Dr. Sharmila Nagraj Nandula is an academician, entrepreneur, and weaver. She has 30 years of experience working with students of design, industry, grassroot technologies, weavers, and artisans.
She is the former Director of Woxsen School of Arts and Design who created and built the academic legacy in Telangana. She was Associate Professor with Nift, Hyderabad for a decade. She was in the United States for ten years and worked with retailers such as Coldwater Creek and Kohl’s, a very successful chain of fashion all over the country.
For the last 30 years Dr. Sharmila has relentlessly focused on bringing due recognition to handlooms, khadi, indigenous crafts, and design. Her work with artisans and weavers stems from a deeply rooted personal connection with the handmade arts and crafts of India. She has been speaking in various seminars, forums, academic circles and at societal level to embrace hand made for the pure goodness of handmade textiles and the value it brings to the lives of lakhs of artisans which the country has. Through her design studio she has promoted simple classic, pure and highly customized clothing to the world.
Kaumudi Studio has worked extensively with weavers and artisans encouraging them work to keep the traditional Indian heritage and produce quality goods of highly value. The studio promotes handlooms as: Handloom: The Conscious Fabric” and “Handlooms the Vitamin H”.
Dr. Sharmila had been working extensively in different pockets with various handlooms and handcrafted textiles. Her master’s thesis in 1991 titled “Changing Trends in Lambadi Costumes” from SNDT, Mumbai gave her insights into the tremendous scope of tribal arts and crafts. She had nurtured these handcrafted textiles through her boutique in those days by creating customized clothing and home textiles for local market. Thirty years ago, she travelled extensively in the Putapaka, Chotuppal, Siripuram and Pochampally areas studying Ikat fabrics and researching about the developments of designs and dyeing references. This was published a Master’s Dissertation By Aarti Arjun at SNDT, Mumbai. Years later she along with some subject matter specialists under the umbrella of Weavers Service Centre made visits to the ikat weaving centers to propagate quality aspects and its importance for exports. This endeavour was to bring back the glorious past for ikat exports.
She travelled and worked extensively with many weaving pockets of Pulagurtha, Angara, Nelliletla, Pedaparti, Ramchadrapuram, Uppada, Bhimavaram, Dhavaleshawaram, Vijaywada, Pedanna, Machlipatnam, Mahadevpuram, Husurabad, Mahabubnagar, Siddipeta, Mangalagiri, Gadwal, Narayapeta, Katedan, Karwan, Hindupur, Putapaka, Chotuppal, Koyalguddem, Siripuram and Pochampally, Nizamabad, Vikarabad in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana regions. She has collaborations and design developments running in Chanderi, Maheshwari, Bhuj-Kutch, Bastar-Chattisgarh constantly helping weavers and artisans to improve design and quality for present generations requirements all over the world.
