Anita Dongre shifts between the requirements of her different brands — her signature wedding couture and pret label Anita Dongre, Grassroot, AND, and Global Desi — with ease. The House of Anita Dongre has grown exponentially, taking into its fold artisans who embroider those heirloom-worthy lehengas. We caught up with the designer during her brief visit to Hyderabad, before she headed to Mumbai to unveil two new collections on January 31 at Lakme Fashion Week (LFW) Spring/Summer 2019.
- At LFW: Anita Dongre will showcase a 12-piece collection promoting a weaver cluster from Rampur in Assam for the ‘Weaving partnership for Change by the UN in India and IMG Reliance’ show in Mumbai. About 95% of the weavers here are women. Eri, Muga and Matka silks in cream and gold are accentuated with sequins and gota patti. On the same day, she will also unveil ‘Summer Reverie’ in collaboration with Tencel. Expect lightweight lehengas, maxi dresses, jumpsuits, crop tops and skirts.
- All for handlooms: During her brief visit to the AND store to acknowledge and appreciate the work of Anita Dongre, actor Samantha pushed the case of handloom weavers from Telangana, urging the designer to have a long-term engagement with clusters in the state.
Biodegradable fabric
First of her LFW collections will be a 12-piece capsule edition using textiles sourced from a weaver cluster from Rampur, Assam. The same day, she will also showcase ‘Summer Reverie’, a floral print collection in collaboration with Lenzing group using biodegradable and compostable Tencel fibres. “I’m trying to bring in sustainability across all my brands,” Anita tells us. A few months ago she travelled to Austria to get a first-hand impression of Tencel fabric manufacturing. “They told me they’re producing fabric responsibly, but I had to see it for myself. We’ve designed an airy, floral collection. Our design house has a Chief Sustainability Officer and we take our work towards sustainability seriously. There will be more such partnerships,” she says.
In 2018, she collaborated with Reliance group for limited edition tees using R-Elan, a fabric manufactured from discarded plastic bottles. The dialogue on sustainability has moved beyond handlooms. “Any textile has to be produced responsibly,” Anita points out. She is also collaborating with Lenzing for a Global Desi collection called Eco Vera. “We’re using viscose that’s been produced responsibly,” she says; the collection will hit stores soon.
Anita doesn’t subscribe to the buy-today-discard-tomorrow trend of rapid consumerism and believes in conscious clothing. She feels the fashion fraternity can do a lot more: “It has to be a collective effort. There’s a lot of confusion about what is sustainability. Design houses need to guide each other.”
Ask her about the technology that goes into creating fabrics from, say, recycled plastic bottles, and the ease of working with such fibres, and she avers, “There are companies that use biotechnology to create leather in laboratories. Technology is not my forte. But I can make buying decisions to source fabric that’s been made with ecological consciousness and can in turn influence my buyers to make similar choices. Sustainability and women empowerment are my twin concerns, both of which I discussed with like-minded people at the World Economic Summit in Davos recently,” she emphasises.
Samantha Akkineni
She used the opportunity of her visit to Hyderabad to step up the #AndIRise movement that invites women to share their personal stories of rising against hardships. “It’s been years since I visited Hyderabad and I wanted to use this opportunity,” she says.
As Anita liaises with craft and weaver clusters across India, she hopes to forge new engagements with weavers of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh as well.
Some of her collaborations with artisans happened by chance, and turned out to be long-term engagements. Her recent limited edition bridal collection featuring stunning Pichwai paintings, for instance, happened when she chanced upon a Pichwai artist who was painting the ceiling of City Palace, Jaipur, where she was shooting a portfolio of a bridal collection. She learnt that barring the occasional renovation work in Rajasthan palaces, he doesn’t have a steady workflow. “I asked him if he would like to paint on lehengas and he said ‘why not?’ He came to Mumbai, stayed for three months at my guest house and the Pichwai collection came about,” she recalls.
Similarly, she works with more than 600 women of the SEWA group in Gujarat where the women specialise in ari, soi, bharatkaam and other embroideries. “My son’s friend introduced me to them,” she recounts. She’s clear that her role is of design and not craft intervention. “Craft is their DNA; it’s sacred. I don’t meddle with it. Intervention happens in the form of designs and colours that appeal to contemporary buyers.” These lehengas with indigenous embroideries in softer colour palettes travel across the globe to reach international clients. “I wish I had 48 hours in a day to do all that I want collaborating with artisans,” Anita laughs.
