By Bhawana Pingali
What does REVASTRA offer
LEARNING: Courses I Modules I Workshops I Meets I Talks I Circles
Developing and conducting online/offline conscious and therapeutic Writing and Styling learning sessions using yogic processes to help Reduce-Reuse-Recycle hoarded unstitched textiles like sarees, stoles and/or dhotis. Usually caused by stuck emotions of inertia, love, nostalgia, and / or grief.
This Learning is supported by:
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PRODUCTS: Created inhouse and / or by collaborating with brands/designers to bring out limited edit, artistic collections of editorial and wearable products for individuals. For and off unstitched textiles like sarees, stoles and/or dhotis. Using #rephilosophy and yogic processes.
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CONTENT: Researching and building 5Rs, Yoga-based, and other fashion-conscious lifestyle stories (via print and digital media collaterals) for Revastra, publications, and brands.
Who is REVASTRA founded by
Bhawana Pingali. I am mother of a teen and have been a writer-academic for the last 19+ years. As graduate in fashion design and master’s in communication-journalism, and after a life as Features Editor-Fashion with FEMINA (Worldwide Media Ltd.—Times of India / BBC Magazines), I contributed independently to The Hindu, Hindustan Times-Mint Lounge, Time Out, Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure, Maxim, Orissa Post, Signature-Oman, among others. Over the years, I have consulted for over 15+ brands and taught at NIFT, Pearl Academy, Symbiosis Institute of Design, CEPT-Ahmedabad, IIM-A, British Council (TEFL-certified trainer), Chitkara, GD Goenka and Ansal Universities. My heart now lies in teaching yoga-pranayama-meditation and reviving unstitched textiles, and old-world rituals-practices. Currently, launching my memoir-esque first book through PENGUIN has also consumed me.
When did REVASTRA birth
The idea of this platform was conceived in 2013 when I realigned my professional work thanks to a toddler. Besides handling independent fashion writing and teaching projects, taking stock of and upcycling my horded-unused clothes and mother’s saris became a nostalgic creative pursuit to release body-mind inertia. And passively, worked as a return-to-my-undergrad design-days. When Amma’s dementia made her abandon her over-100 saris in 2016, my tactile fashion storytelling as an obsession took on
a healing form and fervour.
Then, with help of a lovely family and a tribe of friends, I started monetising emotive upcycling projects and immersive fashion workshops to share my heart-felt experiences and explorations. During this phase yoga entered my life too. It helped me battle anxiety, ADHD, and some personal issues. Soon, drawing parallels between the oxymoron-ish worlds of spirituality and fashion become a new fascination.
I called this holistic Think-Feel-Do learning the #rephilosophy. It stuck to me like glue and grew its roots inside and around me.
Over the years, during and post pandemic, Revastra™ and I conceptually kept changing like an amoeba and growing like
a tree till we reached the current shape, which is an Indian Spiritual Fashion Learning Platform. As a Fashion Editor-Educator and Yoga teacher, I now use this wistful yet therapeutic work of over two decades to spread #rephilosophy beyond me in conscious and artistic ways. With a hope that it may heal someone, somewhere, sometime, someway.
The way it did and does for me.