“I want women to have the means, the respect, and the recognition not only to support themselves and their families, but to rise into leadership in their communities,” says Susan Walker, founder, global non-profit and social enterprise The Ibu Movement that ‘empowers marginalised women artisans in over 40 countries to achieve financial self-sufficiency’.
Since its founding in 2014 in the USA, Ibu, the Malay term for ‘woman of respect’, focusses on capacity building, education, artisan engagement, and providing a market place for these women artisans’.
Susan Walker
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Building on the latter, Susan has launched the Ibu Atelier Programme in partnership with Ibu Movement and Bank of America. Ten global women-led artisan groups, including four Indian labels, will gain access ‘to an in-depth programme designed to strengthen the handcraft economy for women’.
“The programme combines design collaboration, creating innovative capsule collections highlighting each group’s techniques, with business training from experts in the field and public relations support to amplify each story,” says Susan, adding how it aims to launch these enterprises into a larger marketplace. Experts such as Peggy Clark, founder and executive director of the Aspen Global Innovators Group; Robert Prioleau, founding partner of Blue Ion (a full-service marketing company); Jane Bernard, an award-winning documentary, editorial, and commercial photographer; among others also guide the brands.
Women artisans at Artisaga
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The textile artist-turned-advocate and entrepreneur explains how the first batch has taught the team “a great deal” about the needs of their artisan partners, especially around production challenges such as access to materials. “In countries like Pakistan, the lack of access to quality textiles can be prohibitive. Sampling products can be challenging because many designs require producing a larger quantity of material (such as weaving an ikat pattern or developing a block-printed motif), which may go unused if changes are required. Timeline expectations can be difficult to manage when handmade pieces are involved,” she explains.
We spotlight the four Indian artisan groups that were a part of the first cohort who have finished the leadership and business training portion of the programme, and will continue to work on the production of their capsule collections through the end of 2026. A new cohort of artisan leaders will begin their training this fall.
An artisan at Dwarka Plus
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Kalamkari @ Dwaraka Plus, Bengaluru
A few years ago, the team at this Bengaluru-based social enterprise (with artisans in Srikalahasthi in Andhra Pradesh) met Susan at the International Folk Art Market (IFAM) festival in Santa Fe, USA. Founder Anita Reddy says this meeting began “a warm exchange of thoughts, ideas and sharing of concern for artisans, especially the kalamkari artists of Dwaraka”. “The authentic hand-painted heritage art form of kalamkari, created with genuine kalams on textiles, appealed to Susan’s aesthetic sensqibilities. A little while later, Ibu placed a small order with Dwaraka Plus and last year, we found ourselves on their list of Atelier artisans groups,” explains Anita.
Elaborating on the details of the collection the team worked on with Ibu Movement, Anita says the design lead at Ibu conceived four design ideas for kaftans, a tunic, and a trouser set, along with head scarves. “It wasn’t until we saw the final pieces that we truly appreciated how beautifully the simplicity of the designs came together. The color palettes of natural dyes were bright and vivacious, but also subtle in some ways. The Ibu team accepted our request not to sell scarves featuring Lord Ganesha as headgear, but rather, to sell them as wall hangings,” she explains.
An outfit by Dwarka Plus from the collection
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
As for the artisans, she says a group of 10 women, with the support of the master artist, worked on the fabric, which involved a “tedious” process. “By nature, this art form is practiced in parallel. If one material is on the table, the other will be in the process of being washed, boiled, milk dipped, dried and prepared for the next step. Many women from marginalised communities and abandoned homes weren’t able to practise the art, but were excited to contribute to the Ibu collection.”
Handloom and craft @ Artisaga
After working with Ibu Movement on various craft-led projects, this design and sourcing platform founded by Nidhi Mantri in 2020 Artisaga was invited to participate in the first cohort of the Programme. “Artisaga has been collaborating with Ibu for multiple projects, leading to the development of a wider product range,” says Nidhi about the collaborative collection worked on as a part of the programme.
A Rabari embroidered jacket at Artisaga
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
This range, she says, includes apparel, accessories, custom bags and Kolhapuri chappals. “One of the highlights from the range are the Rabari embroidered jackets we designed for Ibu’s runway show. Each jacket was hand-embroidered by women artisans from the Rabari tribe in Kutch.”
The artisans, Nidhi says, are “in rural parts of India, mainly across the western and central regions, each practising a specific craft and product range”. For couture pieces like the Rabari-embroidered jackets, a single piece took around a month and required the effort of a group of 3-4 women, she says.
An outfit by Artisaga
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Himroo @ LoomKatha
The ornate himroo weave, the buttery soft and little-known Mashru of Maharashtra, the gossamer Maheshwaris of Madhya Pradesh and earthy tussar from Gopalpur, Odisha are in the spotlight at Arushi Chowdhury Khanna’s Mumbai-based brand. “Across all these crafts, the common thread is that they are all woven by women weavers: Rubina Appa’s himroo, Sunita didi of Maheshwari and Mrs Guin of Gopalpur may never meet, but their skills have come together to craft this collection,” she shares of the range being worked on with Ibu Movement.
A weaver at LoomKatha
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Standout pieces in the capsule include a Maheshwari silk tie-dye jacket with himroo cuffs, a silk shimmer slip dress woven using the Mashru technique, a himroo obi belt, a tussar scarf, and himroo notebooks. “We are pushing the design intervention all the way back to the setup of the loom. With himroo, for instance, rather than relying on heavy, traditional Mughal motifs, the Atelier collection aims to radically modernise the textile itself by introducing bold, unexpected colorways like aquamarine blue and crabapple orange into simplified two-color patterns,” says Arushi, “Furthermore, the fabric is engineered structurally through placement weaving deliberately merging dense, historic shampoo brocade onto targeted areas like cuffs, while keeping the main body of the garment in fluid, lightweight tie-dyed handwoven Maheshwari for a contemporary, wearable drape.”
An outfit at LoomKatha
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Kantha and block printing @ Studio Maeve
For Megha Agarwal, applying to the Atelier program “felt like a natural extension of an existing relationship built on shared values”. The founder, who has collaborated with Ilu Atelier on projects in the past, says the application required the team to take a step back and reflect on the brand’s journey and future goals.
For the collection being worked on with Ibu Movement, Megha says it features intricate hand embroidered kaftans, structured shirts and dresses, skirts, pants, tops, and home furnishing that were all developed in collaboration with artisan groups from West Bengal, primarily in and around Phulia and Shantiniketan. “We worked with two artisan clusters comprising approximately 20 to 35 artisans, including handloom weavers from Phulia and embroidery artisans specialising in kantha and zardozi work from the Shantiniketan region.”
An artisan at work at Studio Maeve
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
The development process typically spans six to nine months, and begins with research, design development, and sampling, followed by textile creation, embroidery placement, garment construction, and multiple rounds of refinement. “Handcrafted collections require patience and collaboration at every stage. Unlike industrial production, each textile and embroidered surface evolves through the hands of the artisan, making the process inherently slower and more thoughtful.”
Megha adds, “At a time when fashion is increasingly dominated by mass production, initiatives like Ibu play an important role in ensuring that traditional crafts remain relevant, valued, and economically sustainable for future generations.”