Lara Dutta has worn her clothes, and so has Kirron Kher. Pali Waraich, 85, has even designed for Tarun Tahiliani’s studio. Yet in her 40 years of work, the story she returns to is about an old man in a lane, whose daughters made crochet that nobody paid for properly. “That really touched my heart,” she says. “I thought I would start crochet work and pay them well.”As an Army wife, she was already deep in welfare work. “I used to do a lot of welfare for jawans’ wives,” she says. That meant teaching them handwork like crochet. Her husband’s last posting, in Mumbai, gave that work its big break.“In Mumbai, Tarun Tahiliani noticed my work and approached me with a big order: an all-hand-crochet exhibition in England. It was a great success,” she says. It also gave her the push to go further. “Gradually, I went from slum areas to all types of areas, wherever I could find poor women to employ.”Over 200 women now work with her, and it is Rabia she talks about first. “She was divorced, and the way her in-laws treated her was really shocking. So I thought, why not make her economically independent, so that she can earn her own money? She stayed with me, and she is still with us. Now if you meet her you’ll see how confident she is, and she is financially independent.”Her collection, Pali’s Zameen-Asmaan, is named for the two ends of that chain, the ones who make and the ones who wear. “The people who are making are on Zameen, and the people who are wearing it are on Asmaan,” she says. Everything is handmade, and the designs are sophisticated on purpose. “One should look graceful. That is designing,” she says. Her ideas come from television and from observing the world around her. “I keep watching TV. I am very particular. If I see a design that inspires me, I try to give it proper shape.”Money, she says, is not what keeps her going. “Mine is not very commercial. I don’t want to take that money home. I believe in simple living, but I want to spend money on others.”She has never thought of it as a career. “I never did it as a professional. I just kept making designs and holding exhibitions to continue my welfare work. It gives me satisfaction.”The exhibition is at Hotel Aroma, Sector 22, Chandigarh, until October 23, from 10 am to 8 pm.