Laila Tyabji

Some Lesser Known Facts About Laila Tyabji

• Laila Tyabji belongs to a Sulaymani Bohra Muslim family in Delhi.

• In 1981, Laila Tyabji founded the non-government organisation known as Dastkar to promote Indian crafts. Dastkar was made to educate traditional craftsmen in design, product development, and market information, and train them to make a place in the mainstream market.

  

• Since 1982, Datkar has been organising a handicraft fair called Dasktar Mela in India.

• In 1985, she was associated with the SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) in Lucknow and worked with 100 women involved in creating the chikan embroidery.

• After training in Japan, she started working as a freelance designer which included graphic design, interior design, costumes and sets design for theatre, and garments design.

• In 1978, she was given an assignment by the Gujarat State Handloom and Handicrafts Development Corporation Ltd to design the handicrafts of the Kutch tradition which she completed in six months.

• Thereafter, she worked as a merchandiser for a chain of luxury lifestyle stores run by the Taj Group of Hotels known as Taj Khazana.

• In 2007, she published a book titled Threads and Voices: Behind the Indian Textile Tradition.
  

• As of 2024, more than 1 lakh craftspeople work at Dastkar.

• Some of the artisan communities in India with which she is associated are Banjara Needle Crafts and Rabari mirror work craftsmen of Kutch and Maharashtra, Chikankari craft workers of Lucknow, gond, Phad, mata in Pacheri and Madhubani painters, and Kasuti embroidery artisans of Karnataka.

• She drinks alcohol occasionally.

  

• She is an avid lover of animals.