Priya has been able to provide work for over 40 people over the last year and a half.  My personal motto is “Kaizen” which means 'continual improvement.'  I apply this to every area of my life, so naturally it is a huge part of my business mindset, sometimes to a fault.  My focus is so much on how sales can be better, designs can be better, money can be spent more efficiently that I forget about what it is doing right now.  My mother just reminded me the other day about all the work Priya has been able to provide over the last 18 months, and it’s those reminders I need to keep everything in perspective.

 

 

 

We currently work with two groups of women in Kolkata.  Many were kidnapped or sold as young girls to traffickers and pimps in Kolkata.  Most were poor country girls from surrounding villages in Nepal, Bangladesh, and India.  They were kept under lock and key and raped multiple times per day. They are told the only thing they will ever be is a prostitute, no one will want to marry them, and this is what the rest of their lives will look like.  Sadly for most women, this ends up being true.  However, the girls that work at our partner facility were able to escape and get into a program that helps teach them their value as humans, as women, as mothers, as wives, and as employees.  Our second partnership is with a group of both men and women that are deaf and mute.  Jobs are so scarce in India that people with any sort of disability are the most disadvantaged and many will beg on the streets the rest of their lives. This is one of the reasons I love working with this partner. They employ some of the most disadvantaged people in the world, and they are able to create our beautiful silk wrapped bangles.

 

 

After our Indian partnership was stable I began to look for other groups with different skills to be able to broaden our product line. I heard about a group in Managua, Nicaragua that peaked my interest.  Between four to five-hundred women show up to the organization on Tuesdays for a vocational program where they make cards, beads, jewelry, and a hodge-podge of other things.  All of these women had suffered from abuse, trafficking, or forced-prostitution, amongst other things.  These ladies are currently in the product development stage for Priya.  Another group I visited was a group of refugees living outside of Amman, Jordan.  There are no current partnership commitments while this group gets up and running. They are currently taking English classes and learning basic skills, but I am excited to see the potential for these women to become entrepreneurs in the future.

 

 

 

The great thing about accessories is you can dress them up or down or in-between. This rule applies to Priya accessories as well. You can wear the bangles during the day with jeans and a t-shirt or carry the silk fold-over bag to an evening event to be fasionable and socially concious.

 

 

 

For the full selection of Priya's fashionable accessories shop on our website www.shoppriya.com.  Handbags range from $39 - $49 and Bangles range from $12 - $19! Select items are carried in boutiques regionally. 

Priya was founded to provide work for marginalized people around the world.

 

My desire for Priya is to be as open and flexible as it is fashionable, allowing it to evolve organically into what the brand needs to be. However, in doing so I never want to lose sight of the socially concious principles Priya was founded on; which is to provide work for marginalized people groups around the world, especially women.  Priya is for-profit because we believe in the power of business and social entrepreneurship to fight poverty and modern-day slavery.  As our women's skills increase so will the quality and complexity of our designs.  We are excited about 2013 and all the great opportunities that are already presenting themselves.

 

 

 

I grew up in Houston, Texas and went to college at the University of St. Thomas. I worked for a graphic design studio all through high school and college and was always planning on pursuing fashion design, however ended up earning my degree in international studies.  I always felt torn between my love of art and design with that of culture, travel, and international business and wanted to find a way to combine my two loves as a social entrepreneur.

 

 

 

I think more so than confidence was just the idea that I didn’t have anything to lose at that point. It seems counterintuitive than what we are always taught, which is 'take the safest path,' but the way I saw it I had no husband, no children, and no career at 22 years old so if my first fashion business venture failed I wasn’t hurting anyone.

 

 

So many lessons have been learned over the past two years, more than all of my years in school, that’s for sure!  I think a big lesson as a social entrepreneur is learning to keep your vision and still be open to the advice of others. People love to give unsolicited advice; some of it is helpful and some of it is terrible.  You just have to smile and nod and learn to be teachable while still sticking to your convictions.  If you were to take every piece of advice you were given you would be running around in circles.

 

 

 

 

When Priya first launched I did not have a marketing plan.  I knew I had an idea and I had this group of women in India that I had promised to help, so we created our first line and by no planning of my own our products arrived the first week of November 2011, right in time for Christmas.  We were able to sell almost the entire first run at Christmas trunk shows alone.  Shortly thereafter we launched our ecommerce site and got into a couple of boutiques.

 

 

 

My personal style consists of an equal amount of sharp lines, architectural silhouettes, and ethnic inspired accessory pieces. I love heavy dramatic shapes in the structure of a garment, but when it comes to accessories I am inspired by things that look very eastern.  Our Priya line to date is almost a literal interpretation of Indian design, but as we grow I would like to incorporate more ambiguous designs that blur east and western style.

 

 

 

Travel is number one, but that’s an obvious choice! We are lucky in this day and age because we are constantly inundated with fashion photography, style blogs, and runway shows. I could watch every spring and summer show today on my computer if I wanted.

 

 

I would have told myself to start my fashion business earlier.

  

 

Creating a fashion line is much like wanting to become an actress or singer. There are so many people who want to do the same thing and there are so many talented individuals in these fields.  With our generation what will set you apart is a work ethic.  As for social entrepreneurship, it is so rewarding yet at times I want to pull my hair out.  Working with people in third world countries with no formal education (some of my ladies had never used scissors when they started working with me) creates many stressful delays and miscommunications. The most important thing is to remind yourself on a daily basis why you wanted to support a cause while building a business. If your only answer is because it’s trendy right now, you’ve got the wrong business model.