MENTORS
GLORKA
In 2018 AMMACHI Labs partnered with Glorka Wear, an ethical fashion company from Los Angeles founded by renowned designer Zhenya Glorka. Glorka travelled to Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, lived with the local community, and taught sewing and pattern making to the women. From whom she places orders for her brand GLORKA which retails across the globe.
In 2020 Glorka visited two villages: Juna Kattiwada in Madhya Pradesh and Shyamoli, Rajasthan. Despite the pandemic, Glorka placed orders with the women’s groups that were fulfilled and shipped throughout the pandemic allowing the women some income to take care of their daily necessities.
“For the past few years I have been going to India to empower women in rural villages together with AMMACHI Labs. AMMACHI Labs has been offering tailoring courses for women from rural villages, women who don’t really have access to quality education or employment opportunities. When I come to the villages, I live with them, teach them a particular design and together we co-create collections of dresses. After they complete a piece of clothing, I pay them a fair wage for their work.”
It’s been a while but finally one of the packages has arrived from Rajasthan with the new skirts! The awesome thing is – we adjusted the belt and added an extension to it. It’s a new thing and I was able to communicate it with the ladies from Shyamoli via WhatsApp video and give instructions and with the help of Amritha (researcher from AMMACHI Labs) we could translate the instructions to them and they understood and did a great job making the new belts for the skirts! And once again, the quality is getting better and better!
Anantashri
Karri Smisek-Walters aka Anantashri's love for India and Indian handloom fabric gave birth to Tula Clothing. She is co-creating her current line of slow fashion cozy garments with the women who recently graduated from the AMRITA SANKALP AVSAR Tailoring Training.
Priya Boutique, Palwali, Faridabad, Haryana
Gokul aka Andrew De La Roziere
Has a deep appreciation for Kerala’s traditional Mural Art style of painting which inspired him to want to create a niche for this art form in the Western Market as well. He is a patron of the Amrita Varshini SHG group which specializes in Traditional Kerala Mural Art and has documented this group in 2025 and is endeavouring to build a market linkage in the American market space.
Fritha Mason
Fritha Mason is a British social entrepreneur and founder of Secret Projects, a UK-based social enterprise empowering women in India through income-generating opportunities. Best known for the innovative “Secret Pillow”—a cushion that unfolds into a blanket—Fritha launched the initiative in Meppadi and Calicut with the Amrita Varshini SHG groups of Kerala, and has since expanded it across six Indian states. She continues to serve as CEO, supporting women to become entrepreneurs and global suppliers.
Silvia Zaccaro
Silvia Zaccaro studied at an art school in Venice before specializing in fashion and textile design. She is a Style Designer who has been working in the clothing industry since 2001. As a Freelance Consultant, she supports companies throughout the entire clothing development process, from initial sketches to final production. Silvia also works in textile design, creating new fabrics and experimenting with unique patterns. She loves blending style with unconventional, hand‑painted motifs or jacquard‑woven designs.
Her career has allowed her to travel the world and contribute to meaningful projects that empower women. Silvia collaborated with Antonia, who approached her inspired by the work of Amma and Amrita University. Drawing on her background as a designer, Silvia created designs inspired by the lives of these women, resulting in a collection of special pillow covers that reflect themes of nature and compassion. See the full range here.
Sharani (Crystal) Eastman
Sivasakthi Stitching Centre at Kattilkadavu got expert coaching on logo design & proper usage of the group’s embroidery machine software. Sharani Crystal Eastman, a 3D CG Supervisor & Art Director at a design firm in San Francisco, guided them on how to successfully import designs and ensure quality production using ArtisticDesigner 1.7, a proprietary software for high end embroidery machines.
Lalitha aka Cornie Fricker
Cornnie Fricker is a fashion designer from Southern France who has been into styling, manufacturing, designing for the past 36 years. She has worked with world renowned brands like By Marie, Gas bijoux, Madame à Paris, Mia Zia, Nanaki Paris, Rosabagh, Ratan textiles, Agnès b, Yes oui care.
She designing her latest collections of hand painted silk bandanas and hand painted silk dresses with the Amrita Vasrhini SHG group who underwent fabric training classes conducted by AMMACHI Labs in 2014 and are based in Kozhikode in Northern Kerala. She is also personally training a very talented student Bincy who was trained under the SANKALP AVSAR Project run by AMMACHI Labs in painting on silk for her current collection.
Antonia Enzo
Antonia Enzo is from Venice, Italy. She graduated in Political Sciences, worked as a teacher and journalist, and later founded a headwear fashion company Master Italia with the brand Atlantis. She has vast experience in fashion design trends, international production, and supplier management. In 2013, Antonia attended Amma’s program in Milan. She was inspired by the women empowerment videos and initially wanted to donate money. She asked around and was directed to go meet Dr Bhavani R Rao the director of AMMACHI Labs and CWEGE, who held India’s UNESCO chair for Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality. This led Antonia to visit Amritapuri Ashram in India the same year. Through Ammachi labs she connected with Sharmila, from Amritavarshini Self Help Group in Calicut. She was impressed by the ability of women in hand painting art. When she came back to Italy, Antonia had the idea to create a Collection of hand-painted cover pillows. An Italian Fashion Designer, Silvia Zaccaro – inspired by the lives of women just empowered by WE Project- created the Designs and the “Made with Love” cover pillows Collection, with related Logo, was born. The Collection, up to now, has been sold mainly in Italy.
Aparna
An expert Seamstress from Germany Aparna has been our Subject Matter Expert and was instrumental in making over 200+ video tutorials for the tailoring courses which has been critical in achieving standardised training across the vocational Education programmes we conduct across India. She has also offered hands on sessions in tailoring for the Sivasakthi tailoring Unit based out of Kattilkadavu in south-western Kerala.
The video tutorials are now available freely on YouTube at Amrita Skills for Life in English and various Indian regional languages.
Anirban
Anirban, a former textile designer from Kolkata, is inspired by Amma’s humanitarian efforts. He supports women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs) trained under Amrita University’s skill development initiatives by actively building market linkages for their products in Toronto and across other Canadian provinces.