Prabal Gurung (Picture Source: Etsy)

Nagpur firm ‘The White Tree Studio’ has collaborated with New York-based designer Prabal Gurung to create customized and embroidered face masks. For the uninitiated, renowned designer Gurung dressed the US Vice President Kamala Harris during the presidential inaugural service. Former First Lady Michelle Obama is too a huge advocate of Gurungs designs and often wore outfits by him on many occasions.

Face masks made by The White Tree Studio

With an intention to create a limited-edition collection, Gurung has partnered with 11 sellers from e-commerce website Etsy, which sells specialized products. As part of the collection, Gurung aims at co-creating one-of-a-kind décor pieces. The collection involves face masks, home wares, bags, etc. The White Tree Studio is the only Indian firm to have been selected by Gurung for the collection.

Lamiya Basrai

The White Tree Studio was founded by Lamiya Basrai and her daughter Alifiya Husain. Taher Basrai serves as the creative marketing head of the label. Speaking to Nation Next, an excited Alifiya, who’s also the Design Head at The White Tree Studio, said, In June 2020, we started making embroidered face masks using organic fabric. We started selling the masks on Etsy, wherein we got a great response. In December 2020, we got an opportunity to collaborate with Prabal Gurung as he really liked our face mask, which we were selling on Etsy.

Alifiya Husain

Explaining how the association with Gurung works, Alifiya added, There were a series of trial and error sessions. Prabal would send his ideas, we would make the masks and ship it to US. His team would then check the masks and give his feedback to us. After these rounds, the final designs were decided upon. The collection was launched worldwide on April 29. The limited-edition collection is available on Etsy.

Taher Basrai

The White Tree Design Studio began its journey in the year 2018 with the compassionate motive of creating aesthetic yet functional clothing and accessories that are true to Indian culture and heritage, while also empowering the makers with quality of life and integrity of their work.