Swathed in Cause

It8217;s an advice that took Mehta some two decades to assimilate. For her spring-summer collection for 2009, the designer has worked with a team of physically challenged and differently abled individuals from a school that she has set up in Palanpur on the Gujarat-Rajasthan border. The school, Palak, takes in differently abled people who have passed high school, and train them in crafts like surface texturisation, dyeing, embroidery and blockprinting. Accordingly, the collection is rich with indigenous handicrafts from across India. 8220;The thought was always there in the back of my mind, but it was only last year that the idea took shape,8221; says Mehta.

The school has about 25 artisans, who have been chosen from about 180 applicants. They have been trained for about eight months and Mehta herself oversees the training. Most of the people who have been employed come from nearby villages and are paid a monthly stipend of Rs 3,000-6,000. The ones who work as managers earn around Rs 10,000. 8220;I have been in the fashion industry for over 25 years now, and it8217;s taken me a long time to get to the point where I can give something back to the community. It is a tiny contribution, but it gives me great satisfaction,8221; she says.