While the North East is a treasure trove of traditional crafts, the people have for long felt marginalised from mainstream India. And though the history and politics of the region has left its detritus, Assam-based designer Arpit Agarwal is attempting, through his label NEst, to make things better.
His outfit is creating notebooks/ journals and lifestyle products such as mugs and T-shirts bearing motifs unique to the region, such as bamboo, hippos, tea estate workers or Assamese masks.
Assam’s exhaustive textile tradition gave Arpit, who was born and brought up in the state, plenty of ideas like the Bihu collection of notebooks he is working on (Bihu is a traditional lyrical dance of Assam).
Using the state’s diverse weaves, such as the muga silk, tusser, pat and gamocha, he plans to bring out the unknown aspects of the North East and to use local resources as much as possible.
“The concept of NEst helped me win the Home Review Design Quest 2012 competition which earned me a trip to the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven earlier this year,” says Arpit.
“The most satisfying part was that I managed to retail NEst products at a store in London. So for me, the main motive and journey behind NEst — taking the North East to India and the world — has begun.”