Savnit has been running her own fashion startup and wants to globalise chikankari work. Inspired by her mother to choose this field, she generated jobs and growth opportunities for aspiring stylists in Lucknow.
Savnit Arora Gurnani is the Founder and Creative Head at Dhaaga & Co. in Lucknow.
Savnit shares that her company was a bootstrap startup that she started during COVID as a collaborative effort to take the traditional craft of Chikankari beyond the geographical limits of Lucknow. She explains that during COVID, this craft saw little sales and thus the idea came to her to promote and uplift the traditional craft of Chikankari.
She says that it started with about 15 women designers and about 12 artisans, whom she made digitally literate to create and sell their products online via her platform. She says that her company has grown to become a self-manufacturing firm that helps the local artisans to increase their reach.
Savnit hails from Lucknow. She did her schooling from Loreto Convent, Lucknow. Being a studious kid, she did Honours in Statistics on the instance of her parents, whereas she wanted to make her career in the fashion industry. She says that her mother’s intricate understanding about fashion sparked her interest in the field. Thus she eventually switched to Fashion Styling for her PG which she pursued at the Pearl Academy.
Savnit joined Femina in Mumbai as an intern during the first year of her PG. She says that working at such a reputed workplace with highly experienced colleagues gave her ample opportunities to flourish in her career. After completing her internship at Femina, she went to Delhi and interned with several stylists and designers. She adds that working at various firms helped her develop a perspective of a stylist and inculcated industry understanding in her which came handy when she started her own business.
While she was studying in Kirori Mal College which is affiliated to DU, Savnit used to participate in various extra-curricular activities. She did a lot of inter-college events at IIT Kanpur and some other places. She says that it was the best part about her three years of graduation in terms of her fashion journey.
Speaking of her mistakes, Savnit says that she regrets not entering the fashion industry early on in her life by choosing Fashion for her graduation instead of Statistics. In terms of professional mistakes, she also regrets not building her team sooner. Initially she tried to do all the things on her own because of which scaling became difficult.
According to Savnit, every achievement in life takes you towards another one. She says that one of her biggest accomplishments in life is not giving up on her career after her marriage and shifting to a relatively smaller city in terms of startup culture. She adds that not only did she continue her career, but also generated jobs and growth opportunities for aspiring stylists.
Talking about her motivations and inspirations, Savnit says that her college faculties and her first boss are the ones who have helped her grow professionally. She particularly finds her teacher at the Pearl Academy, Shalini Gupta as her biggest inspiration who educated her professionally as well as personally. She also admires the skill and helping nature of her first boss Divyak D'Souza at Femina and still looks up to him for professional advice.
To advise the younger generation, Savnit says that you shouldn't take it overboard. She also adds that you should balance your life with the digital world and be original. Advising budding fashion professionals, she says that you must know the history of fashion. She believes that if you know the history it makes it easier to understand the future. The whole pattern of the history of fashion teaches you to read the future.
In her free time, Savnit likes to paint which refreshes her mind.
The quote that she follows is “Take the leap, go for it and take action.”
