Handcrafted with Heart: Indigene’s Commitment to Artisanal Excellence and Sustainability Founded by Ruchi Tripathi and Jaya Bhatt
In the fashion world, we all have seen trends come and go, and fast fashion dominating the industry; but the hope is the growing movement that's challenging the status quo. Slow fashion, sustainable fashion, and conscious consumerism are becoming increasingly important, as consumers begin to realize the environmental and social impact of their purchases. At the heart of this movement is the criticality of understanding the design process, the value of handmade, artisanal clothing, and the impact that our choices have on the planet and people.
This is where brands like Indigene come into play, founded by Ruchi Tripathi and Jaya Bhatt in 2011, Indigene is a conscious clothing label that believes in sustainable design and extends to promote sustainability. The brand resonates with artisanal worth and working with communities. With a passion for traditional textiles and handcrafted techniques, Ruchi and Jaya have built a brand that not only celebrates the art of slow fashion but also empowers local artisans and promotes sustainable practices.
In this interview, we inquire into the world of Indigene and explore the importance of slow fashion, the value of artisanal clothing, and the brand’s vision for a more sustainable future. We discuss the design process, from sourcing materials to working with artisans, and marketing to consumers. Through their commitment to transparency and sustainability, Ruchi and Jaya are redefining how fashion needs to be looked and valued thus inspiring a new generation of conscious consumers.
As they envision the future of fashion, they see a world where repurposed, upcycled, and re-loved apparel becomes the norm. “As we head towards increasing incidents of climate change and natural disasters worldwide, there is a lot of burden on the shoulders of the fashion community to take a step forward.”
MOSAIC: What inspired you to create Indigene, and how does your brand philosophy reflect your passion for traditional textiles and handcrafted techniques?
Ruchi & Jaya: Indigene is a conscious clothing label that believes in sustainable design and extends to promote sustainability by working with communities. Indigene started with a passion for traditional textiles and handcrafted techniques and to support the skills and legacy of the artisans. Our brand ethos emerged from this passion, and from an intuitive perspective on ‘artisanal clothing’, making a larger, yet deeply personal statement through every piece, every detail. Indigene clothing is about ease and comfort, about keeping it stylish yet modest, celebrating the essence of the maker.
MOSAIC: Who is the Indigene woman? What values do you believe she embodies, and her attitude towards sustainability?
Ruchi & Jaya: An Indigene woman is a thinking person, someone who is evolved in her choices and has a mind of her own. She is independent and confident in what she chooses and what she does. Comfort is most important to her and she is sensitive and empathetic towards nature and her surroundings, which lets her shopping choices be in tandem with what is good for all.
MOSAIC: How does Indigene’s commitment to sustainability and ethical fashion practices impact the artisans and local communities you work with?
Ruchi & Jaya: Sustainability is a very good idea, we are a budding brand and for us, sustainability begins with sustained work for our artisan groups. We have been strong believers in ongoing work with groups and communities so that it strengthens the bond and fosters longevity. More than dependency, it is about trust and growing together. We feel great pride in saying that most of the artisan groups and communities that we began work with about twelve years back, continue to be a part of our journey, and hopefully will be able to do so for years to come.
Indigene is also deeply rooted in handmade, and we feel that transparency of a product is very important for a consumer, especially in a world which is full of choices and options; cheaper and otherwise. We try our best to create an honest product and to educate our customers on the design process so that they value handmade and help us keep the business sustainable and ethical.
MOSAIC: Share a brief view of the creation process from sourcing materials, to working with artisans, and marketing to consumers.
Ruchi & Jaya: We both being trained designers, and we follow the design process thoroughly, which is a journey starting with an inspiration, which could be visual or an idea, moving on to the textiles that would shape it, then to the surface and finally the product. As both of us are trained Textile Designers, the fabric takes centre stage for our collections. Indigene works with natural textiles only and our picks would range between, different weights of cotton, silks, cotton silk blends or wools. The surface treatment comes next, with prints embroideries, or both, following the inspiration language and keeping our handwriting intact throughout the collection. Indigene silhouettes always exude ease and comfort, something that we can personally resonate with. A comfortable outfit makes you the most stylish, and we strongly believe in that.
Following a long yet ethical supply chain, we strive to keep intact the product’s identity as a handmade and ethically crafted garment. Each Indigene product goes through several hands and geographies, bringing together a tapestry of stories and cultures. Our social media platforms play a distinct role in putting out the collection story for our audiences to review and enjoy. We do not believe in chatbots and hence have a very personal connection with our customers on calls, messages and emails to help them make the right choices as they shop with us.
