Lately, fashion has been speaking up loud on issues the world needs to hear. Be it garments for the LGBTQ+, #metoo fashion week, or normalizing the plus size, designers around the world are bringing forth a wide arena which doesn’t fit straight with the stereotypes.
This time it is a jewelry brand that’s focusing on social issues – the problems faced in urbanity and translating them into statement pieces. Named Perthro, its one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces comments upon sexuality, gender hetero-normativity, and discrimination.
A brainchild of jewelry designer Ritumainty Mondal, Perthro intends to engage conversations sensitively, integrating awareness with fashion.
In a candid conversation with LifeBeyondNumbers, Ritumainty shared more about the concept and the intent behind it.
“Perthro signifies that the beginning and the end are set. What’s in between is yours and nothing goes in vain. It is a brand made with the purpose of positivism. We believe that through our art, through our craft, our stories and our voices will be heard. We are voicing against social taboos and atrocities. We are trying,” quoted Ritumainty Mondal sharing her insight.
Born and raised in Kolkata, Ritumainty initially pursued Computer Science Engineering from Techno University. But she always yearned for something else for which she, later on, came to Florence to study Fashion Management and Marketing Masters from Polimoda.
There are things we do and things we wish to do in life. And this happens to all of us at some stage of our lives. Ritumainty was no different. However, she not only wished, but she also plunged into it stepping out of her comfort zone.
“I always had this creative caterpillar inside me that somehow couldn’t turn into a butterfly due to the pressure of getting into an engineering school. For months and years, I studied for exams and simultaneously worked extra hours at a production house, as a self-portrait photographer and sometimes as a model to give my dreams of studying in one of the best fashion schools in the world, a chance. At the end of the fourth year, with the help of the work I had put in, I got a green flag for my dream University. They had acknowledged my passion, my struggle and they respected my different background,” narrates Ritumainty.
Having studied in Polimoda, Ritumainty started to work in Milan. She attended the best shows at the Milan Fashion Week there where she was star struck by the works of designers like Alexander Mc Queen and Maison Margiela. Though she was working for PR agencies, her heart always throbbed for fashion and that’s how she started the brand.
Besides owning her jewelry brand, Ritumainty currently works as a social media specialist for luxury Fashion and Hospitality Brands in Rome with a client base spread across Europe and America.
“While in Milan, I had met some of the best personalities from the field of fashion, but somehow was lacking the medium to showcase my creativity. Months later, now I am working in Rome, in one of the first Google partnered digital agencies in Italy catering to luxury fashion and hospitality brands. But somehow the work was not inspiring me enough. I wanted to show my creative burst and express it in a different form. I have always stayed true to my roots and that’s how I started my own jewelry brand,” says the designer.
Though Ritumainty is based in Italy, her brand, Perthro, has been launched in India. She created it while studying in Milan and has an Instagram page where she sells her products. She started with a mere 5000 INR and is already garnering dedicated customers. Yet she refrains from calling the platform a ‘brand’ or commercializing it.
“I don’t consider it a brand. It is rather a small platform where I share my opinion in the form of jewelry and others do the same by wearing them. Our pieces are a protest against societal mishaps. People who buy once, come back and buy for the third and fourth time, and hence it is something that makes me feel accomplished,” she said with a smile and all the pride.
Getting a little more inquisitive, we wanted to know how she plans to commercialize Perthro and grow it into a brand.
“I don’t want Perthro to become a regular commercial brand. I would keep its particularity and I am more of a guerilla marketing person. It will be everything that gives an individual the power of self-expression, and the courage to accept themselves the way they are. It will be everything except not commercial and that is a challenge,” she emphasized as we asked about its commercialization.
With one thoughtful piece at a time, Perthro stands for a change with inclusivity and acceptance at its core.
Wear it today. Wear them every day. Let the positivity be contagious.