Experience & Review of Online Indian/Ethnic Wear Shopping Portal 9rasa.com

I am a huge fan of ethnic wear, especially if it’s made up cotton or silk. Being a Bong I am always drawn to Cottons, Tassars, Raw Silks and so on. Whenever I am in Kolkata I make it a point to visit all those “gali” and hidden “nukkads” of traditional saree shops. Even street shopping at Esplanade is good source for buying authentic cotton kurtas or kurtis at dearth cheap rates.

Now a days I hardly visit malls until and unless I have a lot of things on the list. Four things that irritate me to the core during shopping at malls, especially on weekends, are

1. Finding a parking place which is generally on the top floor and needs to be accessed by lifts only.
2. Waiting time at the lift (most of the people invariably press both the up and down buttons!!!)
3. Waiting time at the trail rooms
4. Waiting time at the billing counter

So, I am in constant search of good online shopping portals and 9rasa.com is definitely one of them. 9rasa.com is an Indian / Ethnic online shopping portal which sell clothes, jewelry, bags and footwear, all of them containing the Indian flavor. I came across this site almost 6-7 months back and this was my third repeat purchase.

Over this period I have bought one item from almost every major category. So I thought it’s high time I appraise you all with a review.

In the past I had ordered a Ghaghara Skirt, two Brocket Blouses, Dupattata and a Kurti.

Recently I ordered 2 Kurtis (for my sister in laws as Holi gift), a kurta for and a bottom for myslef.

Product Experience:-

• Blouses

9rasa.com is one of the best sites I have come across to purchase blouses and traditional ghaghra skirts. They have an array of beautiful blouses available in a variety of material and pattern.  Silk, Cotton, Brocade, Poly-brocade, Padded, Non-padded, Crosets, Lace Crochets, Sequined, Sleeveless, they have it ALL!!

If your tailor ditches you or rejects taking your order on a short notice, just check out their blouse section , and you will surely end up picking something for yourself.

I had purchased a Yellow Semi Dupion Silk Padded Blouse and a Golden Poly Brocade Padded Corset Blouse.

The fitting of the blouse is marvelous. You have lot of options available, right from 32 to 44. As per Enamour, I am 34B. The size I picked up was 34 and it fitted me exact. Getting a bigger size and altering is also not a bad option if you lie in between of two standard sizes.  The charges are also very reasonable. Any nukkad tailor takes atlesat INR 600 for making a padded blouse in Mumbai. The known blouse designer/makers charge you 2000 plus. Even Ethnicity charges INR 1800 plus for brocade blouses.  I got these from 9rasa for INR 1199 and INR 1499 respectively.  

Another USP of the blouses are the pattern and design. Most of them have sexy backs!!!

• Skirts

They have a lovely collection of skirts as well. I have seen beautiful Semi Dupion Gota & Brocade skirts, Net Gota & Brocade skirts ( both of these are retailed at INR 3999 though), Faux Georgette Gota Border Skirt, Simple Cotton Block Printed Skirt, Banarasi Georgette skirts and so on in Various Colors. It’s a color riot!!!

I had picked up an orange Banarasi Georgette Skirt for INR 1999 on the occasion of my sister’s Mehendi Function.

All skirts come with one single size. That’s a disadvantage for short girls like me, where we need to get the lengths altered locally to a huge extent.

Otherwise, the skirts have lots of fabric to give a nice elegant fall, flare and “gher”.

• Kurta/Kurti

There is an entire exhibition of the kurtas and kurtis of all sort of patterns and material.

I picked up these three.  A C’otton Silk Kurti (its knee length for me) for INR 799, A Cotton Embellished Kurti for INR 699 and a Semi Dupion Silk Kurti for INR 699 again.

Though I liked the designs and materials which are worth every penny, I am in a dual mind about the sizes.

Case 1: The model stats are very deceptive. The model seems to be bustier than me and wore size S. To be on the safer side, I decided to order an M, which in turn was still tight for me. Alteration was out of question. In fact, alteration was as good as getting the kurta free of all stitches and then re-stitching which was so tedious that none my local tailors were ready to do this donkey’s job.  

As per the exchange policy under the situation of incorrect size, I was supposed to courier it back and they would reimburse the principal amount without the courier charges. And I would have to reorder the correct size.

I chucked the return idea and gave the kurta to my SIL and ordered a size M. Annnnndddd size M was huge. I am so disappointed!!

Case 2: Then there was this zero size chick whose stats were again higher than mine!! And wore size S!!!!!  I ordered S for my SIL. Once received it, I found out that S is as good as standard M.

I am yet to receive the third piece which is in pipeline. Fingers crossed!

• Bottoms:

9rasa is an equally delightful place to find all kinds of quality bottoms. Right from printed cottons, block printed palazzos & dhotis to embroidered leggings. And they are all decently priced. I ordered an Acrylic Lycra Leggings to be worn under short dresses (especially when I have un-waxed legs!) for just INR 499. Totally worth the quality.

• Duppattas:

You need to check out this space in case you have weak knew for Printed Cotton, Chanderi or Phulkari Duppatas. I fell for this royal blue Chanderi Art Silk Zari Dupatta which was being retailed at INR 799.

So these were my individual experiences regarding specific product. If I have to sum up all these in bullet points (this I love to do since my MBA days)

Delivery Timelines:

The delivery timelines are not as quick and spontaneous as FMCG/ Beauty product portals. But they are line with the commitment that they put on papers (7-10 days) except for the skirt which I received late. (3-4 days from the committed timeline).

Packaging:

Doesn’t come in carton. Comes in waterproof packaging which is fine, as its only fabrics.

Pros:

• A wide range of clothes to select from. Its an ocean of authentic ethnic wear.
• Superb designs. Blouse back are an absolute WOW!
• Array of various materials right from Brocade, Gotta Patti, Lace, Silk , Cotton, Chanderi and what not!!
• Skirts are gorgeous
• The colors shown in the pics on the website are almost/exactly the same when received in actual.
• Decently priced
• New stocks get added very frequently which is so delightful. I mean, you enter the site not to find it mundane.

Cons:

• The sizes of the kurtas/kurtis can be deceptive.
• One standard size for skirts. Length will have to be altered for short girls.
• The return policy in case of size mis-fit involves customer to courier the material back and reordering the correct size using the reimbursed shopping credit, without reimbursing the courier charges incurred during the return.

Hope this post will help you in making up your mind...............!!