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Shephalee began as an effect of deliberations, dialogue, sheer passion, and a thirst to showcase our handwoven fabrics to the world in a new avatar. Designing modern aesthetic products and wedding these fabrics with newer generations & their change in taste was a primary ambition. Though Dr. Iti Samanta has never been professionally trained as a designer her work in the field of art, culture and literature has always pushed her to understand the nuances that these gorgeous beauties hide.
When we at Shephalee began venturing out to design elegant sarees we had a clear objective of bringing a wholly new product into the market that will effectively showcase our treasured heritage besides conforming with a modern standard of lifestyle and fashion. Hence Shephalee offers a radically new discovered product. We have smoothly amalgamated diverse Hand-woven Fabrics with innovative designs from our creator Dr. Iti Samanta to produce completely unique Sarees.
Dr. Itirani Samanta, the Creator of Shephalee is a multifaceted personality. She beautifully dons the hats of an Entrepreneur, Creative Writer, Journalist, Editor of Kadambini (One of the largest regional magazines in India), Publisher, National Award Winning Film Producer, Reputed Television Producer, Popular-Interviewer, Social Entrepreneur, and Designer she has simultaneously managed to build a varied portfolio of work that spans the entire Art and culture domain. As a leading woman entrepreneur of the state, she became an inspiration for many women and her passion for Odia culture and women empowerment has made her stand out.
Dr. Samanta has a distinct taste in apparel and is an avid connoisseur of hand-crafted Sarees. She has been designing her own Sarees for a long and her wide depth of understanding about the diverse and great weaving tradition of Odisha has led to the establishment of Shephalee. She has exclusively designed all the creations out of hand weaved fabrics with each being a unique piece. Shephalee is intertwined with her elegance and aesthetic sense.
Though we are young our ambitions are many. We have started with an ambition- to wed handwoven fabrics with modern standards of fashion so that our creations reach out to wider audiences. This reaching to people nationally and eventually globally is much needed to showcase the amazing crafts that our culture houses.
In this regard, it was absolutely important to make designs that are acceptable to people of diverse cultures, ages, geography, and tastes. The system we envisage involves building an ecosystem that provides artisans opportunities to practice their craft without being worried about its economic uncertainties and also showcases them to admirers from across the globe.
Our Designer House aims to bring traditional hand-woven and handcrafted delicacies designed glamorously yet elegantly made only out of indigenous fabrics to the entire world. The humongous hard work that artisans undertake by weaving fabrics but getting fragile remuneration is often a repeated story, hence scripting a different tale is what Dr. Samanta envisages through Shephalee.
The Creator has exclusively made designs out of indigenous fabrics and the entire work is handcrafted that further employs a significant number of artisans. This we want to be both displayed at a higher scale at global podiums and simultaneously enrich the artisans by giving a significantly higher economic benefit along with the branding of these hidden beauties. We have already begun to work with many weavers, artisans, painters, saree enthusiasts from hinterlands.
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