Nalli (wardrobe store)


Nalli is an Indian wardrobe store and silk saree emporium based in Chennai. It is one of the oldest saree shops in the Chennai's commercial neighbourhood of T. Nagar.

History

Nalli was established in T. Nagar in 1928 by Nalli Chinnasamy Chetti, a weaver who belonged to the Padmasaliyar community. Chinnasamy Chetti was a famous weaver of Kanchipuram sarees who had been weaving silk sarees since 1900 and gifted a Kanchipuram saree, the Durbar Pet, as a souvenir to George V during his visit to India in 1911. In 1928, he moved to the then Madras city and became one of the first to open a shop in the neighbourhood of T. Nagar which was founded in the early 1920s. The shop initially functioned from a house until Nalli established his own showroom in 1935. Nalli Chinnasamy Chetti died in 1958 and was succeeded by his grandson Nalli Kuppusamy Chetti.