Sudha Pennathur's 'Sari' State
Lunch at the Four Seasons

BY PRANAY GUPTE - Special to the Sun
Published by The NYSun - August 29, 2005

Sudha Pennathur likes being in a sari state.

"I embrace the ethnic look," she said. "If I can't be authentic in representing the culture where I was born and raised, how can I be authentic in marketing the time-honored handicrafts of that culture?"

Her silk-brocade saris - hand woven in her native India - help give Ms. Pennathur a distinctive presence as she sells more than 1,200 styles of jewelry, textiles, accessories, and ornaments in some of America's most famous retail institutions - Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, and Bergdorf Goodman, among others.

Her products - handmade by master craftsmen in Indian towns and villages - are also offered through various well-known museum stores and catalogs, including those of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the Smithsonian Institution, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Ms. Pennathur is celebrating the 20th anniversary of her business this year, at a time when Indian culture is becoming increasingly popular in America, and bilateral trade between India and America is at an all-time high of $20 billion, representing a 221% increase from 13 years ago. The jewelry and textiles Ms. Pennathur markets are among the items whose sales are rapidly growing in this country.

"I merge the East and the West," Ms. Pennathur said. "I take the work of Indian master craftsmen and translate it to suit Western tastes."

She is herself a product of both East and West - born and raised as an army brat in India, and educated at Pace College in New York, where she obtained an undergraduate degree in marketing, and at the University of Washington, where she got an M.B.A. in computer science.

Ms. Pennathur has worked at several leading retail companies such as Allied Stores, Carson Pirie Scott, and Carter Hawley Hale. She was then hired as a senior executive at Levi Strauss & Company.

"I was always ambitious in the American corporate world," Ms. Pennathur said. "One of my bosses, after overhearing that I wanted to be company president, said to me: 'What's the hurry about becoming president? You're still a very young woman.' When they promoted a male, my response to him was: 'Well, what's the hurry of a 35-year-old man for being company president?' I never doubted from the age of 15 that someday I was going to be president of a company."

She did get to be company president by the time she was 39 - but not at Levi Strauss. Frustrated by corporate bureaucracy, Ms. Pennathur quit the venerable manufacturer of denims and started her own eponymous enterprise.

Her products started flying off the shelves in America from the very start. What Ms. Pennathur smilingly calls her "sari look" was a big draw at trade shows, where stores often place large orders. Her products ranged in price from $2.50 for a lacquered pen to $20,000 for a necklace studded with rubies and emeralds. Now she's expanded her product line to include ancient designs from Egypt, China, Taiwan, and Indonesia.

"I believe that what I offer should be perceived as timeless, and also have high quality," Ms. Pennathur said. "I also believe that I'm part of a bridge between East and West. America has been good to me - I've made my fortune here. But without ever forgetting that this is now my home, I'm also not about to lose my ethnic identity."

http://www.nysun.com/article/19310