ABOUT NIHA
New York and Hyderabad-based sustainable fashion advocate, designer, chef, and storyteller
Niha Elety is the founder and CEO of fashion brand, Tega Collective. Known for her distinctive art style, she uses fashion, food and heritage to bring awareness about sustainability and its importance.
Niha's Start
Niha's journey towards advocating for sustainability through art and design was deeply influenced by her upbringing in Hyderabad, India. Unlike a new concept, sustainability was ingrained in her way of life from a young age. Having moved from the US to India at the age of 11, Niha gained valuable insights into sustainability from a South Asian perspective. She observed the accessibility of locally made textiles, the abundance of fresh food, and the rich cultural heritage that contributed to a healthier community-rooted lifestyle compared to what she had witnessed in the Global North. However, she also recognized that many countries, including India, were still grappling with the aftermath of colonization and capitalistic systems.
Motivated by the desire to bridge the gap and advocate for cultural and ancestral knowledge within the sustainability space, Niha became an active voice in the field investigating the fashion industry through a eye of culture and justice.
Featured from Vogue to Global Fashion Summit, Niha remains committed to amplifying a variety of BIPOC perspectives speaking at fashion summits, universities, conferences, podcasts and youth organizations.
About Tega Collective
In 2022 Niha founded Tega Collective, a sustainable fashion enterprise that champions Adivasi communities from India and their textile traditions. With each clothing collection Tega co-creates with communities by highlighting their traditional colors, patterns and natural symbols.
Tega తెగ means family in Telugu; for Adivasi (indigenous) communities in South Asia, everything on this earth is family.
We started Tega తెగ Collective to amplify the work and culture of Adivasi peoples across South Asia and preserve the time-honored traditions of each community.
With each clothing collection we co-create with unique artisan communities by highlighting their native fibers, traditional colors, handloom weaving patterns and symbols. Our pieces are size-inclusive and worn beyond the gender binary.
15% percent of our proceeds are funneled back to the communities we work with for each collection to remove traditional hierarchy of power and profit. 3% of profits will be donated to organizations supporting indigenous community regeneration and land back initiatives.
These communities are paid every time Adivasi knowledge is shared, through video interviews and journal articles, as a part of reparations. Tega strives to build healing and enriching relationships with the communities and ecosystems that we support.
FEATURED IN
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