Designer duo’s divine love for dogs
Aprajita Toor is one of the designers who will be collaborating with PETA India for an exclusive vegan collection. She will also give away a percentage of the proceeds for the welfare of animals. Here, she shares about her love for dogs.
Aprajita
Aprajita Toor and Harshita Deshpande will be collaborating with PETA India – India’s animal rights organisation, and making an exclusive collection where a certain percentage of the proceeds will be given to PETA. The collection will be completely vegan which means nothing will be derived from animals. PETA will be creating a tag design that Harshita Deshpande and Aprajita Toor will use in their collection that will state that they support PETA and the amount of proceeds that will be going to the organisation.
Aprajita Toor is a bespoke footwear designer who endeavours to design footwears that offer a perfect amalgamation of contemporary trends and our deeply etched tradition. Her designs are about reviving traditional art of footwear, making and transforming them into statement pieces. Aprajita’s collection embodies very strong yet different designs with a vast variety of products that are purely handmade.
She has collaborated with three designers at the Lakme Fashion Week Winter Fest 2014 (Neha Aggarwal, Love Birds, Gaurav Jai Gupta). She has also designed the shoes for Masaba Gupta’s winter collection at the Wills Lifestyle Fashion Week and collaborated with jewellery designer Vasundhara at the Lakme Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2015, Nikhil Thampi at Lakme Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2015 and Swapnil Shinde at New York Fashion Week. In addition to this, she also showcases her collection at various stores all over India like Jabong.com, Aza – Mumbai & Delhi, Bombay Attic – Bangalore, The Project – Hyderabad, Amalya – The Leela Hospitality, Liwan – Kuwait, to name a few.
While, Harshita Deshpande works with handwoven sustainably sourced ahimsa silk (non violent silk), where the silk worms are not brutally boiled down to use the yarns spun by them.
Pooch love…
Needless to say, both the designers are dog lovers and have one as their family member. Here, Aprajita shares more about her love for pooches. “Yes, my life has always been blessed with a four-legged member in my family whether it was during my growing up years or in my married life. My first four-legged companion was a dog who we brought home from the streets around our house,” shares Aprajita. “Over the years I have shared my life with four dogs, of which the two continue to be a part of my family today.”
Any favourites?
“Picking and choosing a favourite would be akin to identifying a time in my life which was better than the rest of it, something no dog lover would be able to identify,” laughs Aprajita.
Memorable experience…
“Every small incident has created a memory. But one incident that brings a smile to my face is when Tiny (my French Mastiff) bit my husband during a mock Holi we were playing at home. That day I realised how protective my dogs were of me,” tells Aprajita.
Special antics…
Every dog is special and has a peculiar habit. On asking about any special antic of her dog, Aprajita shares, “Hugo (my Pug) has a habit of following me around every step I take at home. To me, he is the perfect epitome of the Vodafone ad “Wherever you go our network follows.”
“Tiny and Hugo have this amazing ability to comprehend and understand my words and emotions. I talk to them like I would to a normal human being and their response and understanding of my words amazes me to no end,” she adds.
What my dogs love about me?
“My love for them is unflinching and I know they understand that,” she replies instantly.
Spending time together…
“My pets Tiny and Hugo are as much kids to me as my daughter. Although giving them time during the day is not always possible due to my professional commitments, my evenings are spent petting and playing with them. My daughter who is equally in love with them leads the frolic and the fun spills over into mock fights, chases and running all over the house,” she briefs.
Time out…
“When Tiny and Hugo were younger it was easy taking them along on vacations, however as they have aged, considering the health implications of spending long hours on the road, we are not able to take them along. I am blessed that my entire family is well suited to long drives and my dogs took well to drives too. The most memorable experience was when we drove to Goa with Tiny and came back with Hugo joining our family at Goa,” she shares.
Caring for the canines…
Aprajita makes sure that her pets are given nutritious food and sufficient exercise. “We make it a point that they walk at least 15 minutes four times a day. They love to eat chicken stew and rice and as a special treat they love ice cream,” tells Aprajita.
On responsible pet parenting…
“Having a pet is as big a responsibility as having a child. In a city like Mumbai, considering the size of apartments that one inhabits and the time one spends away from home, one should be very clear about how one intends to give space and time to a pet,” concludes Aprajita.