A touch of comfort

Ami Sata has been a pioneer in reshaping the otherwise male-dominated and chemical-laden cotton textile industry with Amouve, India’s first organic bed and bath brand.

Having just entered retail with Danube Home in Hyderabad, Amouve is redefining every aspect through its processes. “Our concept of experiential retail helps the customer understand the journey of the product from farm to fabric through touch and feel. We have displayed swatches to show thread counts and pillow prototype to see what goes inside our pillows,” Ami shares.

Excerpts from an interview:

What was the idea behind starting this company?
Amouve started a little over a year and a half back and my initial need to find the perfect soft sheets which I experienced at a hotel abroad, led me to something much deeper. Amouve is a portmanteau, derived from two French words – Amor and Reve. Amor means 'love' and Reve means 'weave', so, it is all for the love of weave.

When I came back to India, I tried to find the same luxury, softness and quality but was left with no options. Upon researching, I figured the gory truth behind the textile industry. That normal cotton (also called conventional cotton) is choc-a-block with chemicals, right from the farm where it is sprayed with pesticides to processing in the factory with formaldehyde - a potential carcinogen is one part. Bet most of us sleep on what is known as 100 per cent cotton sheets.

That thread counts advertised at 600 and 1000 TC, mean nothing to signify the quality of the sheets is another. Single-Ply 300 TC sheets will feel much softer and luxurious than inflated multi-ply 600 TC threads.

Also, most brands focus on bed linen from a decor perspective rather than from the health and sleep perspective. I wanted to change this. Consider the fact that you sleep 8 hours a day in direct contact with these chemical-laden sheets.

Thirdly, from a social/environmental/moral lens, the Indian cotton farmer has been mired in debt for years. The crux of this lies in BT cotton. Use of organic cotton does away with the ill of buying GMO seeds and chemical fertilizers. Moreover, we source directly from farmer cooperatives thereby giving them a fair price.

We retail 100 per cent organic bed linen, duvets, comforters, pillow covers, natural kapok pillows pure linen cushion covers and now plush organic bath towels.

Tell us about the challenges you faced?
The biggest challenge was tracing the cotton back to the farm, when I called the manufactures and asked for the same quality of sheets as I have seen abroad there were not available. No one had an answer as to where did they get the cotton from.

Tell us about your inspiration/s?
As a child, I would happily bask in the beauty of the outdoors. While I grew up, this had always remained with me sub-consciously. The choices that I made revolved around it, so Amouve in that sense was a 'natural' progression. As I travelled more, I fell deeper in love with cultures and places. Travel is a constant in my life and it inspires, intrigues and fascinates me. I often go back in time to ponder upon how a particular place or someone's way of being filled me up.

This finds its way in the collections.
Also, the journey people take to build a business inspires me. It is amazing to learn from the stories of various entrepreneurs and how they went on to create change. A business, in my opinion, should have the ability to impact lives for the better, apart from being commercial. Every successful entrepreneur's grit and their ability to implement daunting tasks, come what may, is something I value and take inspiration from.