A Bold New Movement

Amrita Sondhi's yoga line blends fashion, sustainability, and compassion

by HADANI DITMARS

Launching a new line of yoga wear in Vancouver’s already-crowded market is one gutsy move.

Make those pants, tops, and hoodies from sustainable fabrics and with fashion-conscious features, and donate 10 per cent of profits to a microlending foundation that helps people in Kenyan villages launch businesses of their own, and you’ve got something to set you apart.

But here’s the piece de resistance: use fibres, such as bamboo and soy, that have been grown and cultivated by those microloan recipients in Africa.

Now that’s a revolution. And although things haven’t quite reached the last stage, yet, it’s the long-term vision of Amrita Sondhi, founder and owner of Movement yoga wear, which launched last month.

The Kenyan-born Sondhi, 47, is a longtime fashion designer and entrepreneur, and an ambitious mastermind for personal and social change. She launched her first clothing design and wholesale company, Tayari, from the headquarters of her parents’ basement 20 years ago, overseeing designers in Europe and garment-makers in India, and selling the line personally to nearly 100 stores across Canada. Well-heeled Vancouverites may recall her boutique of the same name, which operated through the early 1990s in Point Grey. At that time, Tayari was one of a handful of Vancouver retailers offering what Amrita refers to as European-informed fashion.

The store thrived and had an illustrious clientele. “Lawyers, doctors, filmmakers…it was a very artistic, global community,” Amrita says, speaking quickly and with a slight accent. (Her grandparents migrated from India to Africa, and her parents moved the family from Kenya to Vancouver when she was 13.)

Tayari folded in 1996 after Amrita, already on the point of burnout, arrived at work to find the shop had been robbed for the second time in a matter of weeks.

“I sat down and started laughing,” Amrita recalls. “I mean, there was nothing else to do. I said, ‘Okay, this must be the universe saying STOP. Whatever track you’re on, stop it!’”

Although it was the end of Tayari, it wasn’t the end of Amrita’s career in the apparel industry. (How could it be? Her interest in fashion began at the age of three, when she became “obsessed by the sewing machine” and designed clothes for her troll dolls, those fuzzy-haired pop-culture icons that any ’60s kid remembers well.) After the robbery, the frenzied fashionista took a step back and realized it was time to cultivate balance. She spent the next few years working freelance, while getting her health back, learning meditation, Ayurveda, cooking, and yoga, which she later taught.

In 1997, Amrita was climbing the Grouse Grind when she recognized Chip Wilson, owner of Westbeach. He shared his plans for a new company that would cater to the growing market for women’s athletic wear; his philosophies sounded remarkably similar to her own.

She asked if he needed help. He did.

It was the start of an extraordinary working relationship, and a little company called Lululemon. “If you meet somebody and it makes sense, you do something with them pretty quickly—[you’re] on that synchronicity wavelength,” Amrita says. It was she who first suggested Lululemon carry yoga wear. Amrita is quick to give credit where it’s due, however: “When [Chip] sees something start taking off, he’s the one who starts running with it.”

Amrita oversaw the opening of Lululemon’s first retail shop on West 4th, and brought her clientele from Tayari. Although Wilson recognized her gift for sales and asked her to stay on to manage the store, Amrita left the company on the verge of her 40th birthday in 1999 to regroup once again.

Since then, Amrita has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, founded the microlending charity Pamoja Foundation (pamoja.org), and taught Ayurvedic cooking workshops. She now lives on Bowen Island, where she teaches yoga. The community was recently twinned with a Kenyan village, supported by the Pamoja Foundation.

Last year, Amrita published The Modern Ayurvedic Cookbook (Arsenal Pulp Press), which is full of accessible, delicious recipes inspired by Amrita’s circle of friends and family. “We’re more like a tribe,” she says of her posse of cousins who span the globe and include author and journalist Afshin Rattansi. The book contains information on balancing one’s doshas, or temperaments/constitutions, with the right kinds of foods.

Amrita says she is a combination of all three doshas—vata (air, characterized by creativity and a quick wit), pitta (fire—strong-willed and passionate), and kapha (earth—calm and grounded).

The doshas, explains Amrita, also extend to nations. “There is a real vata imbalance in the West,” she suggests. “We’re too much in our heads, running around all the time.” In India and rural Mexico, she says, there is much more kapha energy, so it can seem too slow for Western sensibilities.

The cookbook also offers various yoga positions, modelled by friends, that are specific to the three types of doshas. It was this part of the book that inspired Amrita to get back into the clothing business.

“I realized that the models would have to wear the right yoga gear, and a friend said, ‘Why don’t you design it yourself?’”

Movement’s yoga wear is designed to be worn interchangeably; much of it is also reversible. “Our motto is ‘buy less, not more,’” Amrita says. It’s available through select retailers, including Shed on West 10th, and online at movementglobal.com.

One question remains: What makes Amrita Sondhi tick?

Her answer: An amazing upbringing, and creativity.

“In Vancouver, you’re either creative or you die. We create the city. Everything we do really matters.”

Hadani Ditmars wears yoga gear often and does the downward dog several times daily.