N Apoorva knows woman power when she sees it. After all, when the 29-year-old wasn't able to put her Jewellery Design degree from Pearl Academy in Jaipur to good use in Hyderabad, she took the help of her mother to set up Nyara. With this initiative, she was doing her bit to take care of another mother, Mother Earth, because she has been using jute to make bags, accessories, covers and more, since 2017.
The lockdown had been tough and particularly tough on small businesses and those small-time workers who were employed under it. By 2020, Apoorva had five women working with her to create these contemporary products with jute and again, she hat-tipped the women by keeping them on the payroll and paying them for their creations. "Earlier, the husbands of these women were employed but they lost their jobs during the lockdown, making the women the only bread-winners in their family. This is the least I could do," she shares. And that's how Nyara became a story of not just the strength of jute but the strength of all the women who were involved in the making of its products.
Getting back to jute, Nyara's products are made of regular, oxford and viola jute. It took Apoorva a long time to get the hang of jute and she utilised her mother's stitching skills and learnt some of her own too. "There were no courses involved, it was all trial and error," shares the youngster. The pandemic makes Apoorva feel like she has slipped back to those times of uncertainties. So she is going back to the drawing board and employing the basics. "In the beginning, we used to offer samples to every client, whether or not they actually place the order. This is what we have gone back to doing again," explains the youngster. They have big clients from the pharma industry and even Foncé Chocolatier. "Jute bags were perceived to be carried only by oldies but as sustainability became the buzzword, jute began to regain its prominence. Changing the perception has been difficult but we are getting there slowly," she shares.
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The biggest USP of Nyara are the customisations they offer, even for their home decor products. But fighting mindsets has been tough. "People think it’s a cheap material but forget to look at the labour that goes into it. They pay a lot for leather and synthetic bags but refuse to pay the same for jute bags," she fumes. But this doesn't deter her from her purpose of making jute India's latest trend.
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Why jute is better?
- Jute fibre is recyclable, biodegradable and compostable entirely
- Jute cultivation goes a long way in enhancing the soil fertility
- It absorbs carbon dioxide and releases oxygen at a much faster rate
- It's durable and can be reused again and again
For more on them, check out instagram.com/nyara.products
