When I started working I wanted to wear clothes
that had clean silhouettes. I didn’t want to look
like a stereotypical OTT Indian. So I started
making clothes for myself. I made linen shirt
dresses (which are all the rage now) 20 years ago
because that’s the way I used to dress. My friends
wanted to wear them for the same reasons I did;
and eventually I realised I had to cater to the
needs of thousands of women who felt the same
way. When I travelled to Rajasthan on AND-re-
lated work, I would order reams of block-printed
fabric and make clothes for myself to cater to my
bohemian spirit. Soon this metamorphosed into
Global Desi. None of my brands have evolved
from some marketing gimmick. When I started
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up version of the Global Desi client who wanted
her wedding dress to be light enough to dance in
through the night. For me clothes always have to
be for real people, for real needs.
On one hand you’ve got an international
investor like General Atlantic to back
your business; on the other you’ve got
your sister, brother and son working for
you. It’s an amazing mix. How has this
mash-up of corporate and family worked
for you?
When General Atlantic came from the US to in-
vest in a fashion brand, they were really sur-
prised that there was nobody except Ritu Kumar
and I who had their books in order. To ensure
that we were transparent in our business deal-
ings they must have sent at least 50 mystery
shoppers to my stores. Ernst & Young combed
through our business to see if anything was in-
congruous. And one of the reasons we run a clean
business is that I have my family to help me run
it professionally. They are the people I trust, the
people who share the same value system and pas-
sion as me. I never take this for granted.
Fashion and empowerment—is this a phenomenon
that exists in your business?
This is what my sister, brother and I discuss all the time,
what keeps us grounded. The responsibility of empowering
so many people cannot be taken lightly. This is a journey
and I’m taking so many people with me. Take the example
of this particular tailor we work with. He asks for work on a
regular basis. He has 25 people working for him in his work-
shop and he’s depending on me to feed that many mouths. I
can’t just walk in and say I don’t have work for him. I have
to create it. If I don’t create designs that will employ him and
his team, they will not have food on their table. Sometimes I
think I’m working for him! But this kind of responsibility
gives me the discipline to work diligently everyday. And
that’s the reason I simply love my brand Grassroot—it has
the ethos of design intelligence that exists to employ and
empower people.
Grassroot tugs at your heartstrings like no other
brand. Why?
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with people just when it needs them. People who work for
this brand in villages creating amazing fabrics or embellish-
ments are artisans. We can’t not use them. If a young de-
signer from my team tells me, “I don’t want to use this craft
this season,” I say she simply has to. We have to wrack our
brains and see how we can use it because we need to keep
the craftsmen alive. Grassroot is a philosophy of life for me.
We adopted Charoti, a village in Maharashtra, one of the
poorest in the country. Apart from agriculture, the villagers
have no skills. We set up 35 sewing machines and a training
centre, and invited volunteers to learn how to sew. Only
women came forward. The men would rather sit around do-
ing nothing. That’s the reason I believe women will drive
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want to learn.” I’m grateful I have the opportunity to speak
to and impact women through design.QTHE KATE EFFECT
The Duchess of
Cambridge spotted in
Dongre’s design on her
visit to Mumbai179