Chennaigaga – the curated collection

A souvenir could be anything. It’s a keepsake, a memento; something to remember a place or event by. Souvenirs or memorabilia can be found in many parts of the world and is a big business, often associated with the tourism departments of countries.

Souvenirs could be small objects that can be easily carried - a fridge magnet, a t shirt, a pen, a key chain, a mug or even a plate, but they could also be bigger investments like a chair, an ornate table, or a carpet. People who travel far and wide often spend more serious money if an object is authentic, original and has recall value. For example, when foreigners visit India, they are often drawn to our hand-embroidered Kashmiri shawls, elephant idols carved out of marble and silk scarves with intricate prints. They take the time to understand the value and labour that went into the product.

At Chennaigaga, we realised that while the city of Chennai offered beautiful handicrafts and fabrics, certain other memorabilia found all over the globe were missing from the city’s souvenir offerings. These were relatable products that people across the world could easily identify with, and put to use in their daily lives. One such common souvenir is the t-shirt and so, we began our souvenir line with t-shirts.

Since Tamilnadu’s Tirupur is known for its wide variety of cotton t-shirts, at Chennaigaga, we decided to procure them from our state, but we wanted to go the extra mile in terms of quality. There is a wide range of quality available in Tirupur but we didn’t want a ‘use-and-throw’ quality for our Chennaigaga t-shirts. And so, we set a good standard for the tees, taking care to fix the optimum gsm of the fabric and included colours people commonly love.

We brought out tees in blues, reds, greys and blacks for the most part. We focussed on the quality so that the T-Shirt would be durable and reasonably-priced too. 

After all, Chennaiite or tourist, NRI or expatriate, memories of Madras and catchy recalls of Chennai are never far from the heart.