Empowering India’s Artisan Women

 

In 2024, our WFI Team partnered with graduate students at the Parsons School of Design to work to safeguard an important aspect of India’s cultural heritage: the ancient art of Himroo. Together with the Women's Foreign Policy Group and the US-India Friendship Alliance we curated a Gallery event in New York for a luxury fashion brand whose western facing name is ZariZar.

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The export of textiles is integral to the Indian economy, and skilled artisans are critical to that success. Given appropriate support, independent women weavers can continue to be the vital core of that workforce, maintaining a valued heritage as it provides livelihood for their families. This project demonstrates how a unique partnership can expand this cottage industry, which produces sustainable world class, “slow fashion” products, for the benefit of India, women, and style-conscious customers in the United States.

 

It is estimated that by intensively training cohorts of twenty-five women over a six-week to two-month period, around three hundred new skilled artisans can enter the district workforce at the apprentice level per year. A considerable number of these women will have likely been “unpaid weavers” in their home. In addition, the center plans to be able to upskill and reskill experienced weavers.

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WFI is partnering with the Strategic Design & Management graduate students Parsons School of Design in New York and students from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Mumbai with Faisal Quraishi's ZariZar Himroo Shawls, to implement a strategic plan to open up new markets, especially in the United States, to uplift ZarZar's community of businesswomen artisans, their families, and their communities.

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Through donor support and upon completion of the research study in Phase One of this Project, WFI is addressing the need for highly skilled women weavers in rural regions of India who can contribute to the economic wellbeing of their families, their community, and the country. These women safeguard an important aspect of India’s cultural heritage: the modernization of a centuries-old process that needs to have a new audience. WFI together with our university teams and partners on the ground have laid the foundation for a comprehensive, sustainable training center in rural India.

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About ZariZar

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Founded by two entrepreneurs in the Aurangabad area of Maharashtra, ZariZar sells luxury had-woven shawls in the United States. The company builds on an established a network of master weavers that, with their apprentices, has become one of the most renowned and honored in India. Their skill and patience enables them to spend days and even weeks at their looms, crafting a single magnificent shawl as a work of art With ZariZar, this network of craftspeople is entering the globalized world of high fashion, using the most refined silk, Kashmiri wool, and zari threads to weave luxurious patterns for customers with universal tastes. 

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In the 13th century, when he pioneered the linkage of East and West, Marco Polo marveled at the beauty of the “Himroo fabrics” he found on India’s Deccan plateau. He felt they were worthy of the kings and queens of Europe.

 

Today, handloom weaving continues to constitute one of the richest and most vibrant aspects of world cultural heritage. In India, it remains an integral part of the rural livelihood engaging over 2,500,000 women, which makes it an important source of economic empowerment for women. The sector has advantage of being ecofriendly, less capital intensive, flexible for small production, using minimal power, and being open to innovations and adaptability to market requirements.

 

The preservation of this ancient art is thus instrumental in furthering the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity for people and the planet, now and into the future.” Specifically, women artisans contribute to Goal #8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

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