SimplyFab People: Meet Masala Tee!

Ladies, meet two SimplyFab readers, Sheikha Mattar-Jacob and Noelline Besson.

They call themselves the Tee Wallahs and together the two friends based in Delhi, India have set up a thriving two year old business called Masala Tee, brewed from a wonderful imagination, a marvelously creative spirit, passion, sheer hard work and an attitude that will inspire you to go for your dreams.

I went to school with the very vivacious Sheikha who I remember always had a twinkling sparkle about her and a great sense of fun. Over the years, we lost touch and got reconnected again via Facebook and then had the pleasure of meeting up with her in Hong Kong when she visited recently. Over a lovely cuppa in Hong Kong’s charming seaside suburb, Stanley, we happily reminisced over our school days, in between exchanging information about our lives, husbands and  daughters. Here, from Sheikha, I also got the very inspiring 10 question scoop on Masala Tee, a place where a tee shirt is far from simply, just a tee shirt .. read on.

SimplyFab: How did you two meet – in India?

Masala Tee: It was an opportune meeting. I had left my job in Publicis Digitas India after 1 year in India and decided to volunteer at orphanages in Delhi whilst thinking of a  new venture. Noe was freelancing in the design industry and volunteering with the same orphanage, and thinking of starting her new venture as well. The first time we met literally over a cuppa of Masala Chai on an excursion at the Zoo, when we both volunteered with the organizer  to bring some kids from the orphanage there. We subsequently met again to discuss ideas and decided that the fit was right. I could bring in my branding, marketing and creative experience (with 15 years in Saatchi&Saatchi Advertising and the Publicis Group) whilst Noe could use her design and graphic designing experience. She graduated in Interior Architecture in Paris from Ecole Boulle and worked as freelance decorative painter and designer for 10 years, in France before she moved to India.

SimplyFab: How did the idea for Masala Tee come about – share briefly how it was conceived and what you did to start pulling it together up till your first collection

Masala Tee: We had an ‘aha’ moment when we drank  and cheered over the idea over that first cup of Masala Chai. We decided to call it ‘Masala Tee’ because as a brand name it holds much symbolism, Masala Tea itself being a quintessential product of India and ours being a ‘green’ tee brand. We loved the apt pun on words, felt that the name had a nice zing, was memorable, cool and spot on witty and quirky. Once the concept was in place,  the visuals just rolled into place and we  decided to play around with people’s visages. India has just so much to offer on that front with beautiful people, animals embellished and beautifully decorated. The visual idea and concept was born and evolved into three initial collections:

Masala tee JEWEL for Women

Masala T-URBAN for Men

Masala Tee SUGARCUBE for Children

SimplyFab: We love your creative and quirky visuals and your zany sense of style – what is the secret recipe behind the brand?

Masala Tee: We really thought through everything carefully. From the branding point of view, it was very important to us to have everything connected and tied up from the brand name to the visual elements, adding on the ‘quirky’ factor  and then adding on elements like a logo, packaging and even to the brand speak in terms of the language and copy that we used for the taglines and point of sale materials. Our secret recipe is to always keep in view that a teeshirt is just a teeshirt until and unless you are able to weave an interesting story into it’s creation to make it memorable and treasured.

SimplyFab: “Piping hot and Uber cool. A state of mind, a way of life. Save our planet, its the only one with chocolates!.”  - Do you do your own quirky copy – who writes it up? What’s the inspiration and what’s going on in your mind when you write that copy?

Masala Tee: Yes, the copy is done in house. Being an ex-advertising person with a creative background, I get to the grind, roll up my sleeves and just put pen to paper with the creative concepts and copy. We are really a two-woman show right now – doing almost everything by ourselves.  Noe, with her graphic design background puts my concepts to visuals.

SimplyFab: We noticed that you have been doing somethings to benefit the community that you live in – can you share what that’s about?

Masala Tee: A certain percentage of our sales proceeds have gone to events. We recently did a puppet show and a series of story telling events and collected donations which we made to orphanages where we contributed to items that they needed for repairs, plumbing, refurbishing curtains and to buy medicine. We have another event to help abused women in October and November 2011. Have a look at our video: http://www.youtube.com/masalatee#p/u/2/cAuRISZl70o

SimplyFab: What’s the next collection that we can expect from you and when?

Masala Tee: We will be launching  another Masala Tee Collection which will be a collaboration with another accessory designer and it will take a different spin to our present look and feel. The Masala Tee signature  collections as you know them now- will have more new faces introduced by end of this year.

SimplyFab: Are you using any particular materials in your design that make the collections particularly interesting or precious?

Masala Tee: First and foremost, we emphasize the Signature Masala Tee Collections as being Organic. We also use Swarovski stones  on our tees as they add a special quality bling bling element that has gone well with our customers. We also giveaway a pair of earrings with every order as a part of the JEWEL collection. Our packaging for each tee order is a ‘tea-bag’ and that runs throughout all our collections.

SimplyFab: Would you say that your mail order business is thriving at the moment? Where are most of the orders coming from?

Masala Tee: The mail orders are very encouraging- they come from all over – US, France, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong,

SimplyFab: Who stocks you at the moment – where can we buy a piece of Masala Tee outside of the mail order store?

Masala Tee: Our collections are currently available:

IN INDIA at:  Bombay Electric in Bombay and Ogaan & Zazahome  in Delhi 9 (and many more all around India)

IN AUSTRALIA at: Jaanu, in Newtown Sydney Australia

IN SINGAPORE at: Rose Citron

IN HONG KONG at: Sidewalk in Central

IN DUBAI at: O de Rose

IN MAURITIUS at:  IndyaVogue and Club Med, Mauritius

We really want to fan the flame of Masala Tee by launching new looks, new faces, and to go to new places. We also want the Masala Tee community to grow around the world.

SimplyFab: What’s on NOW that our readers can pick up at your online store?

Masala Tee: We just celebrated our second year of operations on 15 May with a series of promotions that will run through to the month of June. Do take advantage of these two promotions (above)!

WHERE TO GET YOUR VERY OWN CUP OF MASALA TEE?

HEAD TO:

http://www.masalateeboutique.com/