When Arya Giri started her final year college project, she had no way of foretelling that it would eventually become a full-fledged entrepreneurial venture. ‘It was my final year project. What started as a school assignment was something that I realised I had the capability of doing. Before I knew it, I decided to give it a complete shot, and really embraced it!’
Today, her eponymous label Arya Giri is just two-and-a-half years old, with several milestones to its credit. Arya has showcased at Paris Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week and are stocked at some of India’s most esteemed outlets.
‘I think I always knew I wanted AG to be something that was for the globe,’ she says. ‘I've always said that AG is proudly built in India, woven, hand-embroidered, constructed purely with proud Indian joy and meant for the globe. We sell to a huge audience here in India, as well as across in New York and Paris at the moment, and I think that it was always conscious because it reflected the way I grew up and I knew I wanted to reach a community that was like-minded in the sense that they were looking for a home that was a little bit of the entire world.’
Although Arya grew up across the world, whenever she returned to India as a child, she would visit weaving villages. Her mother Bindu Giri created handloom and handwoven saris and worked closely with artisans across India. ‘All of those days were spent holding my mom's arms with the background of the warp and the weft, and experiencing what it felt like to see something created from just a thread into a heritage piece.’
Arya believes that more than an entrepreneur, designer or any other labels, she identifies as a storyteller, hoping to breathe stories into the products she creates. ‘Being a start-up owner is like balancing a tightrope every single day. You have to think about the finance, you have to think about the admin, and you have to still be creatively fuelling yourself. I try to remind myself every single day to fuel myself creatively first, and then think about the commercial version of myself.’
She adds, ‘Being an entrepreneur in itself has its challenges, and when you're young and you're a female, I think you have that many more glass ceilings you're trying to shatter. The lesson that I've learned is to embrace those challenges and to make them your strengths, whether it is the artisan team you're working with or the clientele that you have to learn to understand. It’s an ongoing process, and a company is essentially an organism. You have to nurture it, breathe life into it every single day. And so that comes with its challenges as it grows.’
For women looking to break into the fashion industry, she says, ‘All industries are tough, but this is really saturated. So really hone in on the most authentic version of your story, breathe life into it, take your time and embrace those challenges.’