Anita Dongre is the only Indian designer to have launched a sustainable label. Grassroots is her homage to India’s long tradition of wearing sustainable and environment friendly garments.

It is very rare to find a designer in India whose repertoire includes both haute couture and prêt. Anita Dongre is among the few who has managed to strike a balance between the two. The designer, whose beautiful summer dress was worn by the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, on her first visit to India, is known as the poster girl of Indian fashion.

Her four labels – AND, Anita Dongre, Global Desi and Grassroot – straddle the worlds of high street and couture. But the one that she is most excited about is Grassroots, her sustainable fashion label. Dongre is the only Indian designer to have a launched a sustainable fashion label. The designer, who began her design business from a garage, then moved to squalid Dharavi, the heart of the city’s small scale industry, and finally now to a 100,000 square feet eco-friendly design headquarters in a village called Rabale, in Navi Mumbai, overlooking hills, has always believed in the edicts of eco-living and sustainability. Her factory is ‘eco-intelligent,’ fitted with a water recycling plant and sewage treatment plant, with facilities for composting and solar energy being planned for the future. “Luxury can be sustainable” she asserts.

The Poetry of Ikat

Dongre has been working on Grassroots, off and on, over the past eight years. She has worked with Indian artisans to come up with a line that’s both sustainable and chic. “The artisans need design intervention to sustain the craft and what they needed was a marketplace. I understand design and I used my skills to contemporarise their craft,” she says.

According to the effable designer, sustainable fashion is the future. Last year, when she launched Grassroots at the Lakme Fashion Week, the artisans, who barely arrived at the show, straight from the airport, just a few moments before it began, walked on the ramp to a standing ovation. Grassroot, according to Dongre, is a sustainable luxury prêt label that’s rooted in India’s handcrafted traditions. “Grassroot is a diary of India’s craft history. I have been fascinated by our crafts from my childhood. And those from Rajasthan occupy a very special space in my life. From working with gotta patti craft in the villages to following the traditional method of creating garments, even recreating my flagship stores like a haveli, I have huge respect for the handcrafted traditions of India. I am proud of our culture and it saddens me to witness our country losing these prized craft traditions,” she adds.

Royal Chikankari

She collaborates and partners with a network of established NGOs across the country to ensure that the artisans, in our villages, get continuous work and do not have to migrate to cities. While creating clothes for Grassroot is never a problem given India’s vibrant textile and embroidery traditions, the real challenge is posed when she works on a accessory line without the use of animal hide. “After years of research and trials, we have managed to create an accessory line using dhurries to create bags, thereby staying true to sustainable fashion,” she says.

Dongre hopes to take her environment-friendly line international, to as many countries as possible.