QUEEN OF COUTURE ANITA DONGRE

With a rapturous show at Jaipur's City Palace, this Mumbai-based designer has come full circle, back to her favourite city. Anita Dongre continues to dedicate each piece of bridal couture to female artisans and independent artists countrywide, to be worn by the strong, fearless Indian bride. The designer shares her fascinating journey and what's to come.

- PRIYA KUMARI RANA

This top couturier was the first to get corporate funding, move her workshop and workforce into a Navi Mumbai building, open two flagship stores in New York and Dubai, use only vegan leather, and empower kaarigars countrywide, including female artisans of SEWA (an NGO started in Gujarat) whose handmade textiles and crafts she uses in her ready-to-wear and couture pieces. Today, Anita Dongre continues to support Indian craft through her dreamy yet extremely wearable collections. Case in point: at her latest couture showcase at Jaipur’s magnificent City Palace, each one of her outfits was lauded for its modernity, intricacy and nod to the city that framed her aesthetic since childhood.

A go-getter ever since those idyllic holidays in Jaipur as a child—home to both her maternal and paternal grandparents, where Anita would scour local markets for colourful bangles in between playtime with her cousins—she wanted to emulate her mother in one particular skill.

“We were three sisters, and until we were 10, our mother would cut and sew clothes for the whole family,” says Anita. “We were 35 cousins, and she looked after us all. She would take fabrics and make frocks for us.”

AN ENTREPRENEURIAL MIND

As she reached 10th grade in Mumbai, she was sure she wanted to be a designer. After studying commerce in grades 10 and 11, she joined SNDT Women’s University in Juhu in the 12th grade. During the holidays, she designed, cut and sewed an entire collection with three of her college friends, which got sold out. She was already an entrepreneur at 19. “It was a technical, sound course, with a focus on pattern making,” she says.