Somayeh Bardai
Somayeh Bardai oversees the Raana Liaquat Craftsmen’s Colony - RLCC which supports over 20,000 beneficiaries a year and 120 staff members in Shah Faisal Town. This women empowerment organisation houses a school with 750 children, a polyclinic serving 12,000 patients, a vocational training department educating 1000 trainees, a livelihoods department that supports over 250 home based craftswomen and an outreach team that brings awareness to 13000 beneficiaries in the community.
Somayeh's journey in design Intervention began in 1999, Quetta, to document the fading embroideries of Balochistan. She attained her BFA from AUD and further studied Photography at SVA in New York after which Somayeh joined the M.Des at NIFT Delhi. Since returning to Karachi in 2012 Somayeh has taught photography at TIP and IVS, worked with Save the Children and the IKEA foundation to eradicate child labor and empower women in the Cotton fields of Interior Sindh and Punjab, restructured and managed the manufacturing unit and vocational training classes at Behbud Karachi and served as an assistant curator at the Mohatta Palace Museum.
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM Bite
Saturday 1st Feb
From Sandook to Runway: Reimaging Fashion by Somayeh Bardai
Location: Back Gallery We live in an era that has been claimed to be most consumerist and shopping centric. Restock hauls, SHEIN hauls, Temu hauls, Daraz hauls populate our feeds encouraging a cycle of consumption. But where does all this plastic go? What do we do when clothes don't even last us one season? In her talk, CEO of RLCC, Somayeh Bardai stresses on the urgent need for rehauling our consumption habits, upcycling the clothes we have and building a future for fashion that is sustainable and good for the planet.