: Mumbai Fashion Designer Helps 30 Underprivileged Women Earn Through the Pandemic #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus Gurmeen Shrivastav, a Mumbai-based fashion designer who runs her own custom-made brand Nayshaas_siyahi_sa_vastra,

Mumbai Fashion Designer Helps 30 Underprivileged Women Earn Through the Pandemic #IndiaNEWS #Coronavirus
Gurmeen Shrivastav, a Mumbai-based fashion designer who runs her own custom-made brand Nayshaas_siyahi_sa_vastra, named after her daughter. She owns a studio in Malad West and has been helping about 30 underprivileged women in the city earn a regular livelihood throughout the pandemic in conjunction with Srujna, a Mumbai-based non-profit organisation.
(Image above of Gurmeen Shrivastav on the left and the women she is working with on the right)
“As a brand, we wanted to help during the first wave of COVID-19 and gave them a livelihood. Starting from April 2020, we gave them our materials, fabric and mentored them on designs, exact measurements, labelling and how to make items like face masks, earrings, hair bands, scrunchies, and other items. These women are fast learners, keen on picking up new things and determined to support their families. These qualities, in turn, helped us give them more work. After the first lockdown, we informed people from the fashion world or those associated with our brand about our work in helping these women. Within hours, we managed to sell everything they had made,??? says Gurmeen, speaking to The Better India.
They made double layered and three layered masks for our brand nayshaas_siyahi_sa_vastra and these are digitally printed. Also some of these masks have embroidery on it. The small embroidery motifs were also made by these ladies.
“The material is very soft and comfortable to wear and yet safety comes first so we used a thin filter layer as well in between the two layers. Meanwhile, for earrings we worked on zero-waste ones. We used our printed cotton material and paired it with oxidised hangings and developed beautiful earrings out of it, says Gurmeen.
Underprivileged women associated with Srujna made face masks and scrunchies.
This year they’re making sanitary pouches, laptop sleeves, cloth hand bags and other items. They’ve not asked these women to make masks nowadays because doctors have recommended N95. But they ended up making other products with her materials, design, brand name and mentorship.
We have used our leftover materials to make scrunchies and hair bands too. We used our signature prints to develop these accessories. We used soft cotton and also crepe materials with lining inside to develop these nice sanitary pouches,??? she adds.
All these products are priced between Rs 200 to Rs 500 per piece. Gurmeen ends up buying these items from these women at inflated prices.
Underprivileged women making laptop sleeves and sanitary pouches.
Ask Pratibha Berde, a resident of Sion Koliwada in Shastri Nagar.
“There are around 10 more ladies working with me. Last year during the lockdown we got an opportunity to work for Gurmeen Didi, and this really helped all of us and our families.

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