Vishakha Ruhela, is the Creative Head and Co-Founder of Mrittika, an Indian fashion accessories brand based in Noida, The label aims to provide its clientele with products exhibiting an elevated aesthetic, made with authentic handcrafted fabrics and leather alternatives, while working directly with a myriad of craft clusters in India, with emphasis on fair pay, sustainability, social conscience and transparency.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your artisans.

Mrittika is an Indian fashion accessories brand of RuMi Craft LLP that aims to provide its clientele with products exhibiting an elevated aesthetic, made with authentic handcrafted fabrics and leather alternatives, while working directly with a myriad of craft clusters in India with emphasis on fair pay, sustainability, social conscience and transparency, and our goal is to be recognised and revered among our customers for the same.

We have worked in direct collaboration with Mr. Sufiyan Khatri and his team in Ajrakhpur, in Bhuj, Gujarat for developing our first two collections using the age-old Indian craft of Ajrakh based on natural dyes. We continue with a craft for a year before switching to a different one so that we may showcase as many traditional Indian techniques as possible. Currently, since we’re done with our year with Ajrakh, a new craft is being explored for our third major collection and the fabric development is already in the pipeline.

Our stitching team, which is currently based in NCR, is an independent small-scale vendor unit involved in fashion accessories development and a talented roadside tailor who develops our packaging bags with panache.

Why is making so important to you?

Through Mrittika, Nandini, my founding partner, and I want to use our skills to build a transparent, socially conscious and sustainable brand, which will involve customers in its efforts and encourage them to buy sustainable products and make a difference in the Indian handloom and handcrafted textile scenario. The motivation behind our brand is to utilize the traditional textile heritage of India without compromising its authenticity and aesthetics by merging them with contemporary designs that cater to the current market needs.

How did you begin Mrittika and how has it evolved over the years?

In 2008, Nandini and I met and became friends in Kota, Rajasthan while preparing for our engineering entrances. However, things took a different turn and we ended up becoming designers instead. In 2015, I was visiting Nandini in San Francisco while she was pursuing her Master’s there and one afternoon, as we sat discussing our love for Indian textiles, Mrittika was conceptualized. A little over a year later we met in India, to convert this concept into reality and formed RuMi Craft LLP- the parent company of Mrittika.

Though the brand is quite young in the market, given that our e-commerce website was launched only in August last year, we have had quite a good run so far. Until now, Mrittika has participated in 8 exhibitions across India. We’ve been a part of Dastkar’s design fair and an offline event in Gurgaon to educate children about sustainability and fashion.

As our aim is to work with leather alternatives that are cruelty-free, we initially started with the easiest available option for us which was polyurethane based leather – a synthetic alternative for animal-based leather. Over our one year of being operational, we constantly searched for more sustainable and affordable options that are easily available in India. Eventually, we came across cork-based leather and have been sampling products using the same with success. A few exciting collaborations are also underway and we are looking forward to those in the near future.

Looking at our sustainability goals, we’ve managed to provide impetus to our upcycling initiative called ‘Prithu,’ under which we started upcycling donated textiles in the lining of our bags and for our packaging, which is 100% free of plastic and reusable. We have now expanded this to create entire products using upcycled fabrics and our own remnants, instead of freshly printed ones, and are now accepting custom orders, wherein customers can give us their old fabrics and request any of our current styles in them.

What is your personal favorite pick from Mrittika right now? And why?

We love our ‘Prithu Triangular Crossbody Bag’ which was an instant hit online. It was made using upcycled silk from a torn Ajrakh scarf donated to us and polyurethane leather. The detachable straps give you the option of carrying it on your back as a backpack, across your chest like a crossbody bag, or on your shoulder.  It comes with a removable upcycled fabric pouch attached to the utility loop, which is where you can hang your keychains and other small stuff for easy access. The beauty of the Ajrakh mixed with the utility of this piece makes it our absolute favourite!

What are you displaying at the By Hand, From The Heart.

We will be displaying bags, scarves and dupattas as product categories. The first two Ajrakh based collections called ‘Rooh,’ inspired by Islamic tessellation and architecture, and ‘Musaafir,’ inspired by nomadic tribes and their stories, will be available for the event, along with products from our upcycled Prithu collections, which we produce between our main lines. 

We’re hoping that our new major collection, which is still in the pipeline, is ready by the time of the exhibition so that we can share its beauty with you too!

What is a typical working day, like.

As Nandini and I are the only direct employees of the company, the work is shared by both wherever possible to increase our productivity. The initial stages of design development require inputs from both of us – Nandini designs the bags and I work on the scarves. We source the materials for our production ourselves. Following this, I carry on the craft-based development of fabric and raw material, for which I travel to the cluster and stay with the artisans to develop the fabrics with their collaboration. Nandini takes care of the pattern development and stitching for bags at our fabrication vendor’s unit and gets the packaging prepared (the scarves are finished by hand at the cluster). Of course, we give our inputs wherever required. The daily schedule varies time to time depending upon the stage of product/design development we are at a given point of time. 

Our offline exhibitions which occur once a month on an average have the tightest schedule, but we love them as we get to interact with our customers in person and get their valuable feedback which enables us to improvise on our products for further collections.

 Currently, I’ve moved to Pondicherry and Nandini is based in Noida, which is helping us get more exposure in North as well as South India, and is providing us more opportunities to meet like-minded brands and people.

Any design story you would like to share.

The one that comes to mind right now is about the Ajrakhpur craft cluster and their skilled artisans. The block printer I had the honor to work with, Shakoor bhai, has been practicing this craft for as far back as his memory goes. To my surprise, I learnt that he was born without the ability to hear or speak. However that didn’t stop him from being one of the best block printers in his village. Sufiyan bhai, the master craftsman at the unit, assured me about his skills and with his confidence I worked with him to bring out the best results while learning from him at the same time. Just after first few exchanges of smiles when we had any hurdles to cross, we worked like a well-oiled machine. We sailed beyond verbal language, which as a bonus helped us to reduce the time to execute our work as well. For instance, we developed a method where if I had to request him to use red colour, I would just touch the tip of my tongue to denote red and in jiffy he would understand and start using red to print. Similarly, he would touch his hair to denote black, my blue t-shirt sleeve to denote Indigo and the list goes on. One day I even met his young daughter who very sweetly brought me chips and biscuits. Everyone in Ajrakhpur loves to share and eat, and everyone loved to eat ‘the best of the best’ without any compromise.

Meet the Maker @
By Hand From The Heart Makers Market 24th Edition
Friday – Saturday
24th – 25th August, 2018
10:00 a.m to 8:00 p.m
Crowne Plaza Chennai Adyar Park, (old Adyar Gate Hotel)
132, T.T.K Road, Alwarpet, Chennai – 600018, India.

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