STITCH BY STITCH PROJECT is a sub-project that has been working since 2015 to improve the standards of farmers’ livelihoods and support women’s independence. We launched this project to go beyond supporting cotton cultivation, and the reason follows below.
Cotton cultivation is a major challenge regarding how to improve cotton farmers’ income during the off-season because the cotton crop is harvested once a year.
In addition, the social status of women is still inferior in villages in India, and encouraging them to open the way to the new future for themselves is also a main challenge.
In order to overcome these challenges with the power of fashion, PBP has been working with an embroidery artist, Sawako Ninomiya, to teach embroidery skills to women in rural areas of India.
Interacting through instruction manuals and letters between Japan and India, we teach the detailed embroidery techniques individually. They are learning thoroughly about using colours and adding volume on fabric.
They are practising stitching today in the hope that they will receive offers from brands all around the world for embroidery work by trying to acquire the skills to the level that they can manufacture end products with high added values in villages.
