To Mum, with love from lifestyle stores

The wares on offer for Mother's Day vary from designer coffee mugs, delicate silver bric-a-bracs, chandeliers with antique finish, ivory bathroom sets, fine-dining cutlery, upholstered chairs to designer 'kurtis', accessories and handbags.

The business generated by Mother's Day, according to lifestyle store owners countrywide, runs to several billion rupees despite the recession.

For women, Mother's Day is special, says Roopa Gogia of the women's and mother's accessory store Gogia's in the capital.

"The bonds between a mother and daughter deepen after a woman marries and begets a child. We want mothers to be appreciated round the year," says Gogia, whose store has been drawing scores of young shoppers, mostly women scouting for Mother's Day gifts.
                        
Capital-based lifestyle store Ishatvam has crafted special Mother's Day chandeliers from cast metal with an antique finish and a range of black and ivory bathroom sets; while a shop called Furniture Portside Cafe, with outlets in Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and the capital, has created a range of Abraham Lincoln boxes and picture frames in turquoise leather for the day.

The boxes are priced at Rs.3,000 to Rs.8,000.
     
Luxury brand Episode has themed its Mother's Day collection in sterling silver. The cache flaunts a range of pretty "this and that" boxes, combs, card-holders, photo-frames and icons of Ganesha.

The brand has also lined up dinner table surprises of handcrafted flatware dinner sets and "silver bark" cutleries priced at Rs.3,000 to Rs.700,000.

"The choice of gifts depends on the buyers and their budgets. But our sterling silver combs and hair brushes are selling much more than luxury wares.
Silver figurines of Ganesha are also in demand because most Indian mothers are religious by nature," a spokesperson for Episode at the N-Block Market in the capital's Greater Kaliash I said.

However, a bouquet of flowers, she said, was the most common Mother Day's gift. "Flowers are always nearer to the heart."
Christine E. Rai of Zaza Home and Space, a new up-end interior décor store in the capital, said: "Mother's Day is a special occasion when the art of giving becomes the art of loving."
Zaza has gone out of its way to make life comfortable for the mother with its collection of upholstered Mother's Day chairs in vibrant colours.

They are priced at Rs.8,000. The chairs, said Rai, are just part of the lifestyle range created by the interior décor store. Matching trinkets, cupboards, engraved clothes hangars and net baskets to store food complete the mother's collection.

Devi Design Studio - an art deco lifestyle shop which retails across the country - has created a contemporary range of nature-inspired metal products (bowls, vases, platters, table accessories) and stone and marble home décor accessories for Mother's Day.

"For the past few weeks, girls have been walking into my store to buy wallets and large shopping bags (the ones with minimal embellishments) for their mothers," said Vicky Ahuja of Delhi-based leather boutique Blue Oyster.

But unlike last year, business is slow this year because of the sluggish markets and cash crunch, Ahuja said.

However, that has not deterred 16-year-old Tanya and her friends from buying a mug for her mother. "I bought a mug and a card for her with the pocket money that I get from my grandparents," said the lanky teenager, a Class 10 student of Mayo College in Rajasthan, who is home for summer.