About - Helina Guleria | Design Studio specialized in Home Products & Art

About

The Founder

Helina Guleria is a contemporary artist that integrates social issues and activism through impact design. Helina has an Indian/Dutch mixed background which strongly influences her design aesthetic throughout the collection. She likes to provoke unusual colour combinations seen on the streets of India with contemporary graphical European twists.

Helina Guleria Collection – Every print has a story

Impact design

Helina’s mission is connecting East & West by collaborating with Indian artisans. By working with Indian artisans she contributes in preserving cultural heritage which is slowly dying out due to modernisation and technological developments.

A sustainable approach is followed in upcycling furniture pieces and working with recycled & deadstock fabrics within the textile categories. Raw materials are re-used and given a second life, aiming in reducing waste on this planet.

In the finishing process of the products there will be collaborations with Dutch and Indian stitching studios that provide equal employment opportunities to women with a distance to the labour market.

The development process will be communicated by showing transparency through a QR-code which is attached to the products. This will create consumer awareness about how, where and by whom a product is made.

Cultural heritage

Intangible heritage is ‘living heritage’. It includes social customs, representations, rituals, traditions, expressions, special knowledge or skills that communities and groups (and sometimes even individuals) recognize as a form of cultural heritage.

The Phulkari Makers Of Bassi Pathana is a group supported by a special initiative of the Mehar Baba Charitable Trust. Their aim is to develop entrepreneurial skills in rural women of Punjab.

Saket Textiles is a block printing company based in Sanganer. It is a family business run by Mr. Babu.

Madhubani Tulika Artists is a group aiming to develop entrepreneurial skills among underprivileged women of Bihar.

Equality

Women’s rights are unfortunately still significantly underrepresented worldwide. In economic terms, women have fewer opportunities than men. Causes are discrimination and a subordinate position in relation to men.

The New Delhi-based organization MasterG & Daughters is democratizing the opportunity to learn and earn a dignified life by empowering women financially and emotionally. This is done by training women in pattern making in the Breaking Patterns curriculum. This offers opportunities to provide for their livelihood, and to bring them into contact with fashion brands and other market connections.

Snuffelmug is a Haarlem learn-/work company with the aim of reintegration through the sale of second-hand goods. The company offers work experience placements to people with a distance to the labor market. Employees gain professional knowledge, but also develop competencies that, among other things, increase a sense of responsibility, independence and cooperation.

Sustainability

Certification indicate that a textile product meets a certain standard and that the product has in some way been produced in a fair or sustainable manner.

The Global Recycled Standard (GRS) is a voluntary product standard for tracking and verifying the content of recycled materials in a final product.

FSC certification ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests that provide environmental, social and economic benefits.

Upcycling is a form of recycling in which the product is processed into one or more new products. The starting point for upcycling is that the quality of the products does not decrease, but even improves. The products are reused in such a way that they gain value.

Snuffelmug is a Haarlem learn-/work company with the aim of reintegration through the sale of second-hand goods. In collaboration with companies, waste materials that would otherwise be destroyed are transformed into new products through upcycling projects.