BRAND PROFILE
artisans, of which nearly 90 per cent worked with
textiles, and setting up an arbitrary label that was
named Sutra Crafts.
After the project was completed, the
organisation decided to seize operations of
the label. However, Saumya iterates, “My first
thought was ‘If the project was to close, what
would happen to the artisans and their families?’
Getting an MBA would mean me getting a job
but working on the project would mean creating
jobs for others. I was guided by my father, a
development consultant, throughout the project.
Running a crafts-based label/social enterprise
had been his dream, and he has continued to
support me through it till date.”
As Saumya was deeply involved in the project,
she took it over through an agreement with the
foundation. In November 2013, she was the
owner of Sutra Crafts!
LEARNING ON FIELD
Since taking over Sutra, Saumya has been
working with textile clusters in different parts
of the country, where she learns from artisans,
designers, and textile experts, studying about
textiles first-hand and from books, as she
neither had formal education nor a professional
background in textiles. “My love for designing
saris came from watching my mother, a college
professor, drape and wear beautiful saris to work.
I took it further by learning on field. One can
always get a designer on board but if you want to
manage your label well, you first need to know all
SAUMYA ENSURED THAT THE
EMBROIDERY STAYED TRUE
TO ITS ETHOS EVEN AS IT
WAS CONTEMPORISED.
about textiles yourself, right from the techniques
to marketing,” she says. Saumya thus started
working with Maheshwari and Chanderi weavers,
ajrak and bagh block-printers, and other textile
artisans. And when the opportunity presented
itself, she decided to work with phulkari
embroiderers. “It was a practical and emotional
decision as my work was already steered towards
the revival of textile crafts. Not many were
working with phulkari, a beautiful, labour-intensive
traditional craft, at the time, and I felt the need to
bring out its true essence and stop it from fading
away,” she says.
BUILDING TRUST
After deciding to work with phulkari, Saumya read
about the craft and met experts who had sound
knowledge of it. She travelled to Punjab to meet
women embroiderers, where she held workshops
and gave them samples to work on.
Whilst doing so, Saumya ensured that the
embroidery stayed true to its ethos even as it was
APPAREL
I
December 2019
I
81