Designer Anavila Misra says that her biggest inspiration has come from the hand embroidery that her grandmother had expertised in. She wanted to look exactly like her mother did in ethnic wear. By Team Viva
In India, fashion was created through local tailors in small towns, who crafted personalised styles. As industrialisation and foreign brands paved their way to the country, we started looking towards fast fashion in the market. The young consumers were largely attracted. However, over the last few years, with the garment industry creating awareness, their is more thought into what we leave behind as a brand. The fashion industry is showing the sustainable way to the consumers. We are the ones sitting close to craft clusters and natural materials. It is our duty to create fashion, which is classic, sustainable and doesn’t die with any season, especially handcrafted things and textiles. Things are rapidly changing, creating classic wardrobes and working towards thoughtful consumption is the new trend.
As the brand became popular, it started living as a natural textile. Since our essence is sarees, which are worn occasionally and daily as well, it helped me grow in all aspects. I have recreated the thought of wearing a saree and being comfortable in it. I have grown with the creation and with the innovation of linen as a textile.
I have always been fond of sarees. I still remember wearing a saree on teacher’s day when I was in sixth standard. My love for the fabric initiated from my mother as she used to wear it very often. I wanted to grow up and look exactly like her. She was my inspiration. During my college days, I wore a saree, which I painted myself. I thought of making a career in it, when I started working with the Ministry of Textiles and understood what textile actually means and what goes behind into its making.
It completely affected my design sensibilities. As a small town girl, I was away from the entire fashion industry. Whenever I would go to Delhi with my sister, I mostly used to buy textiles or go to a local tailors and get clothes stitched as per my wish. The only influence that time was magazine, television and my grandmother. She used to do embroidery and hand paintings. Looking at all of that, I fell in love with handcrafted things. That is what the narrative of my brand is.
I joined NIFT with the intention of understanding fashion. Working with saree was nowhere in my mind. I was inclined towards home textiles. But when you start studying and knowing about a certain subject, it develops your understanding of it. I did not end up here strategically. Things just unfolded the way it was meant to be.
It works for your advantage because the celebrities have a lot of influence on young minds. Young girls try to imitate celebrities and look up to them. Even for me, to see what is happening in the fashion world was to check Bollywood. When you see Sonam Kapoor wearing hand woven saree, printed with handblocks, the whole demography of handwoven saree changes automatically and handloom takes a front seat. People get an idea of how it can be styled in a certain way. With the acceptance of handloom by celebrities, women see that as a style quotient. It definitely helps the entire sector.
Home furnishings are in a developing state in India right now. It has not taken centrestage but I am definitely going to give it my best shot. I will come out with a collection very soon. It is a natural extension because my heart lies there.
Yes, definitely, it is already doing that. One can see it at the new restaurants and food outlets. More and more people are following a vegan approach and they are curious to know where the food is grown and where it is coming from. It is catering to the popularity of the organic food and farmer’s markets all around. The way we are using sustainable textiles in our houses and how plastic has been completely banned says it all. How people consume fashion indicates how people are consuming other things in their life too. I see so many young people working on sustainable products thinking of environment. A very good example from India is of the guy who is working with cork rather than leather to create bags. It is impacting our lives all around.
I see social media taking this all across. Movements like this have very strong impact on making the fabric popular right now.
The first thing is our material which has not changed over eight years of working in the industry. We keep our sensibility alive while creating our collection. The easiness and comfort with which our styling is done sets us apart.
For me, it’s all about simple minimalistic sarees from my very first show in 2014. The fabric should be beautiful and the texture should be nice. Sarees must give a message that they are comfortable everyday wear. Our styling ideas come from the rural India because they wear sarees 24*7 and have adapted it so beautifully.
My first interaction with Etsy was when they were launching it in India. They conducted an event in Delhi and invited me. That’s when I got to know about what they do. Their thought of building it across India fascinated me. There were so many women and artisans who work from home and don’t have a platform to sell their products. They give them education and help them create that window. I completely got hold of that idea. So I thought of helping and partnering with them. They have reached quite far and have tried to connect to the villages also.
Some of the finalist are Materialimaterial; Skygoodies and Corkiza
I keep thinking about the different products we can offer for a sustainable lifestyle. I always have a meaningful collaboration with the artisans and women. I want to find sustainable materials and take more and more people on board. We want to make a community which can help each other grow.