“I think I have been an artist for as long as I can remember.”
As a child, every free moment meant painting, stitching, embroidery or scrapbooking. My mother wanted me to study Visual Communication, but in the Kerala of the late 80s and early 90s, creative careers weren't considered conventional. So I studied Physics, before eventually finding my way back to creativity through Mass Communication and advertising.
I worked at Stark Communications in Thiruvananthapuram, the agency behind Kerala Tourism's “God's Own Country” campaign, and later at Lintas Bangalore. Advertising taught me discipline, consumer understanding and the importance of getting things right. But creativity was always a part of me.
Then came motherhood. I left corporate life when my son was young, and soon after, my mother became partially paralysed. Overnight, I became a mother and a caregiver. Yet the desire to create something of my own remained. I knew it had to involve creativity and children.
Growing up in Kottayam, I had always been drawn to a certain simplicity and elegance. When I started looking for clothes for my son in Bangalore, I felt something was missing. There were plenty of mass brands, but I wanted the charm, craft and detail of small independent boutiques. So I started with my savings, with no business background and no fashion network.
I began with hand-painted and embroidered children's products. When I realised that spending days on a single piece wasn't scalable, I started finding craftspeople, weavers and embroiderers and gradually learnt how to build a business around craft. At a block-printing studio in Bangalore, I was introduced to plant-based pigments and azo-free dyes. That made me realise that if a cleaner way of manufacturing was available, I had a responsibility to choose it.
Over the years, the work began speaking for itself. We have received industry recognition as one of India's best eco-friendly apparel brands, and our work has reached families across India and countries including Singapore, Australia, Dubai, Mauritius and the US.
“Design for me flows like a river.”
" During the hardest years, when my mother was unwell and my son was very young, creativity became my refuge. It gave me a place to forget my problems and find myself again. Today, the purpose goes beyond clothes. We work with craftspeople, mentor women, preserve skills and try to minimise waste wherever possible.
Of course, money matters. A business has to sustain families and pay its people. But money isn't what keeps me here. It's the craft, creativity, people and purpose.
We are now actively looking to expand into markets such as the UAE, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. We would love the support of Malayalis in these communities to help us connect with the right people, explore partnerships and take the brand to new markets.
If there is one message I want to leave behind, it is simple: buy consciously. Ask where something came from, who made it, what materials were used and what impact your purchase has. We don't need a hundred things in our cupboards. We need fewer things that we consciously choose.
I'm not saying, “Buy Liz Jacob.” Research the brand. Understand the story. Choose mindfully. Go slow.
Because perhaps the most beautiful thing we can give our children isn't another thing to own. It's a better world to inherit. "
— Elizabeth Jacob (Liz)
Read at: https://www.instagram.com/p/Dcdo9nHFABL/?img_index=1
