04 May My first visit to Danfe Store
When I was passing by the street in Jhamsikhel, I saw this store with few advertisement like “Buy products worth Rs.2000 or more” and get a “DANFE bag for free”, “winter sale 10-30% off”, “and see who make our clothes”, this particular poster struck me, why were they asking people to see the people who made the clothes. My curiosity got the best of me and I went inside the store. The first thing I noticed were the colorful Nepali fabric “tote” bags, I started roaming my eyes, I saw all kinds of Women’s wear, kid’s wear and Men’s wear. There was a huge board which stated: “It takes you to start a trend” ”. I asked the girl, who was taking care of the shop, what it meant and why the shop had “Get local go local” sign board with a hashtag. I really wanted to know what it was all about. She answered with a smile, “Our store is not just a store, this Danfe store is an initiation of SAATH and we’re showing DANFE as a trend which of course is going to start with you”. “Starting a trend hmmm… sounds kind of fun…..”
Roving around the store, my attention went to the lovely tunic dresses which is called Kurthi; I wondered if my mom would like it or not. It’s is Mother’s day in a week and I was planning on buying something for my mom. I looked around and picked up a cool pink cotton kurthi and search for a perfect bag for her. The tote bags here has a lot of variety; blue/black, pink/white, blue/white, bright mixed color, dark mixed color “DAMN how am I supposed to select from all these?…Something light color could perfect her”. I asked for the pink/white bag to the salesperson. I also noticed cute dresses hanging, I find this floral breezy dress in blue, it looked quite adorable so I opted to try it. With a lot to exhilaration I said to the salesgirl “I WANT TO BUY THIS DRESS TOO!” Very keen to support this social enterprise I dawned to explore more varieties of clothing and went through all the products available at the store. One particular dress caught my attention, it had geometric cuts, kind of edgy and high-low, like a gown hence I asked the girl who designed this dress she replied with a soft voice . I asked the girl who designed this dress and she replied with a soft voice that they had their own designer, who creatively designed these clothes and the production team stitched them. I was impressed. “I didn’t know they had a designer! That is some prolific work!” I wanted to buy that dress too, but the size was quite small for me (ha-ha)
Since these clothes are made here (Nepal) itself, a sense of nationalism ran through my mind; and then I realized what they meant by “Get local go local”. This made me feel relatively proud of what they’re aiming to do, making local products by local women, going strong on empowering them. Such a wonderful concept, buying their product not only made me feel happy but proud to some extend for their hard-work.
Contributed by Nirvisha Baidya