Ana’s is an incredible story of courage and determination. One needs to be really strong to give up the fabulous Kiwi way of life and migrate to India- a country with a completely different culture, language and way of living.
Ana, who got her fashion design qualification from Christchurch, moved to a small village in Odisha, India, along with her husband Daniel Wilkinson-Gee. The couple were driven by a passion to empower rural women by providing them with sewing skills and employment opportunities.
Ana and Daniel Wilkinson-Gee in rural India Founders and Directors of Holi Boli Photo credit Jared Buckley
Indian Weekender spoke to Ana about her journey, her motivations and the impact she has been able to make through her venture.
What motivated you to move to India, leaving a relaxed life in New Zealand and how has your journey been so far?
I grew up watching my parents share their skills with people in remote places on islands in the pacific. My Dad was a teacher and carpenter and my Mum a nurse. My Mum taught me how to sew and make a pattern while we lived in a village with no electricity, in the hot and humid jungle of Papua New Guinea. After returning to New Zealand, I followed my passion for sewing and gained a Fashion Design Diploma from the Fashion and Interior Design College of New Zealand in Christchurch (now called the Design & Arts College of NZ).
I had always been curious about India, ever since I was a young child. In 2006 I got an opportunity to travel to India for the first time with my husband. My spirit let out a joyful sigh as soon as my feet landed, and I felt like I had reached my heart's home. Being a vegetarian all my life, India met both my culinary inclinations and my passion for textiles. I discovered that if I shared my dressmaking skills with the women in the remote villages, it would give them a chance to improve their lives and become self-sufficient.
So in 2010 we packed up life in New Zealand and relocated our family to a village located 12 hours train ride from Kolkata, in the state of Odisha. Our daughter was only 16 months old at that time. I discovered that being a Mum with a baby on my hip helped bridge cultural boundaries and somehow made me more accessible, more relatable. I found the women to be very friendly and gracious.
Ana and the seamstresses at Holi Boli rural India Photo credit Jared Buckley
I purchased a local treadle sewing machine (like the ones I had seen sitting in many village homes) and taught myself how to use it and how to fix it. I turned salwars and sari blouses inside out and taught myself how to pattern make these garments. Next, I developed a curriculum that included techniques to construct Indian dresses and started teaching sewing classes in my neighbourhood. We would communicate by actions and laugh a lot. After a few months I hired a local lady (who could speak both English and Odia) as my translator for sewing class. This was very helpful as I could then explain the ‘why’s and importance of each stitching technique. I learnt a lot from my translator, including how to run a meaningful graduation ceremony in that context and culture. Since that first graduation ceremony, I have run every graduation that way.
It has been a privilege to hear each woman’s story during the graduation ceremony, of how and why she came to be at sewing class and to hear of the benefit it has been to her, both in physical/economic terms and emotionally and mentally also. Many ladies describe feeling a sense of belonging, peace and safety at our sewing house and they want to keep coming back. Many friendships develop and they leave with a good support network of other women who encourage each other, as well as skills to earn money by cutting and sewing at home or in a tailor shop. They speak of the ‘fellowship’ that they have enjoyed at the sewing house.
As I would be teaching sewing, I was also listening, learning and picking up the language from my students. After a few years, one of my sewing class graduates asked me to give her a job. I discussed with my husband how we could afford to pay someone a wage. He suggested that if I could teach her to sew western-style dresses and get her sewing quality to international standard, then we could sell the garments online to family and friends back in New Zealand and that would pay her wages. That was the birth of our ethical fashion brand and manufacturing sewing house called Holi Boli. As demand increased in NZ for our dresses, we were able to employ another graduate, and then another one. Now we provide fair and safe employment to 21 ladies at our sewing house and have trained over 200 women in dressmaking.
Ana pattern making in her workspace down the back of the new shop in Hamilton Photo credit Mark Taylor
After a decade of living in India, and raising our three kids there, we reluctantly left the village and repatriated back to NZ in April 2020, due to the pandemic. We continued running the business remotely from Waikato and worked hard to keep all our ladies empowered with wages, month after month through all lockdowns. From MIQ we made and sold Journals for $35 to help keep cash flow going when the pandemic caused a slowdown in sales. Then I started sewing and selling dresses from my garage to keep paying the ladies while they (and our stock in India) continued in lockdown and our distribution channel was temporarily closed. For the past two years I’ve joined our team on video calls from 3:30pm till midnight Monday-Friday, to continue production. There are many dress patterns in the almara there that I have made over the past ten years, and they know how to make most things now. They are highly skilled and well trained. They know that the most important thing for Holi Boli is quality.
