Jagriti Chadha


Jagriti Chadha is an Indian-American designer and entrepreneur. She owns a chain of stores in New Delhi, India and the Web called

Biography

Jagriti Chadha was born in New Delhi to Major Rajesh Chadha and artist Jogesh Singh Metge. She grew up in New Delhi and attended the Carmel Convent School. At 16 she moved to Manila and graduated from the American International School Manila. She went to study business management at Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand and then completed an MBA at the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona in 1992. She spent her last semester at Columbia University in New York during her MBA program. While at Thunderbird she wrote a business plan that became Flying Fig Corp.

Business career

In 1996, Chadha joined Bayer as an analyst and was responsible for setting up their marketing team in Budapest. She went on to work at Maybelline, a division of L'Oreal, as a marketing director. In 1999, Chadha, with her mother Tito Metge, set up Flying Fig Corp in New York and established the brand as a "made in India" couture label that showcased original designs, revived Indian embroideries and competed with couture European labels in luxury home and women’s accessories stores such as Neiman Marcus and Fortnum & Mason. It was the only Indian company to provide gifts to the Oscars Gift Baskets and have their designs sold through the Metropolitan Museum of New York stores and catalogs.
In 2009, Chadha launched a new retail concept called Crazy Daisy. Through its stores in New Delhi Crazy Daisy retails whimsical home goods and clothing/accessories for girls of all ages.

Social contribution

Flying Fig's mission is to revive and help revitalize the arts and crafts of India. Its works directly with independent craftsmen and NGOs that train destitute women and impoverished artisans providing them a substantial livelihood. Areas of empowerment include fine hand embroidery techniques and designs using techniques from the Mughal period, papier mache innovations, upcycled products using waste materials and unusual accessories and artifacts from individual artistes. The craftspeople tend to be from highly disadvantaged backgrounds.