Anannya Sharma: Weavers’ Profit, Welfare and Social Security Matter More Than My Profit Margin

As Yarn Glory approaches its 25th year, its founder reflects on a journey that began beside her grandmothers’ looms and evolved into a textile brand rooted in quality, Ahimsa Eri silk, natural dyes and a deep commitment to the people behind the fabric.

The Quantiq Founder Series 

The Loom She Would Not Let Go

The story of Anannya Sharma may have begun with a loom, but it was never simply about weaving.

Anannya grew up in Duliajan, the oil town in Assam where her father was an Executive with Oil India Limited. Both her paternal and maternal grandmothers were accomplished weavers, and when Anannya was in Class V, weaving was almost like a household chore.

By the time her grandmothers reached around 60, however, they had stopped weaving.

For Anannya, that could have been the end of a childhood connection with the loom. Instead, she took the trouble to bring one of her grandmother’s looms to Duliajan and have it set up in a neighbourhood home she frequented after school. She wanted to remain close to the loom and continue observing the weaving process.

Even at that age, Anannya was beginning to look at weaving as something more than the coming together of warp and weft.

She noticed how the structure of the weave created possibilities for patterns, how different shades changed the character of a textile, and how colour, geometry, texture and design could transform the same basic material into something entirely different.

She was, in effect, beginning to see the loom not merely as a means of making fabric, but as a canvas for design.

That childhood instinct would eventually become central to her professional journey.https://yarnglory.com/

Mumbai Turned a Childhood Fascination into a Discipline

Anannya eventually left Assam for Mumbai to pursue a two-year professional diploma course in textiles at Nirmala Niketan. It was an important transition in her journey. The girl who had spent her school years watching her grandmothers’ looms in Duliajan was now entering a structured environment where textiles could be studied not merely as a traditional craft, but as a discipline of design.https://nirmalaniketan.com/

The experience gave greater depth to an instinct that had begun much earlier. She had already learnt to look beyond the basic mechanics of weaving and notice the possibilities created by warp and weft, patterns, shades, colour combinations, geometry and design. Her formal education gave her a framework through which those observations could be understood, developed and eventually translated into products.

Mumbai also exposed her to a much wider textile and design environment. Away from Assam, she could look back at the region with a different perspective. What she had grown up seeing around her was no longer simply part of everyday life; she began to recognise the extraordinary depth of Assam and the Northeast as a region of handloom traditions, skilled artisans, indigenous fibres, distinctive patterns and immense design possibilities.

Her training also strengthened her understanding of colour, particularly shades and combinations, an aspect that would later become an important part of her own design vocabulary.

In that sense, Mumbai did not take Anannya away from Assam’s textiles.

It taught her to look at them differently.

And when she eventually returned, she was bringing back more than a diploma. She was bringing a trained designer’s eye to a textile tradition she had known since childhood.

Mumbai gave her the discipline of textile design. Assam gave her the living canvas on which to apply it.

There was no dramatic family rebellion involved in her choice. Nobody discouraged her from pursuing textiles. Her return was instead a recognition that the knowledge she had acquired could perhaps create greater value in the place where her relationship with textiles had begun.

The Road to Yarn Glory Ran Through the Grassroots

The Anannya who eventually built Yarn Glory was shaped by several experiences before the brand itself took form.

Her first major consultancy assignment took her to Kathmandu, where she worked with a carpet export house while her banker husband was posted there. After returning to Guwahati in 1997, she took up a lectureship at IIHT.

Later, when her husband was posted in Arunachal Pradesh, she worked on a project in Doimukh near Itanagar for NEHHDC in 2000.

She describes that period as the beginning of her “real soul connection with weavers.” She subsequently worked as an empanelled design consultant for DC Handloom and NCTD.

Those assignments gave her something that a design course could not provide.

They brought her face to face with the realities of artisan communities.

Over time, her work connected her with Boro, Rabha, Garo, Karbi and Mising weaving communities. Each interaction, she says, left an impression on her.

That experience would eventually influence not only what Yarn Glory produced, but how Anannya chose to work with the people producing it.https://handlooms.nic.in/

She Does Not Design for Weavers. She Designs With Them.

The relationship between designer and artisan can easily become hierarchical.

The designer arrives with ideas, the artisan is expected to execute them, and the finished product is then presented as a contemporary interpretation of traditional craft.

Anannya takes a different approach.

When disagreements arise with weaving clusters, she says she listens and allows the weavers to speak. More often than not, she endorses their view rather than imposing her own.

