“I designed my first costume once I was 13 years outdated,” Tamanna Mullen, founding father of Arth Atelier, tells Fashionista. However regardless of this early curiosity in trend, Mullen pursued a enterprise diploma after leaving Punjab, India for the U.S. 16 years in the past.
“The best means I can clarify that’s my upbringing as a South Asian particular person,” she says, of feeling stress to check a perceivably severe and respectable topic. Nonetheless, the preliminary imaginative and prescient she had for her profession — operating her personal trend model — remained clear. Style was a part of her upbringing, too, as she got here from a tradition and household wealthy in textile information. “Punjab is the hub of textiles and agriculture, and my household have been tier-four distributors,” she says. “I’ve at all times grown up round clothes and textiles, and at all times had a pure curiosity of it.”
Mullen paired her curiosity and enterprise diploma and entered the world of company trend, working throughout streetwear, sportswear and ready-to-wear for manufacturers reminiscent of Savage x Fenty, New Stability and Victoria’s Secret. Primarily based in Boston, she led end-to-end technique of a number of New Stability collections, overseeing manufacturing technique, garment development and cloth sourcing for six years earlier than taking the leap to begin her personal
traceability-rooted label.
Picture: Courtesy of Arth Atelier
Her resolution to go away mass manufacturing for a sluggish, extra intentional method to trend impressed her model’s title: “Arth means ‘significance’ or ‘function’ in Sanskrit, and atelier, in fact, is ‘inventive area,'” Mullen explains. “It’s a reminder to myself to stay to the core of the model, which is producing moral, significant and timeless items.” She’s nonetheless based mostly in Boston whereas working an atelier in New Delhi, India.
Earlier than launching Arth Atelier in 2024, she spent two years conceptualizing, sourcing and constructing correct relationships with traceable artisans and companions. “I spoke to anybody I may: sheep herders, farmers, an anthropologist researching an natural farming cluster in India,” she says. “I discovered an unimaginable accomplice in Italy working with about 200 regenerative farms, together with Piedra Mora Farm in Uruguay the place we sourced [wool for] our cardigans. I attempted to search out the precise companions for the ecosystem I needed to construct.”
This incubation interval allowed her to carve out the model’s foundational pillars of craft and influence — defining the preliminary design codes and the fact of traceable manufacturing for an impartial, rising designer.
Briefly, traceability comes all the way down to documentation known as transaction certificates that may show the place the fiber of a garment comes from, and every stage of the method from being produced right into a textile, lower and sewn after which embroidered. “All our items include a cling tag that has a QR code displaying the whole journey,” Mullen notes.
Picture: Courtesy of Arth Atelier
She outlines the codes’ significance in two elements: For one, it acknowledges the expert arms that contributed to the garment from begin to end. “A whole lot of the couture homes around the globe have gotten their items embroidered in India, however that’s not usually talked about,” Mullen says. “They’ve labels that say ‘Made in Italy’ or ‘Made in France’ as a result of, by the FTC guidelines, you get the label wherever your final substantial transformation takes place. To me, that’s a really one-sided and industrial view of manufacturing.” Secondly, they hopefully immediate shoppers to have a deeper respect for garment making. “I wish to educate folks on what number of layers go into making one unimaginable blazer.”
Mullen clarifies that she’s going to by no means declare 100% traceability, because it’s fairly troublesome to realize attributable to supply-chain middlemen. “We function in such an opaque ecosystem, sadly, however for me it means working with suppliers with very clear operations,” she says. She additionally opts to make use of the phrase “intentional” over broad, catch-all phrases like “sustainable.”
To bypass these grey areas, she makes customized materials in order that she might be particular concerning the supplies used and the way they’re sourced. Thus, the pool of eligible cloth suppliers is sort of small — it’s a dearer route, however simpler for traceability because it narrows the availability chain. “I solely have one wool provider that I work with,” Mullen says. “We supply from largely European places, and have been experimenting to supply extra domestically in India, like for instance our banana fiber, an alternative choice to silk.”
A glance by way of the model’s website will reveal how deliberate she is concerning the regenerative fibers she does use, and the materials she completely doesn’t. “We solely use 100% licensed natural wool that’s mulesing free,” she factors out.
Picture: Courtesy of Arth Atelier
This discernment round cloth and suppliers usually means committing to greater minimal order portions or extra premium pricing than, say, deadstock or regularly-produced cloth. This prolonged and costly sourcing course of necessitates an additional layer of creativity and craftsmanship when planning how the materials can be utilized throughout collections.
“Versatility is admittedly essential for me,” Mullen says. She tries to search out numerous makes use of for material, in addition to create multiple-use items. She additionally says a lot of her coaching led her to have a look at clothes in a “gender-agnostic means”, and makes use of that basis to deliver distinction to her design — “even one thing as small as utilizing menswear buttoning throughout all of my items.” The result’s sharply-tailored outfitting appropriate throughout gender identities, made from dynamic materials with embroidered designs wealthy intimately. Items vary from $150 to $700+ relying on the element and handwork.
To realize these delicate designs, Mullen works with “kaarigars” or highly-skilled Indian artisans. She explains how most conventional embroidery and handwork is a multi-generational (seventh- or eighth-generation, to be precise) and regional apply. “A print piece in our final assortment was completed in Bagru, a small city proper outdoors of Rajasthan, India, the place the entire group is thought for that sort of print work,” she says. “Relying on the kind of embroidery, we’ll fee a small group of kaarigars to return to the [local] atelier in New Delhi. With the Chikankari shirt, we despatched the items to Lucknow to get embroidered by girls kaarigars who all function out of their properties.”
Picture: Courtesy of Arth Atelier
Having a deep understanding of those practices and creating relationships with their stewards is crucial to Mullen and her model’s ethos. As Indian model turns into extra up to date, that is additionally her means of holding kaarigars’ practices alive. She’s additionally making an effort to problem the everyday design aesthetic related to sustainable manufacturers. “We’re up to date in our silhouettes, whereas utilizing conventional Indian embroidery as an experimental medium,” she says. “We’re making an attempt to focus on the global-minded client who cares concerning the penalties of consumption.”
The label’s most up-to-date assortment, “Anchored in Movement,” was created for these with fluid id, formed by experiences collected throughout continents and cultures; this nods to a broader ethos that’s instrumental to the model itself.
Picture: Courtesy of Arth Atelier
Arth Atelier debuted its second assortment with a showcase following Paris Style Week earlier this 12 months, and Mullen goals to constantly current her designs in considerate, revolutionary methods. Generally, the model is prioritizing moral enlargement over fast development. It operates totally on a direct-to-consumer mannequin, whereas promoting with choose, aligned wholesale companions reminiscent of Garmentory and Monty.
In the end, as Arth Atelier grows, Mullen simply needs to create work she will be able to at all times really feel happy with.
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