sariKNOTsari and The My Main Street Grant
Hamilton’s sariKNOTsari uses My Main Street support to balance local and global community
by Andrew Seale
Priya Mohan, owner of sariKNOTsari, a clothing shop and designer of upcycled silk clothing made from vintage saris, always envisioned her Hamilton business as more than a store. From her digital-first launch to opening her brick-and-mortar shop in 2018, Mohan has always approached sariKNOTsari through the lens of inclusivity, thoughtfully designing one-size-fits-all clothing that challenges clothing brands that ignore the everchanging state of women’s bodies.
“It’s really become a hub,” says Mohan. “We’ve created a community of people who value the same things.”
Mohan says all the brand’s models are local customers and it’s common for customers from the Hamilton area to visit the shop for a quick “hello”. “They know our team… they'll know if it's somebody’s birthday or somebody just got back from a vacation,” she says. And it’s becoming bigger than just her James Street North shopfront – sariKNOTsari is growing into a global community.
Through the shop’s “swap, sell, swap and share” group on Facebook, customers can trade or sell their clothing. “There is this market happening,” says Mohan. “If you want to participate, but you can't afford to buy it from the store, you can join the swap and sell group and get your hands on the silks… we've tried to find a way to allow every woman to participate.”
But investing in growing that community has always been a balancing act that’s required prioritizing limited resources, admits Mohan. She says it’s always been a question of “where do you put your money?”
Mohan recently saw an opportunity to finally make some substantial investments that would make balancing both the in-store and the online experience better. She applied for a $15,000 non-repayable contribution from My Main Street. The program aims to revitalize business communities through hands-on support and is funded with a Government of Canada investment through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario and delivered by the Canadian Urban Institute (CUI).
Due to the age of the building, Mohan says they’ve never been able to have an air conditioner which makes it “excruciatingly hot” at times. “Our hot flash-prone customers couldn’t really come in,” she says. So first up on the list was to invest $5,000 in powerful ceiling fans to cool the space. “It has made a huge difference for our ladies,” says Mohan. “They come in and they sit and they stay, and if they sit and they stay, they're likely to bump into the next person who comes in.”
Next up was making the business’s basement usable. “Our lower level is dry, but it was kind of disgusting,” says Mohan. The floor was chipping away. It was dusty and unwelcoming. With the funds, the business invested in levelling the floors and putting a carpet down. They also had the walls finished and painted.
It was ideal for Mohan, who wanted to make the space more than just usable – she wanted to build a studio for shooting her local models and new designs. “We got one of those roll-down screens that you can use as your photographic background,” she says. They created a studio wall with the sariKNOTsari logo to film live events for Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.
“We got an iPad and some boom mics because there’s always two of us having conversations during the live events,” adds Mohan. The new space allows her to blend the digital community she’s built with the in-person customer base, finally fulfilling that vision she’s always had for the brand.
“If it weren’t for something like My Main Street, we wouldn't be able to afford to do these things,” says Mohan. “It was impossible… we couldn't take any product imaging with a white background because the lighting would always be slightly off – now it’s all set up.”