It is a deceptively simple philosophy.

The professional designer brings formal training and an understanding of contemporary markets. The artisan brings inherited knowledge, technical mastery and an intimate understanding of the loom.

One knows the design vocabulary.

The other knows the language of the craft.

The most interesting work happens when the two meet without either attempting to silence the other.

Seeing Beyond Warp and Weft

Anannya’s relationship with textiles began with the loom, but her understanding of weaving quickly extended beyond its basic structure.

Warp and weft may create the fabric, but design determines how that fabric speaks.

Patterns, motifs, shades, colour combinations, geometry and texture all contribute to the character of a woven textile. For Anannya, these elements are not decorative additions placed on top of the weave. They are part of the design thinking that begins with the yarn and continues until the finished textile takes shape.

Her professional training in textile design later gave her the vocabulary and technical tools to develop an instinct that had begun much earlier. Her own design philosophy remains centred on earthy colours and geometric perfection.

This way of looking at textiles helps explain the range of products Yarn Glory has developed over the years, from stoles and Eri silk yardages to cushion covers and table runners, alongside other handwoven textiles.

Diversity matters.

A handwoven textile does not have to remain confined to a traditional garment or ceremonial use. A carefully developed pattern can move into a stole, an Eri silk yardage, a cushion cover or a table runner, allowing the language of the loom to enter contemporary wardrobes and homes.

This is where design becomes value addition.

The objective is not simply to make traditional textiles look modern. It is to understand the inherent character of the weave and reinterpret it in ways that consumers can use and appreciate today.

Ahimsa Eri Silk and the Colours of Nature

Yarn Glory’s identity is also closely connected with Anannya’s dedication to Ahimsa Eri silk and natural vegetable dyes.

For her, Eri silk is not merely another textile fibre. It connects contemporary design with Assam’s own textile heritage and with a philosophy of more conscious textile production.

The same thinking extends to natural dyes.

Colours derived from natural sources bring the textile closer to the land and to traditional knowledge. They also complement the earthy palette that has remained central to Anannya’s design vocabulary.

This makes her approach to sustainability more fundamental than simply adding an environmental claim to a finished product.

The fibre matters.

The dye matters.

The weave matters.

The design matters.

And, ultimately, the person who creates the textile matters.

That connection between material, method, design and maker has remained central to the Yarn Glory story.

A Middle Path Between Tradition and the Market

Anannya does not believe that traditional textiles must remain frozen in time to remain authentic.

She observes that colours and preferences move in cycles. Some shades disappear for a while and return years later, while earthy colours remain remarkably enduring. Her approach is therefore one of minimal innovation and carefully considered tweaks rather than dramatic reinvention.

The same philosophy applies when artisans disagree with her designs.

She prefers a middle path, accepting their opinion while accommodating her own.

It is a useful philosophy for a traditional craft ecosystem.

The challenge is not to make a textile fashionable for one season.

It is to make it relevant without stripping away the identity that makes it distinctive in the first place.

“My Weavers’ Income Comes Before Mine”

Perhaps the most revealing part of Anannya’s philosophy is how she thinks about the economics of the business.

She says she thinks about her weavers’ income before her own and goes further by thinking about their welfare. She has been considering the possibility of creating a pension fund for her weavers under the aegis of Yarn Glory. She has also been mulling the idea of supporting the design education of weavers’ children if they choose to pursue that field.

These are ideas she is considering for the future, not programmes that Yarn Glory has already implemented.

That distinction is important.

What matters is the direction of her thinking.

For Anannya, the question is not only how much profit a textile business can generate for its owner. It is also how the business can create greater security and opportunity for the people whose skills make the products possible.

That is perhaps why the question of profit margin versus artisan welfare sits so naturally at the heart of her entrepreneurial philosophy.

A Brand That Found Customers Beyond Assam

Yarn Glory’s journey has not been confined to Assam or even to India.

Over the years, the brand has catered to domestic buyers as well as numerous international customers.

That matters because it demonstrates something that is often overlooked in conversations about Northeast India’s traditional products.

A textile rooted deeply in its place of origin does not necessarily have to lose that identity to appeal to consumers elsewhere.

In fact, its distinctiveness can become its strength.

An Eri silk textile carrying the story of Assam, a handwoven stole reflecting a regional design vocabulary, or a naturally dyed fabric shaped by local knowledge can travel across markets precisely because it offers something that mass-produced textiles cannot easily replicate.

