My time in CraftHER flew by so quickly. I am genuinely amazed that the last week has already come. This was a very exciting week as we got to delve into the business that has been so central to our experience. I loved the creative challenge of getting to design the garments for Swara and meeting Omana Chechi and her tailoring team.
We were challenged to produce a 5-item fashion line for Swara. That meant coming up with a united collection identity, helped by making a customer profile together. It was challenging initially as we all already had visions for the collection in our heads, but had to compromise and think outside the box to unify our ideas. Eventually, we decided to centre the collection on the theme of 'Sisterhood' (inspired by the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants), a poignant theme for us as a group, having been through 5 weeks of CraftHER together. The garments all share the same concept of shareability through ties and wraps so that friends can share their clothes with each other. Omana Chechi and her team did a phenomenal job of making our vision come to life.
We also worked together in grouping our ideas as we made our mini-consulting presentation for Swara; we made proposals for the expansion of CraftHER and conceptualised the creation of a similar programme. We sat together as a group and brainstormed our ideas. We were able to find productive solutions that best reflected our experience of the programme, which also meant finding a helpful middle-point as sometimes we had different opinions.
I am massively grateful for CraftHER in so many ways, but particularly for the wonderful group that I have done it with. Our collaboration across so many aspects this week was very special as a summarisation of our experience and all the work we have done together up to this point.
A highlight of the week: Among many great things, it was the DOSA! I have discovered a true love of dosa while in Kerala, and this week was some of the best of the trip so far.
A lesson of the week: this week reminded me to be appreciative of nature. We spend the weekend in Vagamon which is a beautiful part of Kerala with lots of tea plantations, there I reflected on the lack of wildlife in my home in London and how grateful I was for being able to experience it there.