Creating a benchmark with her unprecedented fashion sense and her sustainable clothing solutions, Neha Kabra has made a name for herself in the Indian clothing industry.

Neha Kabra is a fashion designer and founder of the label ‘Maati’, a contemporary women’s wear brand focusing on the quality of clothing, along with the quality of life of the people working behind the scene.

With her brand, Neha has tried to introduce sustainability and conventional printing techniques into her clothing. All her clothes are produced in ethical ways, by leaving behind bare minimum carbon footprints, utilizing less water and by recycling the yarn that goes into waste. All the printing done on the fabric is done using dyes derived from natural sources like red from gulmohar or sindoor, blue from Indigo, green from spinach and, black and white from iron oxide and limestone respectively. Plant gum is used for fixating the colours on the fabric which is all natural and free from chemicals. Along with focusing on the sustainability of the clothing, Neha has also been closely working with certain local communities for the production of her clothing giving them a good chance at upliftment and  employment, such as Kanayi community from Murshidabaad, a community from Kanchanpura in Jaipur, and a Dangi family from a village near Udaipur.

Neha was born in Kuchaman, Nagaur. She moved with her parents to Udaipur while she was very young as her parents were working in Udaipur. Coming from a joint family where she had many cousins, Neha got her human touch and she started to love being around people. She completed her schooling from Udaipur and then moved to Hyderabad for two years to prepare for her Design school. Neha knew she wanted to pursue Design because she always wanted to create something marvellous. She inherited that from her father. Then she moved to Bombay for her graduation and in return, the city taught her a lot of life skills. Absorbing all the exposure and experimenting with different artistic avenues, Neha finally moved to London for her post graduation in Pattern Cutting at St. Martin.

‘Maati’ was not something Neha had planned but it was something that was always inside her. Being strongly connected to nature and with her urge to create something new, Neha always knew she would have to extract something out of nature, to create something of her own. But, she wanted to do it in the most sustainable ways possible. During her college years, working with different designers from all over India and learning more and more about fashion, Neha’s feelings got amplified and she got inclined towards the idea of sustainable clothing.

Talking about the challenges in life, Neha says nothing comes easy in life. One needs a lot of dedication, skills and a support system that can push them through difficulties along the way. Neha’s parents were a big support for her throughout her journey and she thinks she would not have been here if it was not for them. Professionally, Neha faced a lot of difficulties when she started with Maati, like figuring out the business model, catering to the demands of her customers, finding communities who would work for her and completely eliminating the use of plastic from the production chain. Despite all that she faced, Neha was always strong and she believes that one should not be discouraged by the temporary lows, as it all adds up finally.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Neha had to scuffle her way through because most of her sales were dependent on the offline markets and stores, but during the pandemic she had to shift the whole system online. Thankfully, she had a website ready in time and she moulded herself along with the situation. She says not everything was bad because she was able to cut some expenses from the offline pop-ups and advertisements that she would otherwise have had to deal with and also, she got a lot of time to figure out things. Neha says that no matter how small or big a business is, one would always face problems, overcoming which would help them to grow as a person. She says we all have bad days, but it’s all about passing it through and letting it go.

For Neha, her greatest achievements are overcoming her fear of losing out to circumstances, and putting out her hard work in front of the entire world. All her life, all her journey, Neha always adapted her perspective, with what was there in that moment, and being able to do that is an achievement in itself according to her.

Talking about her inspiration in life, Neha quotes what one of her cousins told her that, ‘Everyone has good and bad in them but even if you learn one good thing from a person, just imagine how many good things you can learn from all of them.’ Neha has wisely inculcated this in her life and has learned a lot from all the people she met on her journey. Along with that, Neha says many others have had a great impact on her life and shaped her to become what she is today, like her grandfather inspired her to live the minimal lifestyle, that’s where Maati was germinated. Her father taught her the value of ambitions in life and her mother taught her independence. One of her lecturers taught her how to break the norms and be different, and her friends taught her detachment and to be strong.

If she could go back in time, Neha would love to revisit her college days where she could just be herself and savour all the moments again.

Neha concludes by saying that we are not prepared for every situation that might be thrown at us but what we can do is to put our faith above our fears, and believe that we can make it through.

Neha closes by stating that the upcoming entrepreneurs should always believe in themselves, and believe that all their hard work is going to pay. If not today, maybe tomorrow, or the day after, but in the end, everything will be fine.