OUR STORY
Injiri, meaning “real India”, historically stands for “real Madras checkered textiles” which were exported to West Africa back in the 18th century.
Launched in 2009 as a clothing brand by Chinar Farooqui, Injiri believes in the beauty of hand-weaving processes. Injiri as a brand is more about storytelling; the end point is reflective of the journey of many processes. We make clothing for women and textiles for home. The brand focus is on textile development and sustainable usage of materials.
Curating an aesthetic around absolute simplicity and working within the limitations of textile techniques, Injiri is featured and placed in several stores all over the globe. Celebrating the living tradition of crafts in India, the brand has found resonance with aesthetes across the world. One of the brand’s many achievements came as the prestigious EDIDA Award for interior textiles in the year 2016.
DESIGN
THE PROCESS
India, across her length and breadth, has been the land of extraordinary handwoven fabric of multifarious styles, colours, textures and unique features, pertaining to the specific region they are grown and spun in.
Our process centres around working closely with master weavers and their textile vocabulary, across various parts of India. We are constantly engaged in conversations with these keepers of intangible human heritage. Design stories start with curating and studying old textile pieces that showcase the craft in its purest form.
Most crafts in India, especially the ones of textiles, have unique codes pertaining to the geography they come from. From the selvedge being built to protect the fabric for generations of usage, to motifs that reveal the identity of the soil they rise from, we try to focus on such details and build our design stories around them. We celebrate fabric from its inception in the yarn to the end of the process in the tangible product.
FOUNDER
THE FIRST SEED AND HER STORY
The beauty of Rajasthan, a place where Chinar grew up, is steeped in history and also home to several indigenous handicrafts. Travelling extensively with a love for traditional art and culture, Chinar enjoyed a nurturing exposure towards everything handmade and artisanal.
This penchant for the beauty of traditional objects led her to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts at the historic Maharaja Sayajirao University, followed by an intensive postgraduate education in Textile Design at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India.
It was during her design education where her knowledge and interest for Indian textiles deepened. During a documentation process (part of her design programme) in Ladakh, Chinar had her first in-depth encounter with the people who create traditional textiles indigenous to a geographical area. This was followed by work trips to clusters such as Lucknow, Chanderi and Kachchh, which formed important experiences sensitising her towards the story of hands, lives and history behind such textile art.
Chinar’s lac-dyeing research project in Bhujodi, Kachchh, was instrumental in reviving techniques of organic dyeing with the initiatives of the master weavers.
Chinar founded Injiri in the year 2009 with a desire to form long-lasting liaisons with Indian textiles through her work and ongoing explorations in regional techniques.