Taking The Traditional Route

Raw Mango, the brainchild of designer Sanjay Garg was born out of a thought to relook fashion and design without any fixed notions. Born and brought up in Rajasthan, Garg found the roots for his designs in Indian philosophy and traditions, but he has always tried to break the boundaries of convention through his ideas and design.

- Anurima Das

SANJAY GARG WAS BORN AND RAISED IN A SMALL VILLAGE called Mubarikpur in Rajasthan. He studied in a Hindi-medium school because there wasn’t an English-medium school in his village. His frequent trips to the city of Jaipur brought on the realisation that he wanted to see more and learn more. This pushed him to complete his education from Jaipur. He then joined the Indian Institute of Crafts & Design, where he studied for a year. In the meantime, he got through the National Institute of Fashion Technology and moved there.

Garg’s journey with Raw Mango started about eight-and-a-half years ago. Before founding the brand in 2009, he worked for Shades of India for a few years. This was followed by a stint at the Ministry of Textiles, where he worked on a cluster development programme in Madhya Pradesh. This proved to be a turning point in his life. He decided to continue working with the weavers associated with the programme even after the project was terminated. This home-grown simplicity would eventually become the ethos of his brand.

Rooted in tradition

With Raw Mango, Garg has not only brought about a design revolution but has also managed to uplift an entire community by creating value for an existing but ignored product–the handloom sari.

“Though the handloom sari is worn by many women in India, the perception is that it has little scope in terms of innovation. We have adapted traditional designs to make them simple, sophisticated and distinctly contemporary, thereby creating a fresh new aesthetic that is both indigenous and modern,” explains Garg. Naturally then, over time, the brand Raw Mango has come to be identified with uniqueness, beauty and celebrating imperfections.