Wundershop

Am I on a vacation, is what strikes you when you enter Wundershop through its deceptively unimpressive entrance. For, once inside, you are instantly transported to Pondicherry or Goa - take your pick.

With creatively done interiors, featuring emphatically colored walls and reed-woven mats, the place cannot be mistaken for anything but a designer's hangout. And it is - Kedar, who is from the first batch of NIFT, Hyderabad, is quite the designer's designer. Firmly ensconced in a niche mostly by himself, he specializes in Western wear for all those beautiful people out there.

While the city does boast other designer Western apparel stores like Elahe and Origins, Wundershop manages to endear itself through its high-value cuts and finishes, and not-so-stratospheric prices. The ground floor mainly displays the wares at hand, but the first floor is where the work is actually done. With six tailors and two assistant designers at hand there, you can be sure your chimerical musings can be given customized corporeal shape for a price - of course, we are only talking about clothes here.

Further explorations reveal Kedar's involvement with design per se. He supports "Small Steps", a group which proposes the use of cloth bags by actually making it 'cool'. For, cool is what they are - these cell-phone sized bags that open out into larger ones as your shopping progresses. Let's do away with plastic in style, is what they proclaim.

Also on sale are handcrafted dolls by "Tsunamika", an organization for the development of the tsunami-affected people, and woven baskets. No, not your regular bamboo or reed ones, but ones made out of rolled newspaper (three cheers for recycling) and flour glue. In fact, in a mediocre world teeming with chalta hai stuff, it is quite a relief to see innovation for its own pleasure.

All said, just the place for finding a great dress and an attitude to match for that all-important date you have been waiting for.