MOSAIC: Can you mention any significant collaborations and partnerships? In relation to Indigene’s growth strategy are there any exciting projects on the horizon?
Ruchi & Jaya: Our recent exciting collaboration has been with CFP (Centre for Pastoralism), and Maati Sangathan (Munsiari, Uttarakhand), wherein we have collaborated on creating a range of naturally dyed desi wool jackets, all hand woven by local artisans from these Upper Himalayan regions. This was our second presentation at the Desi Oon exhibition in December. We look forward to continuing this exciting and rare collaboration with these precious textiles and hope to create one.
The year has just begun and we are looking forward to some interesting projects and work coming in for Indigene Internationally as well as at the domestic front.
MOSAIC: How do you balance the need for scalability while preserving traditional craftsmanship and sustainable practices, knowing the time consuming and skill intensive process is.
Ruchi & Jaya: Scalability is a constant point of struggle for small producers, artisans and homegrown labels such as Indigene. The product being handwork and time intensive can only be scaled to a limit. Making and replicating (mass producing) a hand crafted product requires much more time and coordination, than a machine produced factory product. Hence, the limit of scale as well as the definition differs.
We try to work through different avenues of sales, to keep a balance between our business and sustainability. As an ethical brand, it is essential for us to continue to give work to our maker partners and carry forward the chain of sustainability, at the same time not compromising on the products that we create or the processes we follow. We feel a great sense of pride in Indigene’s products are multi-level, multi process and include several hands before it reach the end customer.
MOSAIC: What are some of Indigene’s best-selling items, and what do you think resonates with customers about these pieces?
Ruchi & Jaya: Among other things, our jackets are very well-liked and appreciated by our customers. Handwoven tweeds, Relove (re-purposed textiles), Merino wool, woven or printed cotton, we do a range of interesting jackets, which are rich in terms of textiles used, the fit and finishing are very important and that is something that our customers appreciate (we mostly do customise fits for jackets), and finally the surface treatment and signature Indigene elements of embroidery, that enhances and makes them unique.
MOSAIC: How do you approach your collections, and what inspires the themes and stories behind each one? We noticed ‘The Night Sky’ as one of your collections, can you tell us more about the significance of this theme?
Ruchi & Jaya: Night sky is inspired by, as the name suggests, the “night sky” and the various colour variations and forms one can see between twilight and early dawn. The print is suggestive of the clouds, a more contemporary form and the sprinkle of dots of the stars. The infinite sky is used as a canvas in this collection.
MOSAIC: Are there any regional differences in consumer interests or behaviours that you’ve observed for example Delhi vs. Mumbai fashion consumers or India vs. global markets?
Ruchi & Jaya: Not really, it’s a global platform now, the customers do value a good product and that is for certain. They come back to you for quality and service and that is definitely common to customers across the globe.
MOSAIC: How do you envision the future of fashion, and do you think we can imagine a world where repurposed, upcycled, and re-loved apparel becomes the norm?
Ruchi & Jaya: As we head towards increasing incidents of climate change and natural disasters worldwide, there is a lot of burden on the shoulders of the fashion community to take a step forward. It is good to see so much dialogue around sustainability and re-purposing, several brands are talking about minimizing their waste reducing and reusing scrap. We are sure that these small steps will someday, convert to a larger movement and eventually re-purposing, upcycling and Relove will become the norm.
MOSAIC: What’s next for Indigene, and what are your goals for the brand in the coming years?
Ruchi & Jaya: The current market scenarios and geo-political situations, do not allow us the luxury of planning how the future of business in craft and clothing will look like, but our efforts towards bringing in more hand-crafted and artisanal products to our audiences will go on.
As mentioned earlier, we have some new and exciting connections and collaborations up our sleeve and we look forward to slowly unwrapping them as the years roll out. Hoping that we will be able to remain true to the brand’s ethos and ideas as we move ahead along with our artisan makers.
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The fashion industry is undergoing a visible transformation, with top designers and brands emphasizing the importance of heritage charm, artisanal worth, merits in repurposing, upcycling, and more. The use of AI and technology is also being explored to find innovative ways to elevate fashion to a more meaningful space, one that prioritizes sustainability and accountability. This shift is long overdue, as the fashion industry’s negligence of its impact on the climate and people has been devastating. However, with the growing awareness, the fashion stakeholders are finally taking responsibility for their actions and working with ideas and partnerships that strengthen our future. As Ruchi Tripathi and Jaya Bhatt, founders of Indigene, emphasize, the future of fashion is sustainable, and it’s time for the industry to come together to create a more responsible and conscious fashion ecosystem. With the power of technology, innovation, and collaboration, the fashion industry can be transformed into a force for good, promoting sustainability, equality, and social responsibility.