Ultramarine blue, the colour loved by legendary Carnatic vocalist the late M S Subbulakshmi, has now found a new avatar in a range of silk sarees brought out by a cooperative society under the brand 'MS Blue'.
This shade of blue, conceived and specially woven by a private entrepreneur during the '60s, was greatly favoured by the iconic singer. Eventually the color and dye became popularly known as 'MS Blue.'
These sarees are now being released for sale by city based Murugan Co operative society, one of the lead societies, and ranges in price from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000.
Managing Director of Co-Optex (the apex marketing body for silk societies) T N Venkatesh said these sarees are for sales at Co Optex in metros like Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad for Navarathri and Deepawali festival seasons.
Asked about Co-optex targets, he said the aim was to achieve sales of Rs 150 crore during this season compared to Rs 126 crore last year.
From five lead societies in Kanchipuram, silk sarees worth Rs 40 lakh were procured as a 'starter' for the season, he said, adding certain designs (known as "rudraksham border") proved popular in cities like Ahmedabad and Bhuvaneswar and such patterns are being procured for these centres.
