Apparel April 2019 Apparel April 2019 issue | Page 85

UNIQUE INITIATIVE
ARTISANS’ COMPRISES AN
ATMOSPHERIC GALLERY AND A
LOVELY STORE WHICH LAUNCHES
ARTISANS AND DESIGNERS WHO
WORK WITH HANDMADE CRAFTS,
TEXTILES AND GARMENTS.
The buildings in the precinct have long been
occupied with offices, and in more recent times
also by charming cafes, popular restaurants,
art galleries exhibiting works of established and
emerging artists, and boutiques with artistic and
designer garments and products. Among these
is ARTISANS’, a unique space founded by Radhi
Parekh, which has played an important role in the
revitalisation process of the precinct. ARTISANS’
comprises an atmospheric gallery and a lovely
store which launches artisans and designers
who work with handmade crafts, textiles
and garments.
ESTABLISHING ARTISANS’
A graduate in Visual Communications from the
National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad,
Radhi worked in the UK and the US for many
years before returning home to Mumbai in 2009.
Drawn to celebrating the local in a globalised
world, she was keen to create a space that would
celebrate the handmade in India and support
sustainable development through craft livelihoods.
Radhi began with a modest two-level
vernacular building in Kala Ghoda which was
owned by her family. Though its condition was
a bit rundown, she could visualise it post-
restoration, and with her father’s support she
decided to transform its spaces. She came up
with a plan whereby the ground floor would
be rented out to support the fledging craft and
design destination. Thus, in 2010, it was rented
out to designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee who fell
in love with the space despite it being in the
backstreets of Kala Ghoda and took the step
of opening his flagship store here much before
the presence of haute couture boutiques in
the neighbourhood.
On the upper level, Radhi planned ARTISANS’
in two sections, namely a gallery space (on one
side of the staircase landing) where textiles,
garments and works of carefully selected
artisans and designers would be exhibited, and
subsequently a store (on the other side) where
some of the textiles, garments and works of
artisans and designers, who had exhibited at
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