A design by designer Mithi Kalra

According to Market Research, The Indian textile industry is estimated to be around 108 billion dollars and expected to reach 223 billion dollars by 2021. The industry employs over 45 million people directly to 60 million people indirectly, thus making an aim to increase the employment in the industry. Fashion Designer Mithi Kalra, who is a celebrated name in the industry, has been working towards this tangent for a decade now.

She is famous for creating beautiful amalgamations by choosing homegrown fabrics with different forms of paintings of India. For her Fashion is an expression of deep-rooted culture, ethnicity and sustainability. Known for her eccentric designs, fabrics and colour sensibilities, the label has dressed many famous Bollywood celebrities including Sonali Kulkarni, Pooja Sawant, and many more.

Mithi Kalra launched her eponymous brand in 2012 after graduating from the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), with a studio in Noida, along with a team of seven. Since then, Mithi has been selling via her website offline store and social media channels like Facebook and Instagram named House of Mithi Kalra. With her vast clientele across the countries and globally, Kalra has displayed her designs at prominent shows like India Runway Week and done exhibitions in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities.

ÂMy business grew at a rate of 70 percent last year even during the time of COVID-19, as people started shopping online at a wider scale. Despite selling via Facebook and Instagram, I have also launched my website, mithikalra.com, last month due to the positive response from the audience. My collection range begins at Rs 5,000 and goes upto Rs 4 lakhs, Mithi shares.

She says that the major 50 percent of revenue comes from offline studio sales whereas 20 percent of revenue comes from online sales on social media.

Her overseas clientele is scattered in Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai, which are her biggest source of revenue. While her collection in India is scattered in major cities such as Delhi, Chandigarh, Amritsar, Gujarat, Kolkata, Bangalore and Pune.

ÂI am also planning to open a store in Udaipur, as a lot of my clientele resides there and have been purchasing from me. I also plan to tap into Men’s wear this year and am launching my own real jewellery collection, Mithi says.

Started her design house in 2015, as ÂHouse of Mithi KalraÂ, her first collection was an intricate concoction of Madhubani Paintings on dresses based on Disney Princess. Mithi travelled a lot and aimed at reaching the craftsmen for the Madhubani Paintings directly, as she feels that the role of middlemen often takes away the wages that the weavers can earn, The role of the craftsman is underrated and there should be efforts from the Fashion Industry to help them grow equally. Kalra feels that this is a massive step in growing the textile industry towards the right direction, she reiterates.

Aiming for the same success in the future, Mithi says, ÂWe plan to introduce different forms of art in our collection and take such arts globally. The first collection that revolved around Madhubani Paintings that is practiced in Bihar and done by hands, this was received well by critics and our customers in India and especially Overseas. We aim to introduce new concepts with different forms of paintings in our designs,Â

In future, she aims at introducing Bridal Collection on Sustainable Fabrics,ÂToday, bridal wear has a vast spectrum, it not only includes those heavily embroidered lehengas and embellished sarees but it has a good mix of Rich Anarkalis with Ethnic Skirts, our new collection includes subtle yet rich blouses paired with heavy skirts, making it a complete look of home-grown Lehengas, she concludes.