Pair the words ‘Bahujan’ and ‘designer’ and the only name that comes up in an internet search is Sudheer Rajbhar, founder of the Chamar Studio. A penalisable utterance if used as an insult, ‘Chamar’ is the registered trademark for Rajbhar’s art-design-fashion studio.

The designer grew up in a Mumbai slum, bristling at casteist slurs hurled at him. As he found his way through drawing contests in school to art college, the discrimination seeded a rebellion to turn the slur into a recognisable brand. Rajbhar started the project in Dharavi to empower the leather-working community there. Chamar Studio is nomadic—based in slums.

In December 2024, when Rihanna was photographed at Design Miami sitting on a burnt orange chair designed by Chamar Studio, Rajbhar found himself tagged on popular Instagram handles. There was a sharp uptick in his social media following. At the same venue, American football player Stefon Diggs was seen sitting on another of Rajbhar’s creations, a green-blue piece.

The designer went viral, which is a catapulting force in the attention industry. Profiling videos and comments emerged on several platforms. However, they underlined Rajbhar’s caste more than his craft.

Rajbhar’s creations, Baldric Chair (left) and Flap Chair (right) | Instagram/@chamarstudio

The process behind Rajbhar’s repurposed leather chairs | By special arrangement

“Nobody interviewed me to find out how I make, what I make, what I think. I don’t know who is behind these social media videos about me,” said the 39-year-old designer.

Rajbhar’s work is modern in form and non-embellished. His large monochromatic chairs are made with repurposed rubber tyres, designed to flow like fabric.

Tote bags in striking colours such as black, teal, and ink blue, feature prominent cross stitches along the edges. They are smooth and sleek, with no floral or decorative motifs in the hardware or patterning. Some are designed with thick stripes made from the base material to make a statement.

The collections are also purposefully named: Blue Collar, Bombay Black, Black Fortune and Mandee Revolt.

“The Chamar community can no longer work with animal leather after the beef ban but their skills and familiarity of working with a leather-like material must be respected. That’s why rubber tubes and tyres, which are more sustainable options,” Rajbhar said.

Fashion alienates

Rihanna being photographed on a chair designed by a Bahujan artist from India, is the very pulp of clickbait stories, where hashtags tide above design ingenuity. Rajbhar understands that his work, even at prominent platforms like the India Art Fair, will be synonymised with his caste identity.

The designer added the word ‘Raj’ to ‘Bhar’, his surname—a synonym of the Gond tribe—to subvert stereotypes associated with names and castes. Now, he must fight to draw attention to his design skills.

In the cavalcade of glamourous outings often perceived as fashion, designers are friends of film stars and film stars are friends of the wealthy. Highly placed connections result in sponsorship, investments, and corporate acquisitions. The “best dressed” lists are packed with privileged names, who pride in luxury logos and endorse each other. It can be hard for a Bahujan designer not to feel ignored.

Tote bags by Chamar studio | Graphic by Prasanna Bachchhav

For a recent article on ‘Fashion’s Royalty Bias’ for The Voice of Fashion, Rajbhar told me about the social alienation he felt at an awards event last year in Mumbai. He was among the awardees. The fashion industry and its media are easily awed by those born with a “silver spoon” and those with “royal titles”, said the designer.

Chennai-based blogger, educator, and designer Purushu Arie, whose eponymous label makes ungendered clothing, has similar thoughts. He does not want to be boxed in as a ‘Dalit’ designer.

“Discrimination is systemic, structural, and personal,” Arie said. “In fashion, many SC, ST, OBC textile and craft traditions are either erased or appropriated by dominant castes.”

An alumnus of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), New Delhi, Arie writes about discrimination faced by fashion students who don’t speak English or have access to “classy fashion”. According to him, Indian fashion takes no inspiration from democratic or street styles; they are mocked as “chhapri”, “behenji”, or “pullingo”. Fashion leans toward “nawabi”, “royal”, “maharani” references instead.

Will Rajbhar’s rise bring a change? Ruchika Sachdev, founder and creative director of the fashion label Bodice, certainly thinks so. “Everyone needs distinct storytelling. If mine can be about feminist imagination, Rajbhar’s branding is caste. It is a saturated market; we need engrossing narratives to put out our work,” she said.

Branding vs craft

Curiously, beyond what Rajbhar may have envisioned, the brand associated with Chamar Studio now competes with his craft which has its distinct design voice.

Kanupriya Tandon, brand manager at Raw Mango, said that institutions like Mumbai’s Æquō gallery, which endorses Rajbhar’s work, dispute caste-based discrimination.

Rajbhar working on a handbag for his latest collection | By special arrangement

“The very choice helps an artist transcend discriminatory challenges by putting them on a pedestal, contrary to artisans or craftspeople who struggle to reach that point,” said Tandon.

There are other arguments. Veteran designer Anita Dongre, who advocates for conservation and community building in her decades-long work, thinks that caste is not a concern for the consumer.

“Rajbhar is very much in the news after Rihanna was seen on a chair he made and is making some great products,” Dongre said. “It is amazing to see that his is a story about recycling. If he continues creating what he does, customers will buy it—for them, it is about the product. How does it matter whether he is a Dalit or not?”

This year marks 25 years of fashion weeks in India. Over the years, the seasonal event became an “inclusive” platform. Business may have trembled, but showmanship did not. It came to reward initiatives such as the Circular Design Challenge and value viable linkages with various crafts and textiles. Wokeism found footing, albeit as tokenism sometimes. Buzzwords such as genderfluid, diversity, plus-size, eco-responsibility, and carbon neutrality only grew. Designers from Dalit and OBC backgrounds, however, never saw visibility by debate or design. Barely any panel in the country has discussed caste in the design ecosystem.

This may be Indian fashion’s year to table caste inequalities. Chamar Studio could chair the debate.

Shefalee Vasudev is the author of ‘Powder Room: The Untold Story of Indian Fashion’ and a cultural commentator. Views are personal.