Designer Bhumika Ahluwalia

By recording the oral narratives of darjees across India (and the world), they want to sensitise the customer. Because if you know about your darjee, about his life of hardship, you unravel your heart a little bit every time you drape your body. "Most karigars work six days a week, 10 months a year, with two months of leave," says Chandrasekhar. "Sometimes unaware of their worthy skills, sometimes in awe of stitching Sonam K Ahuja's outfit, and sometimes because of the demand for cheap labour, they work long hours, commute longer hours and are paid minimum wages with no healthcare or clean shelter to reside in."

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Their project involves not just listening to weavers, dyers, block printers, embroiderers, patternmakers and tailors, but even "shoemakers, bangle-makers, or someone who sews spacesuits for a living." According to them, fashion done right looks like designer Rahul Mishra's sustainability project, in which he relocated 300 craftsmen from a Mumbai slum to Baudpur village in West Bengal. The workers earn the same salaries, live at home and work in a liveable workshop. "There are very few fashion designers who are passionate and truly aware of creating whatever they are," she says.

Shriya Chandrasekhar

"While some go to the extent of treating everyone like family, some are just struggling with the economics and trying to please the customer, often leading to negotiation and exploitation of the one producing it. It's been a hundred years since the beginning of industrialisation. It's time we put all our energy into making products with better intentions." It's time that the skills darjees bring to the table aren't relegated to shreds on the floor. And that the hand that cuts the pattern is the hand that rules the fashion world.

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