It was a vintage tunic that led Michelle Silva to found Amisha, the label she designs in Boston. It was beautifully colored in saturated hues of red and pink, block printed on a white background.
“Block prints are like artwork on fabric,” she says. “I love the irregularity of it, how the ink just drips onto the fabric.” She found the tunic, made of lightweight cotton gauze, in Los Angeles 20 years ago, and it became one of her favorite items of clothing — one that’s versatile and packs well and that she’s brought with her on travels around the world.
As a child growing up in Walpole, Silvi dreamed of being a fashion designer. But self-doubt got in the way, and fearing failure at art school, she changed course, studying psychology and neuroscience in hopes of becoming a psychiatrist. After graduating and working at a hospital for a year, she had a moment of clarity: “I realized I absolutely could not picture my life like this,” she says. “Whatever I needed to do to work in the fashion industry, even just to get my foot in the door, I would do it.”
The move — and hard work — paid off. Over the next decade and a half, Silvi navigated a succession of positions at Liz Claiborne, Sigrid Olsen, and eventually at the TJX Companies, where her role managing private-label operations led her to factories all over the world.
“It was a huge experience for me,” she says. “Very entrepreneurial. I found myself doing everything from sketching designs to negotiating prices with suppliers.” Repeat trips to India left an impression, too. “I developed a deep love for Indian textiles. Everything there is just so colorful and beautiful.”
It was on a vacation, however, that her next steps clicked into place. “I had moved back to Boston, and I had it in the back of my mind that I eventually wanted to do my own thing,” Silvi says. She went to Buenos Aires, where, she says, “I was surrounded by stores and street fairs, all selling beautiful items from India. And I realized I wanted to do that.”
After leaving her corporate job, she traveled around Asia for a few weeks with her tunic, bringing it into meetings at factories to show what she wanted to create and learning more about the manufacturing process at each stop. She came home, signed a lease for a small storefront in Boston’s South End, and began importing a curated selection of handmade wares from Jaipur.
Interest was high, but foot traffic in her south-of-Washington-Street neighborhood was low. Frustrated, Silvi participated in the Boston Open Market one Saturday and found the experience to be much more fulfilling. She never looked back.
Today, most of Silvi’s Amisha Design sales still come from markets, including the Wellfleet Makers Market on Mayo Beach, where she’s been showing her designs since 2017. Staying at her father’s summer place in Dennis makes coming to the Outer Cape easy enough, she says, and she loves the Wellfleet customers. (The last day of this gathering of craftspeople is Aug. 29, but besides appearing in other markets around New England, Silvi sells online all year round.)
Once on the path of makers markets, Silvi turned from importing to designing and arranging for artisanal manufacturing of her own creations in Jaipur. She designs two major collections each year — one for spring and summer and the other for fall and the winter holidays. While she makes some of the colors a bit darker for fall and winter, she likes to keep the palette bright and cheerful.
“Block print is known for its lightness, so I try to continue that all year,” she says. Come fall, she says, she layers the dresses, adding tights, boots, and a great velvet blazer for cooler days.
When she’s not designing and selling, Silvi spends her time in a way that takes her full circle: coaching others. Since starting her business, she says, she’s grown in ways she would not have otherwise: “I’ve not only learned how to be resourceful, keep learning, and set meaningful goals, but also to take time for reflection and always connect back to my ‘Why?’ ”
