About

Journey To The Now

In 2009, Raina set out on her path to fashion and fabric at the National Institute of Fashion Technology as a textile designer. It was her first step into the world of batik prints, tie-and-dye, hand-weaving, and handicrafts. Educational field trips and family visits to remote Indian artisan villages in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Himachal, Karnataka, and encounters with local female artisans plucked at the early chords of Rainessance. She continued her fashion education at Coventry University, London.
The road to sustainability was an ensuing journey that followed a meandering pathway of working with luxury designers at global fashion events, marketing for atelier brands, and becoming a fashion influencer before promptly disassociating with fast fashion. It was the end of a fashion-intensive decade and the start of a sustainably conscious one. The year 2021 marked the dawn of the Rainessance movement.

Our Eco-Loving Roots

“What do the forests bear? Soil, water, and pure air.”

It was a slogan coined by the vigilant village women of northern India during their attempt to resist government-issued clearing of local forests by hugging trees and daring loggers to slaughter them instead. The non-violent agitation is famously known as the Chipko Movement. It speaks to a series of female-led, non-violent protests viewed as an ecofeminism movement. Chipko translates to ‘stick’ or ‘to hug’ in Hindi.

Chipko Movement eco feminists

In 1973, in the Himalayan region of Uttarakhand, local Garhwali women protested against rapid deforestation in the area by clasping trees and singing folk tunes to dissuade loggers from cutting them. The peaceful, Gandhian protests led by local village women, including Dhoom Singh Negi and Bachni Devi, achieved success in the form of a 15-year ban on the chopping of green trees in 1980. It became a rallying point for future environmental movements the world over.
Owing to her Garwali roots, Raina takes deep inspiration from the sacrifices made by women in her community over the centuries and plans to carry the torch of spreading environmental awareness and preserving the ecosystem that her ancestors fought to protect with their lives.