Mumbai: For designer Anjali Phougat, supporting humanitarian causes is not about attaching a famous name to an event. She believes the cause itself should always remain at the centre. When she participates in a humanitarian initiative, she wants the issue to receive more attention than she does. “If I am participating in a humanitarian initiative, the cause must always be bigger than my name. I do not believe in using someone’s suffering as a backdrop for personal branding,” she said.
“My role is to use whatever visibility, resources, creativity or platform I have to amplify the message, not to replace it. I ask myself a simple question, after people see me associated with this initiative, will they remember me, or will they remember the cause?” she added.
For her, the answer matters. “If they remember the cause, then I believe I have done my job,” she said. “That is also why I value long-term associations rather than appearing for one event and moving on,” she added. She believes social responsibility requires consistency. For her, that means continuing to learn, show up and use her platform. “It is continuous support. It is showing up. It is educating yourself. It is using your platform repeatedly. And it is understanding that no single person is going to solve a global humanitarian crisis,” she said.
“But each of us can contribute to creating greater awareness,” she added. One of the moments from Garba Beyond Borders that stayed with her was seeing the crowd dressed in blue and white. The sight became even more powerful because she knew what those colours represented.
“Seeing so many people dressed in white and blue, understanding that those colors had been intentionally chosen to represent awareness around human trafficking, was incredibly moving,” she said.
“People were dancing. Families were celebrating. The music was playing. There was joy everywhere,” she added. Yet the message remained present throughout the evening. She added, “That contrast stayed with me.”
For her, it showed that awareness does not always have to come through a serious or difficult setting. Culture, music, fashion and community can sometimes make people more open to a difficult conversation.
“Sometimes you can introduce an important conversation through culture, beauty, music and community. And when you do that, people are more open to receiving the message. For me, designing and participating in an initiative like this is deeply soul-satisfying,” she said.
“I am able to bring together the two worlds that have defined much of my life, fashion and purpose. I am grateful to be able to use Designer Dream Collection not simply to create beautiful garments, but to create garments that can stand for something,” she added.
Ultimately, she hopes her own journey will be remembered for the causes she supported as much as for her work in fashion. “I want my journey to be remembered not only as that of a fashion designer, but as a woman who used fashion as a vehicle for consciousness, compassion and positive change,” she said.
“I want to be able to look back and know that whatever visibility I received, I tried to use it for something larger than myself,” she added. For her, that is what leadership means. “That, to me, is leadership. Not simply being seen, but standing for something when you are seen,” she said.
Her understanding of responsibility has also changed with time. “Today, I feel increasingly clear that my responsibility is not only to build a successful fashion house,” she said.
“It is to be a good human being while doing it,” she added.
The causes she supports, including human trafficking, women’s empowerment, education and cancer awareness, have reinforced her belief that individual issues are connected by a larger human story. “Human trafficking, women’s empowerment, education, cancer awareness and other humanitarian causes remind us that we are all connected,” she said.
And that is where she sees the real potential of fashion and the arts. “Fashion can create beauty. Music can create emotion. Dance can create joy. But when we bring all of those things together with purpose, they can create awareness, dialogue and ultimately change,” she said.
“That is the kind of legacy I want to contribute to. Because at the end of the day, I do not want my life to be measured only by the clothes I designed or the stages I stood on. I want it to be measured by the lives, conversations and causes I helped bring greater awareness to,” she added.
And ultimately, that is when she believes fashion becomes something more. “That is when fashion becomes more than fashion. It becomes a purpose,” Anjali ended.
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