She is a humble seamstress raised in the slums of Mumbai, far removed from the jet set world of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. So when Babita Sabath’s colleagues told her Kate Middleton had worn the £140 dress she helped to make, her response was simply: ‘Who?’ The 35-year-old earns Rs 7,500 a month, equivalent to roughly 38p per hour, or £3 a day, as a finishing lady for the House of Anita Dongre, in Navi Mumbai, outside Mumbai, India - a dream she has worked hard to achieve.
She contributed towards the dress worn by Kate Middleton in Mumbai, earlier this week, by adding the tassels to the scarf – which was then redesigned into a belt - and was overjoyed to see ‘a big name’ wearing her work once she had realised who Kate was.
Babita told MailOnline: ‘I do not know who she is but I was told about her by my colleagues here. I was happy to know that someone like her wore the dress we worked on. I would like to thank her for acknowledging our hard work.’
It would take Babita two months to buy such a dress, if she spent every penny she earned on it, but the seamstress insists she is simply proud to work on these garments. ‘I never feel envious of famous people wearing the dresses we make that I can’t afford. It’s simply our honour and I feel glad that they acknowledge our hard work. I love my work so I am happy that people on the other side of the world enjoy what we make.’
The Duchess of Cambridge quickly fulfilled her promise to promote Indian designers by wearing a dress by unknown Mumbai-born designer Anita Dongre on her first day of her Indian royal tour this week.
MailOnline has had exclusive access inside the factory that made her dress and spoken to some of the women who worked on her pretty floral design whose lives are a million miles away from that of the Duchess of Cambridge.
The dress, priced at Rs 14,000 (£140), is now in huge demand with orders coming in from all over India and even as far as US and UK because of its georgette fabric, inspired by Jaipur prints.
Source: MailOnline
