Anchal
Anchal is a non-profit 501c(3) social enterprise that addresses the exploitation of women around the world by using design thinking to create employment opportunities, services, and products that support empowerment. When you purchase Anchal's line of one-of-a-kind products, you empower women with economic stability, community, confidence, and restoration of self-worth. In Hindi, the word “anchal” refers to the edge of a sari used to provide comfort and protection to loved ones. Anchal provides alternative careers in textile design and production to exploited and marginalized women in India and Louisville, Kentucky.
The concept of Anchal was born during a graduate course at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) by Colleen Clines. Maggie Clines joined her sister in 2010 after graduating from architecture school at the University of Kentucky to launch Anchal as a 501(c)3 non-profit in 2010.
Anchal believes that design and interdisciplinary collaboration can become a vehicle for social change. As trained designers and experienced practitioners, we employ this skill to create unique economic solutions, develop textile compositions and effective design training curriculum.
Our design-led approach has successfully created viable economic opportunities for women, produced beautiful products and enabled a financially self-sufficient business model that has garnered the attention of the Guggenheim Museum, Anthropologie, Madewell, Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Architectural Digest, Better Home & Gardens and more.
WorkingWonders™ characterizes Anchal as a green company for its diligent environmental standards, fair trade practices and positive contributions to communities where it operates.
We’re pleased to partner with fabric mills and workshops that share our reverence for environmental and social sustainability, and we appreciate the effort and ingenuity they put into minimizing the impact that textile production has on the planet and their own workers. We team up with companies that meet our high standards and work with them to continually improve our practices and their practices. From an environmental standpoint, Coyuchi looks at the full life of a product—from the farm where the fiber is produced to what happens to the product when it reaches the end of its life. The two areas where we can have the biggest impact are on the farm or ranch where the fiber is produced, and how the end product is produced. To address these, we use only organic cotton and other natural fibers, and we actively work with industry partners to ensure environmental performance at our production facilities.
Anchal Project is a non-profit social enterprise that creates economic opportunity for women victimized by commercial sex trafficking, domestic abuse, and other exploitive practices. DyeScape is one of the two programs used to create economic opportunities. The DyeScape program is based in Louisville, Kentucky and provides career opportunities in natural dyeing and textile production. We train women to grow, harvest and dye fabric with dye plants grown through a network of urban gardens that were once vacant lots.
Anchal currently partners with Vatsalya, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Ajmer, India, and The Center for Women & Families, the nonprofit in Louisville, KY. Both organizations see the need to provide entrepreneurial opportunities to the community. Anchal meets this need by providing seed funding, design training and access to markets. In exchange, our partners recruit women and offer a community of support, health programs, counseling and local leadership that builds trust. Together, we offer a unique program unmatched in its ability to create life-changing opportunities.
Anchal’s Stitch x Stitch program currently employs 150 artisans in Ajmer, India and has trained 400+ women to date. Our dyeScape program currently has 2 artisans employed in Louisville, Kentucky and has trained a total of 21 women since its inception in 2014. Anchal artisans are women participating in programs with our partners who have additional interest in alternative careers in textile design. These women come from a demographic with low socioeconomic status. Artisans are provided with fair wages, skills training, educational workshops, and health benefits.
Anchal practices sustainability by creating handcrafted eco-friendly textiles made from recycled materials, GOTS certified organic cotton, low impact, and natural dyes. As a 501(c)3 non-profit, when you purchase a product 100% goes towards investing in Anchal's mission. In addition to women's economic stability, portions of each purchase go towards educational workshops and health benefits for our artisans, as well as program expansion.
