed down the catwalk wearing MORA. Don't they all look really pretty? And I love the fact that Ritika used them instead of the usual PYTs. 

To buy or to drool over more of Ritika's clothes visit her website or Facebook page.

Ritika is heading this week on another one of her trips to remote areas to study and source materials. Ritika, Good Luck and Bon Voyage!

19 comments:

Shanthi said...

Hmmmm ... u did this. I am a big fan of Ritika's collection and was wanting to post this when I started my own blog :-). It is an amazing how she plays with fine mulmul, mushra borders, Kalamkari's and the vibrancy in colors. I just love Mora and a way to go. I am glad Divya you did this :-)

GB said...

Wow! I hadn't heard of her, but ye gads her work is awesome! Love the hot red number (top panel, far right!) Sadly, I don't get many opportunities to wear saris!!

Btw, the black ikat sari--the very first one reminds me of my ikat suit that I wore to death during my college years! I might even have a couple of old photographs in it! :)

Heh heh, my mom's not much of an "enforcer" so I ended up with saris from most regions of India.

Unknown said...

OMG Diwya...Thank god you didnt tell me abt this post..else we would hav landed up talking for another 2 hrs, abt the gorgeous stuff. This is sure stunning. I am going to be ordering some of the sarees and suits when i am closer to leaving for my vac to Mumbai...btw the count is 3 extra bags nw...:-)

Deepi's World said...

Wow!!!love this post and sarees are amazing.Lovely colours and very different designs...thanks for sharing this.

Unknown said...

wow! its been ages that I wore a sari...this post is tempting me to buy one of her gorgeous pieces and YES wear it too:)

Anonymous said...

Oh my!! some of those sarees are gorgeous.. I love the dash of colours.. very different.. bold .. Yet gorgeously beautiful!

Sreelu said...

amazing collection and kudos to Ritika for her work. Would you mind if I repost this on my blog, please let me know.

Rekha said...

Ansolutely delightful....Loved the colors, designs. My fav is the blue and green one in the 2nd row. Im off to check out her deigns for now...thanks for the cool link, Divya.

Kamini said...

Where do you get all this from? Absolutely lovely stuff. I love the black/cream number in the second set of pics. Not a big sari wearer...but the dupattas, oh yes, i could wear those!

Sound Horn Please said...

@Shanthi- I've been trying to reach you but unable to email you or find your profile. I'm guessing this is the same Shanthi from Patty's blog? Please feel free to re-feature Mora/Ritika when you start your blog. I'm sure she will love all the PR :) And also looking forward to your blog!

I'm glad all you girls agree with me, and I'm not a big sari wearer either. But her stuff does make me want to!

Lakshmi -Celebrations said...

lovely stuff.lovely sarees,i could wear them any time.

Dithi said...

I LOVE Ritika's work, amazing how she came into this profession, was just meant-to-be .... such is life! WTG girl!

PreeOccupied said...

Great showcasing. Love the work and salivating at all of them, what if I could get one to wear for Diwali.

Anonymous said...

These sarees are SUPER gorgeous. I would love to own some of them. Ah. maybe one day when I move back to India and can actually use them!

**** said...

love this beautiful piece of info.....the colors and designs are quite bold and beautiful. going to check out the website now. thanks divs :)

Sans! said...

These sarees are really gorgeous! Even if I don't wear them as sarees, I will be happy to collect some pieces. Thanks for the links to her blog!

Vineeta said...

Brilliant post!!! I love Mora's work & this is the 1st time I have seen it. I quickly hopped across to their website & my god!! what a collection. I have written to them asking if they would like to be featured on artnlight.
Thanx a million for this info, if it were not for you I dont know how much longer I'd have gone not knowing their existence :)

Anonymous said...

I love those sarees and wish to buy..have emailed Mora & awaiting their response..

Ritika mittal said...

hey divya, just got to read this blog today n i must you n all the lovely ladies made my day!! you all can mail me at mora.rang@gmail.com...we have just come out with our latest collection... n have asked my friends n husband to help me with the mails till m back from the north east india which is january, 2011. so girls be there even if i take a little longer to respond... but i definitely will!!! oooooooo u all make me soooo happy!! :) n can i say divya.... super tight... murderous... rib breaking... hugssssssssssssssssssss for you!!! love n ear to ear smiles.... ritika :) :) :)