TRIFED and designer Ritu Beri have forged a partnership to promote crafts and culture from the interiors of India. By Team Viva
Tribes India, a chain of 117 unique showrooms, established by TRIFED has tied up with Ritu Beri Designs to promote Indian tribal crafts and culture across the country and the world. She will function as the chief design consultant for the organisation.
Speaking about this collaboration, Pravir Krishna, MD, TRIFED said, “I welcome designer Ritu Beri to the family of 1.5 lakh tribal artisans. Her association will give wings to Tribes India.”
Beri combines Indian fabrics with Western sensibilities in her designs. She will be guiding the TRIFED family of over 1,50,000 tribal master craftsmen and craftswomen with her creativity to develop world class handcrafted masterpieces to create a mini-India of tribal haute couture. She was very upbeat about the collaboration, “It’s a great day because it’s the birth of our relationship. I must say that Tribes India is really the soul of the country because arts and craft comes naturally to these tribals. A hundred thousand talented minds all over the country need to be nurtured and supported to reach the global audience. We should know the value of our traditional crafts. All of us together need to join hands and make it a real movement so that the world can see the great expression of India. I am sure we can do a lot of good stuff together because there is immense talent. We just need to package it right and we’ll be ready to present it to the world.”
Beri has a deep connect with Indian tribal arts, crafts and culture and Tribes India will now find echo and resonance all over the country under her aegis.
The partnership between one of India’s leading designers and the nation’s biggest promoter of tribal crafts and culture has the potential of making Tribes India a household name. With her experience of working with different countries across the globe, Beri knows how to adapt to a region’s culture and establish a connect with the locals. This particular skill set of hers coupled with her fashion sensibilities will enable Tribes India to connect better with people from across India and all over the world. Beri said, “There’s nobody who can match us. I am a proud Indian and for the sake of Indian tribes, we have to make it a huge success and make sure that everybody has something tribal that they cherish and promote further.”
Beri has already proposed a wide range of initiatives to mainstream tribal art form, which include creating a tribal museum, promoting a wall art festival, organising a round table with the Luxury League promoting tribal art as true luxury, organising expositions promoting niche aspects of tribal art, organising fashion shows worldwide, re-model tribal products, tribal store and packaging, introducing marketing strategies, organising a tribal parade, designing and conceptualising further cultural events involving global participation (annual tribal art, food and music festivals), launch an annual tribal design competition, launch a tribes newsletter, declare a tribes day and several other initiatives.
Also present on the occasion were parliamentarian Meenakshi Lekhi and designer Ruma Devi.
