Handwoven cloth bags embellished with the traditional motifs of the North-East have made the great leap from Bokakhat, near Kaziranga Park, in Assam to Brooklyn in America.

At the Big Apple, Kristine Gottilla, a designer and founder of Spencer Devine, who has been visiting India and working with the women weavers of Bokakhat since 2012, has given the bags the final shape and finish that will appeal to the American woman.

This amalgamation of the traditional weaving skills of Bokakhat women and the design and finesse of Gottilla was on display as the ‘Assam Capsule’ at a recent exhibition in New York called ‘NY Now’.

What started as a livelihood initiative between organisation NEST (North East Social Trust) and the American designer four years ago has culminated in unique hand and travel bags for the fall/winter collection of 2016.

While the Assamese women are weaving and stitching customised, hand-dyed cotton, the Spencer Devine team is finishing each bag with leather and other value additions. The end-products are versatile and stylish and can be worn for the morning bike ride, meetings, yoga classes and even evening cocktail get-togethers.

One of NEST’s activities was to develop Assamese handloom and handicraft to increase the income of women earning less than ₹6,000 a month and empower them in various ways. From its inception, NEST engaged designers from the National Institute of Fashion Technology and National Institute of Design to develop a range of modern ladies garments and utility products like cushion covers and table mats.

Then came the partnership with Gottilla, who found the weaving skills of the rural artisans of Assam unmatchable and their cotton fabric extremely soft. Branding them as ‘Assam Capsule’, Gottilla started making various bags for US customers by integrating fabrics woven at Bokakhat. A part of her profits returns to NEST, which in turn uses it to provide sewing machines to women living below the poverty line. The women are also taught tailoring, and how to run sewing schools, repair the machines and take on tailoring assignments.

The bags made by these beneficiaries were featured at the New York exhibition. The bags are priced $42-542.

The writer is a senior journalist based in Delhi

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