Founder's Letter

 

 Dear Friend,

This week marks the beginning of an adventure. I am incredibly excited to announce the launch of my new line and to share our designs and unique ethos with you.

Pondichérie (pronounced pondi-shuh-ree), is a socially-conscious women’s resort wear line.  In designing our collection of caftans, I hoped to create travel essentials for tropical getaways and to evoke a free-spirited ease that alludes to far off places.

Pondichérie’s identity is closely tied to the artisans it supports.  It was important to me not only to design a beautiful clothing line - but to be able to benefit women in underserved communities in doing so.  Our ethos: Mindfully sourced, locally crafted. Pondichérie’s elegant materials are sourced from a female artisan group, WomenWeave, in India and the garments are manufactured here in New York.

WomenWeave is an organization based in Maheshwar, a small, rural town in Madhya Pradesh, India, that employs local women as handloom weavers. When I visited WomenWeave, I fell in love with their textiles and the energy that has gone into uplifting their community of women.  WomenWeave offers the artisans a robust training program to learn hand spinning and weaving as well as offering business training, health care, and education for their children. They are even given the opportunity to join the Artisans Board to facilitate decision-making and future direction for the organization and the weavers.

This week I launched the Pondichérie website and with it our first collection. It is with real love and excitement that I invite you to be a part of our adventure.

 

XX

Devon