The challenge is to convert that distinctiveness into quality, design and a compelling product.

That is where Anannya’s training and her relationships with artisans come together.

From Building a Brand to Building Capability

As Yarn Glory approaches its 25th year, another dimension of Anannya’s work is becoming increasingly significant.

She is willing to travel to weaver clusters and artisan organisations when invited, taking her expertise in textile design directly to them.

It is a natural evolution of her journey.

She has spent years learning from artisans, developing products, understanding markets and building a brand that has reached customers in India and abroad.

Now, she is increasingly interested in sharing that accumulated knowledge.

The distinction is important.

A designer working only for her own brand can create a collection.

A designer who transfers knowledge to a group of artisans can potentially influence many products, livelihoods and future design decisions.

The impact becomes multiplicative.https://thequantiq.com/building-agapi-rinzing-choden-bhutia-global-wellness-brand/

Knowledge Is Also Value Addition

Much of the conversation about economic development in Northeast India centres on adding value to raw materials.

But there is another form of value addition that deserves equal attention: adding knowledge to existing skills.

A traditional weaver may carry generations of knowledge about yarn, loom, technique and pattern.

A professionally trained textile designer brings a different set of skills involving design development, colour, product interpretation and contemporary market preferences.

When those forms of knowledge meet respectfully, the result can be more valuable than either working alone.

That is perhaps the most interesting role Anannya can play in the next phase of her journey.

She is not trying to replace traditional knowledge with professional design.

She is trying to create a conversation between the two.

That is not merely training.

It is capability creation.

The 25-Year Question: What Refuses to Change?

Yarn Glory has faced difficult periods, including several occasions when the business came close to shutting down. Yet it survived and evolved.

When asked what she has refused to change throughout the journey, Anannya’s answer is unequivocal:

Quality.

Looking back at the woman who first returned to Assam, she does not offer an elaborate lesson.

Her message is simple: she has sustained, she has evolved, and Yarn Glory remains rooted in its ethics and philosophy.

Perhaps that is the real meaning of longevity.

Not remaining unchanged.

Evolving without losing the reason for which the journey began.

A Legacy That Need Not End With the Founder

Anannya’s daughters are now based far away, pursuing their own dreams. She does not have a predetermined succession plan, but she believes something will eventually emerge to carry the Yarn Glory legacy forward in some form.

That uncertainty does not diminish the legacy.

It may actually broaden it.

A brand approaching 25 years does not necessarily have to be carried forward in exactly the same form. Its future could lie in new products, new designers, new artisans, new markets or new ways of transferring knowledge.

What matters is that the underlying philosophy survives.

And perhaps that is why Anannya’s current work with grassroots weavers is so significant.

She is beginning to think of legacy not merely as something that is passed down within a family, but as something that can be passed outward into an ecosystem.

The Quantiq Verdict

Anannya Sharma’s story is not simply about a textile designer who built a brand.

It is about a girl in Duliajan who could not quite let go of the loom after her grandmothers stopped weaving. She brought one of those looms closer so that she could continue watching, learning and absorbing the design language of warp, weft, colour, pattern and geometry.

Years later, Mumbai gave her formal design training. Assam gave her the opportunity to apply it. Her work with weaving communities gave her a deeper understanding of the people behind the fabric. And Yarn Glory gave all of it a commercial identity.

As the brand approaches its 25th year, the story is entering another phase.

Anannya is no longer only asking what she can create from the skills she has acquired.

She is increasingly asking what those skills can create for others.

Her commitment to Ahimsa Eri silk and natural vegetable dyes reflects one part of that philosophy. Her insistence on quality reflects another. Her willingness to listen to weavers rather than impose her ideas reflects another.

And her thoughts about future social security for weavers and educational opportunities for their children suggest that she is thinking beyond the immediate transaction between a brand and its suppliers.

Nothing about those latter ideas should be mistaken for completed programmes. They are possibilities she is still considering.

But sometimes an entrepreneur’s direction of thought tells us as much as an existing initiative.

As a young girl, Anannya brought a loom closer because she did not want to lose the opportunity to learn from it.

Today, after nearly 25 years of Yarn Glory, she is taking her knowledge closer to the people whose hands keep that loom alive.

Perhaps that is the most compelling definition of her legacy.

Not simply a brand that has survived for nearly 25 years, but knowledge that can travel from one generation of hands to another, while creating better products, stronger capabilities and greater possibilities for the people who keep the craft alive.https://thequantiq.com/natural-colours-green-textile-chemistry-northeast-india/