Masala Tee

By Shreyasi Singh

Sheikha Mattar-Jacob (left) and Noelline Besson are spicing up the casual design segment.

Few founders personify their brand as effortlessly as Sheikha Mattar-Jacob and Noelline Besson of Masala Tee, a Delhi-based luxury fashion brand. Besson, born in India, was adopted and brought up by a family in France. Mattar-Jacob, born in Singapore and married to a French architect, has lived in Delhi, Shanghai and Paris in the past five years. And it is this delightful concoction of cross-cultural flavours, experiences and influences that the two women are brewing to perfection with their year-old company, Masala Tee.

Cannily crafted and packaged, Masala Tee works on a simple model. Using 100 per cent organic cotton, Besson and Mattar-Jacob design T-shirts that display images symbolic of India and play off the country’s culture with a smart combo of homophones like “tea” and “tee” (for T-shirt). Take, for instance, their launch collection for women. It featured form-fitted T-shirts displaying screen-printed faces of Indian women decked up with maang tikkas, neckpieces, nose rings and jhumkas in Swarovski crystals. The Indian connection has clicked instantly with a growing band of high-end foreign tourists.

To add to the uniqueness factor, the founders have even added a little story to the silk. So each T-shirt captures an Indian woman with a real name. “That’s Sapna,” says Besson, pointing to a mustard T-shirt. There’s also Divya, Piya, Sitaara and Maya. “They are part of our family now. So many people tell us, ‘oh! she looks like someone we know’,” adds Besson, who has been in India for more than five years now, doing graphic design and interior projects.

It was a chance meeting at the Delhi Zoo in September 2008 that brought the “TEE Wallahs” together. The fit was instant, and perfect, thanks to complementary personalities and skill sets. Besson, a design graduate from one of France’s leading schools of art, and Mattar-Jacob, an advertising and branding professional with over 15 years of experience with agencies like Saatchi & Saatchi, knew, almost instantly, that they could craft a successful story together. Things rolled very quickly, they say. “Even as we were getting the paperwork done, we were working on the styling,” says Besson.

The founders make it clear that it was never about “two giggly girls” wanting to have some fun. “We started with a business plan and a marketing strategy. We know how we want to evolve,” adds Mattar-Jacob confidently. Since June 2009, when they launched Masala Tee, they have made more than 8,000 pieces. Priced at a hefty Rs 2,500, these T-shirts are retailed through 18 upmarket outlets across India like Ogaan, Bombay Electric, and several five star hotels.

“It’s aimed at the uppity fashionista—somebody with a high disposable income. We are focused on the niche market. And, the response has been incredible,” Besson says. Little flourishes add to the buying experience, like the clever play on “tee” and “tea”, which has been blended smartly into the packaging of the product. Each T-shirt is packed in its individual tea bag, which is either a modern silver foil packet or a soft muslin tea package of yore.

Earlier this year, the duo also launched exclusive lines for men and children. The children’s collection shows stylised images of quintessentially Indian animals—cows, camels and elephants—wearing headbands and sunglasses.

The “Tee Wallahs” find such inventiveness easy to come by in India. “This is such an interesting country to be in,” begins Mattar-Jacob, adding that she and her husband, Cyril Jacob, began itching for the excitement of a developing country in the one year they spent in Paris. “India is exciting because it is evolving. You can add your two bits to this creative energy and leave your mark on this churn.”

Of course, everything has not been smooth. The company still faces long odds on the production side. “It’s proved to be the biggest hassle so far,” confesses Besson. “Because ours is a high-end product, we are very particular about the detailing. That’s been tough to manage with our suppliers,” she continues, adding that they work with two production units, one in Delhi and another in the South to ensure they don’t get stuck. “We would love to have our own production unit, to be completely in control but that is a far, far unlikely dream,” Mattar-Jacob sighs.

The founders are readying to launch an e-boutique by September to enable people to buy Masala Tees online. The new platform is expected to allow them to make the leap into the international market.

Having broken even within the first ten months, courtesy viral marketing, the TEE Wallahs are now looking at tripling production over the next year. They already retail out of boutiques in Mauritius, Dubai, Singapore and France. “There is such a buzz about India around the world. We get a lot of queries from abroad. But, we want to do it right, to make sure we hit at the right target audience at the right time,” they say. Clearly, this duo knows the perfect blend of masala for their tee.

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