| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Genre | Silk Sarees, Garments and Textiles |
| Founded | 1924 |
| Founder(s) | Rm. K. Visvanatha Pillai |
| Headquarters | Tirunelveli, India |
| Number of locations | Chennai, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli |
| Area served | India |
| Key people | K. Sivakumar (MD) |
| Website | RmKV |
RmKV is an award-winning manufacturer of designer silk saris, based in Tirunelveli, India. It is also one of the oldest and largest sari retailers in Tamil Nadu. RmKV expanded its bracnes in various parts of Tamil Nadu other than Tirunelveli including Chennai, Coimbatore.
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RmKV Silks was begun as a saree shop in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, in 1924 by Rm. K. Visvanatha Pillai, dealing mainly in silk Kanchipuram sarees. After the death of his son V.Kumaraswamy, who led RmKV from 1955 to 1988, the family concern was led by his grandson K.Viswanathan, a Textile Technology graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Under K.Viswanathan RmKV established its own weaving centre in Arani and won the first ISO9001-2000 certification for silk saree manufacture in the industry. He also established a design team for the creation of original hand-woven silk sarees. Traditional Tamil and Indian themes were rendered in silk and zari into woven sarees.
RmKV is today led by K.Siva Kumar, himself a hands-on weaving enthusiast. Hand-loom weaving of sarees can be witnessed live in the Vannarpettai and Coimbatore stores.
RmKV pioneered innovation in the traditional field of silk sarees when they came out with a saree depicting, in woven silk and jari, 33 Bharatanatyam dance poses for Subramanya Bharathi's famous song Chinnanchiru Kiliye. Since then RmKV has released about three dozen designer sarees, including Hamsa Damayanthi (based on the Raja Ravi Varma painting), Aiswarya Pookkal, Kural Ovium (depicting couplets from the Thirukkural), a line of textured "embossed silk" sarees, a reversible saree[1], a 50000-colour saree[2], and sarees inspired by Op Art.
As with many of its campaigns, renowned textile designer Subrata Bhowmick was the consultant behind RmKV's Hamsa Damayanti sari and its subsequent advertising campaign. Using then-unknown Deepika Padukone to model the sari, Bhowmick and RmKV created a sensation in the traditional world of silk sarees.[3]
Most recently RmKV has released lines of natural-dyed and "light silk" sarees, using manufacturing techniques for which patents are pending.
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