Abhinav Dhoundiyal and Vasanthi Veluri, both design graduates of National Institute of Design have each explored their own ideas about exploring textiles and craft as a means of generating livelihoods for artisans across India.

While at NID, they worked on the North-East Textile Documentation Project in Nagaland for almost a year when they were carefully documenting the weaving, natural-dyeing, bead jewelry making and language of a few tribes of Central and Easter Nagaland. This intensive study helped encourage them to understand the potential of indigenous skills and natural resources of Abhinav’s homes state Uttarakhand. They co-founded Peoli in 2015, to pursue this shared interest. Engaged in research, archival and innovation in the local crafts of spinning, dyeing and hand knitting in Almora, at Peoli the focus is on developing sustainable production practices and creating livelihoods for women artisans. With a growing international market, Peoli has been awarded the Word Craft Council Award for Excellence in Handicraft (2018), the Lexus Design Award for Textile Design (2020); the Sambhaava award for Women’s Empowerment (2019) by FICCI FLO and more recently and AIACA’s Best Green enterprise award in 2021 and India’s Best Design Award in Oct 2022.