Mention leather and people, especially vegans, will waste no time telling you that it is an environmental disaster, cruel to animals, and that vegan leather is a far safer and more sustainable option. But in Mizoram, one youth is only too happy to cut through propaganda and instead, promote locally-sourced animal leather as a solution to rampant consumerism and fast fashion. How? Read on …
Why is Mizoram not more famous for its handmade goods? And what are the locals doing to change this perception?
Well, an innovation and exhibition fair held at ITI ground from November 11 to 14 in Aizawl can be termed a crucial start.
The fair saw sixty-four participants, including special invitees from the engineering and non-engineering trade. Each participant displayed their unique inventions and crafts in stalls set up in the classrooms and verandahs of the training institute. With an underlying focus on environmental ecology and sustainability, stalls showcased bags made of recycled plastic and art made from waste.
But one stall took a different route from what the general public would perceive to be ‘environment friendly.’ The stall displayed a collection of bags and wallets handcrafted from pure leather.
But wait: leather and environment-friendly in the same sentence?
The founder, C Sailo, a graduate of NIFT, certainly thinks so. Sailo believes pure leather is the answer to sustainability in a third-world country. In a conversation with EastMojo, Sailo says, “Faux leather has chemicals and vegan leather is greenwashing, it is misleading. It is a first-world country ideology and it is not practical in a country like ours. Faux leather is produced using plastic polymers and is not biodegradable, unlike real leather. Leather is durable and features a patina finish with time while faux leather needs to be replaced frequently. As part of our sustainable ideology, we only work with real leather.”
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Sailo’s views and observations are not based on some random YouTube video he saw. He graduated from NIFT Delhi in October this year, and almost immediately started working on his brand in July 2022. So far, he has released four bag designs. The 23-year-old named his brand Hluna, which spells longevity, translating to ‘permanent, everlasting’ in Mizo and his products live up to the name. He says they are “designed to last a lifetime with each item cut, shaped, sewn and finished by hand.”
The 23-year-old is the first handcrafted leather brand owner and designer in Mizoram.
And if he had any doubts whether his venture would have any, or many, takers, the PUM fair was a good barometer. A huge crowd, consisting of college students and families, came to witness the talents gather together near his stall more often than the stalls lined next to his. People are eager to see the young man who has made ‘ladies’ leather bags.’ While not everyone would be able to sense the ideology behind his designs, they are curious and impressed. Sailo lines his handcrafted goods in rickety wooden benches that have seen decades-old wear and tear in Aizawl’s Industrial Training Institute, encouraging visitors to feel the leather. The more you touch it, the more beautiful it gets, he tells them. Just as ITI’s classrooms hold memories from the 1960s in its halls, Sailo says his bags and wallets are meant to be passed down through generations, holding decades-old memories in their patina shine, something akin to an heirloom.
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He got the idea of passing goods through generations from his childhood, “When we were young, clothes were passed down from the eldest to the youngest. My eldest cousin Sangtea would pass on his old clothes to me, and from me to my younger brother. Seeing those clothes again makes us feel nostalgic, there is nothing that can replace that feeling. But these days, that practice is not possible because style is fleeting. When we buy clothes, in a way we are investing ourselves and I want this brand to be a worthy investment for the consumer. It should be something that they can pass down from generation to generation.”
On his brand’s identity, the 23-year-old writes in a leaflet, “For too long we’ve been living in a throwaway world: a sea of disposable objects that pass us by and fade into oblivion. For too long we’ve been pining with nostalgia for an age of people and things that last, longing to turn the page on this modernity of ambient adolescence…We don’t want to sell you new lifestyles. Lifestyles come and go. We want to create and share objects that will outlast us; objects crafted by human hands, with simple, timeless designs, meant to be gifted from one generation to the next; objects that remain when all else falls apart, to be burnished by your touch and passed on to posterity.”
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Sailo’s first design was the Anne tote. It took him over a month, “From research to design to sample to final production. It takes roughly more than 1 month, a collection would take 4-5 months. It’s interesting to know how much intense labour work goes through to make leather goods be it a tiny wallet, shoes or larger goods. There is precision, muscle and endurance in the process.”
While not having an investor held him back, he believes working on a budget has served a certain advantage in adhering to the brand’s philosophy, “I do not have an investor, I started this brand with the help of family and friends. Even though the designs are not satisfactory, I have to make some compromises now to get inside the budget. But in a way, it all fell piece by piece where it’s supposed to, in terms of the brand vision and philosophy which I’m glad about.”
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Another unique point to Hluna, people would find, is that the 23-year-old has decided that there would be no Mizo elements to the brand except for its name, “I try not to sell the indigenous sentiment to its own people, it doesn’t go far. I would rather try to redefine the Mizo design and art; simply stitching up a patch of traditional cloth wouldn’t be a ‘so & so design’. Conceptually perhaps, but let’s grow up. There is nothing Mizo about the brand. The only Mizo element is the name. Many designers complete their education and say they will work for the people of Mizoram. But it is not the best option. If a Mizo just keeps buying goods from a Mizo, there is no expansion. It just ends there.”
Sailo dreams of opening a cafe-cum-retail store and production house in Mizoram. He aims to train the bag makers in Mizoram and introduce them to the art of handcrafting leather designer goods.
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