Nandini Chowdhury

Spread the love

North East Woman Entrepreneur

Age is insignificant when it comes to pursuing one’s passion. For me, I needed a push to realise that and when Jet Airways shut down, I finally decided that I had to continue with what I once started twenty-seven years ago. The experience of creating my brand ‘Libaas by Nandini’ has been very exciting. It has helped me ignite the forgotten creativity in me. My heart has always been inclined towards fashion, especially in the traditional weaves. I have now begun my entrepreneurial journey and have been helping to keep some very precious Assamese traditions alive. 

The name of my brand, ‘Libaas by Nandini’, itself implies that I am the designer. My designs reflect Assam. The traditional fabrics of muga, eri, paat and cotton resemble the Assamese culture with elegance. The design of each outfit has been created over generations of weaving; each weave tells a story and each outfit is special to the person who buys it.  My designs are refined with numerous added intricacies that make them unique and exquisite. 

Our weavers are between the ages of nineteen to over seventy, all praiseworthy multitasking women. Working in the paddy fields and doing their household chores, they still find time to weave. They lead an eco-friendly life. When looked closely, this interprets the beauty of the organic way of life. My brand is a fabricated manifestation of this as it is made beautifully out of nature’s gifts.

The pure silk is retrieved directly from the silkworms and the untouched cotton from the trees. I feel that my weavers truly deserve a major chunk of the credit because if it were not for them, I would not have reached as far as where I am now. My weavers are from a remote village in Dhemaji district of Assam. It is an overnight journey by train to travel from Guwahati and reach their village. The location of the village is such that they suffer from floods during the monsoons and are forced to endure terrible hardships. To truly thank them for all that they have done for me, I wish to give them an economically better life where they can afford the basic necessities of livelihood.

We, at ‘Libaas by Nandini’, try to handpick the age-old traditional motifs of the various tribes of Assam and create beautiful sarees, stoles, shawls and the traditional Assamese attire, Mekhela Sador. My entrepreneurship journey started in June 2019 and thereafter, I participated in three exhibitions to showcase my weaves. I launched my brand during my first exhibition in my hometown, Guwahati. After a successful launch, I then travelled to Shillong, Meghalaya for my second exhibition. Even though I did not have much luck in Shillong, I never lost my motivation and moved on to the Northeast Festival held in Delhi where I made my first television appearance as a designer. 

The Muga Silkworm, Antheraea Assamensis, is becoming extinct. One of the more talented weavers, Surjyaboti Pegu, who is in her mid-seventies, patiently reels the muga thread from the cocoon which she holds in one hand. It is a tedious job as it takes up a large amount of time to reel into thread. I personally like to work with this fabric so that I can help the locals keep this tradition alive as it is a pride of Assam.

These fabrics are not only organic and skin-friendly, but their sustainability is so astonishing that they last for multiple lifetimes. I truly hope that this venture of mine helps me to reach out to the world about the authenticity of this precious traditional fabric and to help these weavers become financially independent.

Later, in December 2019, I took up a small place and opened a store alongside a small partnered cafe to generate more revenue as clothing sales, in general, do not provide daily profits. Although, to my despair, with the current COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown, I have faced challenges which have led to many difficulties for me to make up with the expenses.

Since the lockdown, I have been managing my cafe with a strict takeaway and recently available home delivery to sustain the business and to meet the basic needs of my employees who have supportively stood by me through these hard times. This determination in me, along with the motivation of people around me has given me the push to somehow sail through these terrible times. To meet the expense and to offer some financial help to others, I have offered some of my friends to sell their products which include stevia and self-made handicrafts to be sold from my cafe and store. This idea came to light from the webinars I had been attending to get into community selling which also helps provide wider publicity.

This is the story of my journey as an entrepreneur, one that I am still on. It has taught me patience and has also made me realise that hard work can lead to success even in a tough situation or calamity. It is wrong to be crying over spilt milk, by which I am referring to the twenty-two years that I spent in the corporate world which eventually collapsed overnight and I thought my life had turned upside down. I decided not to wait for luck but instead, to carry forward my passion. I am a wife and a mother but I have not forgotten that I am ‘woman’ and have not given up on my passion. Never give up and carry on fighting with the circumstances; you will eventually win.

View More


Spread the love

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Back To Top
Translate »
Open chat