Vama Pune Store Review

This post is a combined store review of the two visits I made to Vama, Lakshmi road. The first visit in September 2012 was to buy some of my trousseau sarees and the second visit in April 2013 was to buy the main reception saree and some trousseau sarees for my sister in law.

There were news floating around that all shops are going to be closed from the next day. Our local relative informed that Vama will be less crowded during peak wedding season. Hence we decided to go to Vama instead of Lakshmi road wala Kasat. 

Vama is one of those stores where I feel south silks and Upada silks dominate the racks. It is a 4 level store which houses everything from casual wear - daily wear suits - anarkalis - sarees - lehengas and bridal wear. As we always have a time crunch when in Pune, we straight head to level 4 where you get all silk sarees. On level 4 one section is full of georgettes, net and crepe and I saw a few budget sarees there. The other section is full of silk sarees. There is also a separate room where I found all beauties! This kinda a set up I have only seen in Vama!

What I like about the store:

• Our first visit to the store was kind of during an off season for wedding shopping. I had the luxury of having a store like Vama just for myself. Our second visit in April - to my horror was exactly opposite. Luckily, the sales man recognized me and helped us to his best. I was pleasantly surprised to know that he remembered me!
• They have something called as the Vama special “Shalu”. Shalu is a traditional maharashtrian wedding saree which is usually gifted by the brides in-laws. The bride usually wears it during the reception. They say they specially get it made in unique designs which is not available in usual stores. The Shalu we bought was like a half-n-half purple saree with stone work on a medium size border. 
• The special room I talked about before, stores some unique drool-worthy collection! I bought a green real/pure jari saree (photos coming up next) from here which I absolutely love. My mom’s saree from the engagement is also from that room. Needless to say that the sarees are priced accordingly but still I would say, they are quite competitively priced when compared to Mumbai stores.
• All the yellow sarees they showed were nice and exquisite! After a day long search, I instantly fell in love with the yellow saree they showed. I like it so much that I decided to wear it on my brothers engagement! Its not like a typical yellow saree and fetched a lot many compliments. Most importantly, its not that pricey! ;)

Mom's Vama Saree

What I didn't like about the store:

• They have local lady staff who drape the saree, arrange the footwear “supposedly” who are extremely inefficient. They work at their own pace. Talk too much - unnecessarily. Never willing to help and always have an angry look as if we are committing  a crime by coming to buy sarees! :P The lady in-charge of footwear not only yelled at me when I was not able to find my shoes from a big lot but almost made me touch other peoples footwear! 
• No parking! They no longer allow four wheelers to be parked in their private parking.
• Limited traditional sarees. We wanted to buy a traditional paithani and they only had 10 sarees left which were below average.
• We bought 3 fairly expensive sarees from this store. These were delivered later and they did not even bother to pack it in a box. It seems you have to specifically tell them to put net which protects jari.
• They dont have big mirrors. When the store is crowded, one has to wait till the lady admiring herself in the mirror is done with.

This is how the store looked by the time we were leaving

MW tip: When you know you are going shopping in the main wedding season, try to avoid the peak hour rush by reaching the store at opening time. Typically, people leave for wedding shopping post lunch (say 1pm) on a Sunday.