The craft villages of Kutch present an endless source of Instagram-worthy shots. The bright hues of the clothes, the bullock carts and the wall art stand in stark contrast to the dry and barren region. It’s no surprise then that Amisha Bhagat, with roots in Gujarat, drew inspiration from these snapshots, found on her Instagram page, to create Loom People, a source for handwoven, sustainable fabrics from the state.
“Loom People started with the idea of promoting Indian craft skills, handcrafted, sustainable and recycled textiles and a new crop of artisans that were experimenting with them. I read about how damaging the fashion industry is for the environment. There are tons of landfills, unsold products, polyester waste and more. And I wanted to do something about it,” begins Delhi-based Amisha, adding, “After a lot of research, I visited weaving clusters in Gujarat and saw how eco-friendly textiles are evolving. I felt inspired to showcase kala cotton, natural dyes and organic cotton to the world.”
Having worked with weaving and artisan clusters in places such as Bhujodi, Anjar, Damdama, Ajrakpur and Mandvi, Amisha then moved on to the Sualkuchi cluster, which weaves eri and muga silk, in Assam. She also works with handloom cotton weavers in UP and handloom wool weavers in Uttarakhand. Another of Loom People’s features is the use of recycled fabrics, organic cotton and fabrics made from hemp and banana fibres.
While designers and boutiques source their fabrics from her, Amisha also creates her own line
of stoles and dupattas, which retail out of websites such as jaypore.com, thedesigncart.com and theloom.com. “The sustainable label, 11.11/ElevenEleven has used our natural dyed eri silk denim for some of their collections, Prama by Pratima Pandey sourced eri silk from us and we even created some bandhani fabric for designers Olivia Dar and Anjul Bhandari, mashru for Twinkle Hanspal and handloom cotton for Naomi Murrell, an Australian designer from Adelaide,” reveals Amisha, who has a Masters in International Business from Grenoble Graduate School of Business, France.
Amisha, who is continuously working to add more eco-friendly textiles to her repertoire, is currently looking forward to the launch of her collection of ready-to-wear separates.
Details: loompeople.com