A setting that is replete with history, heritage and bygone era, that spelled royal elegance and oozed splendour at every curve of its façade was the foreground for a perfect Getaway. Infact it was called the ROYAL GETAWAY and not without reason, as we begin to assemble in the late hours of night after a long 8 hrs journey from Delhi to Shekawati, no body would have fathomed in their wildest dreams what a royal palace would look and feel like.
Anyways our lazy bones didn’t allow us to explore much that night as we tucked in after a good dinner.
the next morning was a sight for our eyes as we explored every nook and corner of this Royal Heritage structure that is the abode of the current ruler KuwarGaj Singh. The palace was replete with memorabilia of bygone era, the pistols, guns and even a leopard skin. It has a prison(dungeon) in the basement which now is converted into a swanky pub. There are 51 luxurious rooms and 2 Restaurants with a dining table to hose almost 40 diners at once. Folks this is ‘Alsisar Mahal’.
As the breakfast ended the agents got down to the task of energising their team to the display room where all the latest samples of Floret was kept. The display was quite neatly divided into 5 sections
a)Active Wear
- b) Pep up Series
- c) Camisoles and Slips
- d) Essentials
- e) Second Skin
The Pepup collection is there latest collection and piece de resistance which has bras from Rs. 299/- to Rs. 599/- (mrp). This range was launched last year in Delhi to an overwhelming response. Since then they have added over 22 articles to this. The T.G. for Pep Up series is the young teen to mid-twenties who want zestful funky colours. The collection consists of Minimisers, balconettes, moulded plus size bras in C & D cups, seamless padded and non-padded bras. The fabric used are mainly cotton, cotton lycra, polyamide and are available in a variety of plain hues and some sparkling original and exclusive prints. Some of these prints have the floret logo embedded in them.
The next collection is their Active Range which was being introduced to their trade constituents here at Alsisar. These consisted of over 35 styles of plain and printed Tees, Lowers, Lycra fit Yoga Pants, and a newly introduced Rayon fabric lowers and capris. Some of the highlight of this collection was the checkered and plain combination in lowers which were seen for the very first time. They have also introduced the Tennis Shorts for ladies to be teemed with Tees. The entire range is available in sizes S to 3XL. Tees in a range from 299/- to Rs. 499/- and Lowers from Rs. 499/- to Rs. 799/- and Yoga Pants from Rs. 599/- onwards.
Camisoles have been around since the inception of the brand in 2008 and here they have added Tank Tops in Viscose and Modal fabric with detachable starps. The other two collections basically the Essentials and Second Skin was a run of their ever popular running styles over the years that have gathered a lot of fan following and consumer acceptance.
The two days passed off quite quickly as their was lot of activity around with around 150 channel partners viz : Agents and Distributors from all over the country making it for this event exclusively for three night stay at this Heritage Royal property.
Speaking to Mr. Puneet Grover who is the Marketing Head for the brand on the raison de etre behind this grand do “ We wanted to create an event that would be remembered by our channel partners for a long long time. Plus we wanted to bring about a transparency in our B2B channel, remove the clogs in our communication and make it much more stronger. Also we wanted to expose our product bouquet to our channel partners which we couldn’t have succeeded otherwise.
The second objective was to launch our Active Wear range on a Pan India level and we have been successful in doing so. Also side by side we have added many new items to our Pep Up range.
Speaking to a few distributors on the side lines, many expressed the view that they weren’t aware that the company had such a wide range and only such an event could make this possible and now they can go back confident in exposing the brand in their channel more so.
Mr. Bharat Survana an agent was of the view that the company has really done a very good presentation and the new range of PEP UP would do quite well in the market since the pricing was quite competitive and had a good fashion element in it. He also reiterated that the company has paid good attention to the little nitty gritties like packaging, posters etc.
Mr. Dharmendra Dewan a principal distributor from Kolkatta was quite gung ho about the products on display and gave orders along with his other trade partners at this event.
When asked Mr. Pankaj Jain on the outcome of this event he expressed his satisfaction that all well that ends well and you could see the simile ear to ear on his face at the end of the three days of sojourn.
The two days were followed by some scintillating programme in the evening of Music, Dance and cultural programmes and even a fashion show on the second day followed by cocktails and dinner.
The distributors and agents could let their hair down having worked quite hectically during the day and enjoy the fun filled evening followed by gala dinner and drinks.
The Glorious Past :
The Alsisar Palace has a golden past and a glorious future as is evidenced from the up keep of this Royal Getaway. The Palace is a breeze and breathes history from every curve of this magnificent edifice. The Palace was created in 1737 by Thakur Samrat Singh, today its 14th generation is still manning this heritage property which was redeveloped in 2006. The two restaurant now converted were Chandra Mahal on the ground floor and Badal Mahal on its Terrace which is literally in the cloud. All court matters pertaining to the palace and the commoners were conducted in the Darbar Hall which is now there Reception and the Lobby of this hotel. The princely seating on the hi throne exist even today. The current ruler KuwarGaj Singh is the erstwhile ruler of Khetri a province not far from Shekawati which is famous for its copper mines. In fact the legend goes that Raja Ajit Sigh of Khetri was instrumental in sponsoring Mr. Vivekananda to the Chicago World Conference on Religion, and the speech he gave enamoured those who were present and made him into a cult figure. Alsisar Palace is also currently in the news for its Music Festival it holds every year called the “Magnetic Fields” where musicians from all over the world assemble here in December to perform.
Another bit of history was made when Raja Ajit Singh of Khetri sent 14,000 of his troops to fight the German invasion along side the British troops in world war. There are a lot of photographs of that era kept in the war room along with fire arms. There is an open Willie Jeep which is used for wild life excursions for a Desert Safari.