What made you choose Odisha and Sambalpur in particular as a base for your venture?
We chose Odisha as we loved the greenery, rice paddy fields and quieter village life. It’s so beautiful and feels close to nature. We loved walking past the free-roaming chickens and goats as we wandered through the village lanes and watched kids play kabaddi. We also wanted to settle in the village as we felt while cities offered more opportunities, it was the village women who needed employment near their doorstep rather than having to migrate to big cities in quest for work. We thought it would be good if we could help to keep families together, in their natural place, by bringing small business and empowerment to the village.
Tell us about the name Holi Boli. How did you come about it?
The inspiration for the name ‘Holi Boli’ was partly from Hollywood and Bollywood. It’s a mix of Indian and western fashion. Holi is an Indian festival of colours and at ‘Holi Boli’ we like to celebrate colours and diversity. We thought the name reflected a quirky image for an indo-western fusion company that exists to empower rural women with ethically made, colourful, fun, female fashion.
How does the ‘Holi Boli’ function as a business?
I do all the designing, pattern-making and sourcing of the fabric. The ladies at our sewing house do the pre-washing of fabric, lay, cut and sew the garments. My husband Daniel takes care of all the administrative side of running the business including the legal, financial and compliance-related documentation to bring the product to shelves in NZ. We sell it from our new flagship store in Hamilton and also via our website www.holiboli.com Since Covid, we also do some production here in NZ. I am also involved in arranging all the photoshoots, marketing and managing production.
How are you currently dividing your time between India & NZ?
Ana sewing small production runs in-store at the Holi Boli shop in Hamilton NZ Photo credit Mark Taylor
We lived in India for a full decade and loved it. After returning to NZ due to the global pandemic, our kids have settled in school here now, so Hamilton will remain our base going forward. But Daniel and I will continue to travel and stay for four or five months each year in India with our team
How did you handle challenges like heat, pollution, crowd etc.?
Yes, India can be a culture shock for many. I don’t think we could have enjoyed living in an Indian city so much. But the village life in Sambalpur and Odisha worked great for us. The heat is scorching in May and June. The hottest we experienced was 53 degrees C for three days and nights, we also experienced a three-day (and night) power cut. We improvised by collecting water from the well in buckets and carrying it to our house as the water pump had no electricity to pump water to the tank. We would usually visit NZ in the months of May and June and put our team on two months fully-paid holiday.
What kind of impact have you been able to make and what gives you most satisfaction?
I have seen the positive impact of the business for our staff and sewing students in so many ways. Receiving more than a living wage, allowed them to save after buying necessities and also to improve their living standards. One of my staff Lakshmi was able to afford to build a bathroom in her house. So now she and her sisters don’t have to go out in the open to go toilet. This has also improved their emotional well-being. Lakshmi essentially built dignity for her and her family. Nini was able to lay concrete in her mud-brick home. By doing this, her babies will have a more hygienic environment to grow in, thereby reducing sickness and school absences.
I have been totally amazed as many students have shared the impact that the sewing classes have had on their self-esteem. Receiving the first certificate in their lives is a huge confidence booster and they feel worthy, valued and validated. It has been very fulfilling to see my sisters in the village feel appreciated because they are all wonderful women who deserve the best in the world. It has been our privilege to create opportunities and platforms for them to grow and flourish.
We also intentionally chose to go into slow fashion which means that every woman learns to sew the whole garment, not just a part of it. The idea is in case she gets married and has to move, she will have the whole set of skills and will be equipped for a brighter future.
How is the business doing, and what are your future plans?
Over the past two years, we have seen growth in our business. Our seamstresses have really stepped up and have been running the operations without me there. Their talent and hard work has made me extremely proud. My husband and I are planning to go in October to visit our team and branch out at the other locations. In the future, we would like to empower even more women in other rural areas in India.
At the end of the day, it’s the women who buy the Holi Boli clothing that actually make it all happen - they are funding the empowerment of our sisters in rural India. I am doing my part, but I can’t do it alone. We’ve had generous people donate so we can buy air conditioners and machinery for the sewing house. We’ve now got a ‘pay a tip’ on our website so people can buy a Journal and then increase their payment if they want to give to help me help more women.
I have always had a deep conviction that we are here to help make the world a better place. I also had a deep love for India. I really feel that the women in my team are my long-lost sisters and we were always meant to be reunited. I just have so much love and admiration for them, mixed with a sense of responsibility. I am really glad that I got a chance to do my bit through my platform of ethical fashion.