The sixth edition of ‘The Smartisans-Festive Edit’ one-day exhibition was organised by Stoic Marketing Solutions at Hotel Palacio in Khanapara on Sunday.
As many as 27 participants were there in the exhibition where many women entrepreneurs from different backgrounds such as clothing, footwear, bags and accessories, jewelry and handmade jewelry, home furnishings and home linen, home baker and home décor participated in the exhibition.
Most of the participants were from Assam itself while few were from other states of India.
One of the participants of a startup brand ‘Green Steps,’ Pinashi Khataniar said, “We have taken inspiration from Jaipuri Handblock printing technique and started our hand block printing however, we have kept the designs specifically Northeast-centric such as traditional motifs from eight northeastern states. We used this technique only on handloom fabrics.”
“This time for the upcoming festive season we have launched Eri cushion covers, Muga Cushion covers, and so on. We have two main sections, one is home furnishing where we customize curtains, cushions, and table runners, and we have attempted a new innovative concept of table lamps where we keep the cane as the base and we do hand block printing on shades and another is the fashion where you will find stalls, dress materials and sarees.”
Green Steps- the Lifestyle Store is a start-up brand that was started in January 2022.
Another participant of ‘Runway Nagaland’ company from Nagaland said, “We have exhibited handlooms and handmade jewellery. We have participated in this exhibition for many years and we always receive good response from onlookers and buyers.”
There were few other participants such as the ‘Her Story’ owner Nazia Sultana said, “We have exhibited two special items which are water hyacinth and embroidered linens. For embroidered linens, we try to empower women across Assam. Apart from these, we have ceramic items which are all handmade. We always experiment with embroidery and try not to incline toward the traditional way of embroidery. My products are sold across India through Instagram as I haven’t opened a website yet.”
The exhibition began in the year 2015 and since then it is organised every year. However, owing to covid-19 outbreak the exhibition was put on hold for two years.
The objective of the exhibition is to showcase and promote entrepreneurs from the Northeast while establishing a platform to network with creative minds.
Moreover, Stoic Marketing Solutions is planning to host the exhibition of two editions every year.
