About Our Makers
For our Spring/Summer 26 collection, we are partnering with a social enterprise called Kumbaya.
Kumbaya is a social venture bringing women together to learn a skill and earn their way out of poverty. Founded by Nivedita Banerjee in 1994 in the middle of the drylands of central India to provide a way for women from tribal communities, people with disabilities and other marginalised groups in the area to learn a wide new range of skillsets like sewing, patchwork and embroidery while ensuring them fair wages.
What started with a few borrowed sewing machines and Nivedita's grit 32 years ago is now a way for a lot of women from marginalised backgrounds to be financially independent, and in some cases those women are even the sole providers of their families, which is exceptional and highly uncommon for the region. Today, over 100 women from marginalised communities are shareholders who own and work in Kumbaya Producer Company Limited, where employment is guaranteed for 300 days a year. Kumbaya continuously works on skill development and has taught stitching to over 2,500 women from 80 villages in the area.
