TM
About
Hello and Namaskaram,
I am Bhawana Pingali—a mother of a teen who has been a fashion writer and academic for over two decades. Professionally, after being fashion features editor with Femina (Times Group, India), I contributed independently to The Hindu, Mint Lounge, Time Out, Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure, Maxim, Orissa Post, and Signature Oman, among others; and worked with over 15+ brands to build their content and communication narratives. I also taught at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (Mumbai), Pearl Academy, Symbiosis Institute of Design (Pune), CEPT University (Ahmedabad), Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad), British Council (Kolkata), and GD Goenka and Ansal Universities (Delhi-NCR, and Chitkara University (Chandigarh). By 2017, all this work got bunched up under the umbrella of spiritual fashion platform Revastra.
After I turned 40, thanks to therapy, I realised I was neurodivergent. The ups and downs in my childhood, teens, 20s and 30s, had something to do with this piece of news. Slowly, even though I struggled to accept this reality, I learnt to use it as my strength. After our son's birth, writing, teaching, sketching, and restoring old saris were already helping me survive. Yet to thrive, I had to do more. Then came learning reiki and teaching, yoga, pranayama and dhyana. It made me understand my body-mind-spirit better. Then, during the 2020 Pandemic, I had to rewire all this work differently (in fact, all of us had to). This led me to slow down Revastra and apply all knowledge to author a book on The Art of Decluttering: Ancient Practices for Modern Living (Penguin Random House / Ebury Press). Finally, through experiments and explorations, with trials and errors, and by combining the worlds of fashion and spirituality, the course(s) on #fashionhealing and wraps with #rephilosophy formed.
How can REVASTRA help you
Struggling to declutter your self and body-mind? Stuck with hoarded saris and other clothes? Reach out if you are an intuitive and/or a neurodivergent individual who wants to ease these everyday challenges. And become fiercely-creative to look good and feel better. Using simple rituals and doable practices (developed as #fashionhealing courses and #rephilosophy wraps that can help you) we will gently tackle the issues, together After all, it is time we navigate the landscape of our SELF consciously and empathetically to think-feel-do better when it comes to our fashion choices.
Note: Each short and sweet course shares #fashionhealing rituals, practices, tips and tricks on how to Reduce-Reuse-Recycle your SELF. While each mindful wrap I make (sometimes as a design collaboration) tells a story of a gently repurposed you and your sari. It could be a piece of textile or any other unused fabric, too. The handmade wrap-able and use-able love can now hold space for you. The work is derived from what I call #rephilosophy -- a system of living and being I have applied to my life for years (more so while handling a dementia-ridden mum, post-partum low, and a neurodivergent self) to make myself look good and feel better. And it is hugely drawn from over 20+ years of experiences and explorations in the fashion media, academics, design, styling, and spiritual seeking.
