Samar & Wife

Samar & Wife

The Gilded Serpent presents...

Samar of

Craft India, a Family Business

I represent CRAFT INDIA OVERSEAS an establishment involved in manufacturing and supplying middle eastern costuming, accessories and jewelry etc. to the dancers, schools, professionals, troupes and so on. We have been in business since 1992 when my parents, the original promoters started this business. I joined on full time only in 2000 after completing college. Today I along with my wife, are pursuing this business. It is a family owned business and was never intended to run like a factory. We have tied up with the less fortunate and troubled families & women who make these crafts for us and we buy these for a decent sum that helps these people make a living. Many are far from our city for which we drive out a couple of times a month to collect the goods and some of them come to us. We have a couple of stitching set ups one of which is owned by a widowed woman, who employs other women who need to make extra money to help their families, they earn a decent wage and are happy to work for us. They are in no way bound to do so but they have had a good rapport with us ever since 1994 and they choose to carry on still.

Our family was not into belly dance, no one in our family knew anything about this art. When the making of these costumes and accessories started in 1992, we were just as curious about it and started to research this. With the advent of internet in India in 1994 we were already browsing and knowing about this dance form. We were the first ones out of ASIA to get a catalog online with belly dance costumes and stay on till now and hopefully for a long time to come.

Being through many phases in the business we were amongst the earlier ones to get into design copyrights, we started to streamline the business with more process clarity and a better system to be able to respond to the customer in case of queries. We are probably one of the early Oriental dance costumes and accessories manufacturers to be an ISO 9001:2008 quality management systems certified establishment.

This was a small business setup by my father and mother, honestly with a dream of financial independence. It became much bigger along the way and they started enjoying being apart of it for what it was. It is now an integral part of the family discussions, day to day life even and yet surprisingly no one in the family knows how to dance. Isn’t that something? I guess I’d have to learn it someday!

We carry on with love and respect for this art and hope to stay afloat for as long as we can.. we have weathered 9/11, we have weathered recession and the clients rather the friends who support us continuously have been our strength. 17 years later we are still going strong with the second generation of the ANSARI family in the business.

Web site: www.craftindia.net

Articles on Gilded Serpent by or about Samar

  • Empowering Women in India through Belly Dance
    The company works with less fortunate and troubled families and women, and pays the women a decent sum for their crafts as a way of helping them out.