“India is one of the few nations in the world which still has the cultural identity intact in textile form, which has disappeared from many countries.”

When Upasana began, the driving force behind her being was the idea of incorporating India through textiles into Auroville. While a nation has many dimensions- culture, art, craft, music, food, lifestyle, the field of textiles was where Uma felt she belonged. She could map India through textiles and felt at home in this space.

Textiles and clothing have become industrial products today, and they are made where it is cheaper. Most of the countries have lost their sense of culture or their cultural identity which is coded in their textiles. While India is going through a phase of industrialization, Uma says, “What I see is beautiful in this nation- we do identify ourselves with our textiles. We do indeed patronize them.”

A country like India has more than 55 million people working in the area of craft and textiles. It was our collective dream to bring Indian culture to Auroville. Being an integral design studio based in Auroville, we were driven by a vision to bring in a dimension of India, through textiles to Auroville, which in turn became a comfortable idea for us to manifest.

It has been part of our quest, to make design serve society and use our industrial/business intelligence in the social sector. Today we have extended that space to fashion being conscious and responsible. Representing India through textiles has become one of the facets of our work, given our 20+ years of work with artisans and skilled craftsmen from our country who are invincible and many a times, invisible.