My maternal grandparents were in Ahmedabad and from them I picked up block prints,” she remembers. Samantaray’s education on sustainable clothing, too, began when she was a little girl. She spent much of her childhood watching and studying her mother Bitasta Samantaray making her own clothes. Leftover scraps of fabric were transformed into kurtas and dresses for children of the house. Thus, it was only natural that Samantaray would choose to pursue a career in arts and design.

She chased her dream relentlessly, enrolling at the National Institute of Fashion Technology in Mumbai where she studied Communication Design. Her focus lies on graphic designing, styling and visual merchandising. Her thesis project exposed her to Waraseoni in Madhya Pradesh, and the call to working in the crafts was too spellbinding to ignore.

Her journey to becoming a designer and working with the crafts was a detour through many avenues. She first worked for a fashion house in Mumbai as a visual merchandiser, before returning to Pondicherry in 2010 to set up her own studio. It was a multi-designer store called Livingart Lifestyles, which curated textiles, jewellery and home objects from brands that worked with craftspeople from across the country. But she couldn’t help but resist the lure of creating her own garments. Through the next few years, Samantaray travelled extensively to weaving clusters and meeting craft communities across the country. And in 2014-15, she started her brand Lal Design, making classic ikat kurtas and shirts.

With her penchant for tailoring, her mother is a business partner at Lal Design Studio. It is a small setup with a team of four working behind the scenes, including mother and daughter. Tucked in a corner of their studio is a block printing unit, which consists of a master craftsman and a local woman who assists him. The tailoring is outsourced to an all-women unit based in the city. “It’s a joy to have lovely kaarigars here to do what we need,” she says.

As the brand flourished, Samantaray began an inquiry into different fabrics, where she discovered bamboo and mulmul for her garments. She sources the bamboo fabric from the Auroville Bamboo Centre, which employs young people from nearby villages. For her garments, she chooses a texture that is thin, light and silk-like. The choice of fabric is rooted in sustainability. Since it’s made from grass and can be regrown, it’s not a very hazardous process either.

While she retails from three boutiques in India: two in Goa and one in the French quarters in Pondicherry, she’s excited about the future. Samantaray’s designs will showcase in the craft markets of Italy and a boutique in the South of France, taking her vision from Pondicherry to the world.