A short conversation with the founder, recorded in the studio one afternoon in March.
On how it started
"With textiles, not with clothes. I was collecting swatches long before I had any intention of making anything. Chanderi from Madhya Pradesh, mashru. The label came later, and honestly it came out of frustration. I could find beautiful fabric and I could not find things made from it that I actually wanted to wear."
On made to order
"People assume it is a positioning choice. It is not. It is that I could not stomach cutting fabric for a size chart and then discounting whatever did not sell. If we make fifty pieces a month and all fifty have a person waiting for them, nothing is wasted, not the cloth, not the karigars' time, not anybody's money."
"It costs us customers. Someone who needs an outfit next week cannot buy from us. I have made my peace with that."
On staying small
"Every year somebody explains to me how to scale this. Move the embroidery out, work with three more workshops, cut the lead time in half. It would work commercially. It would also mean I stop being able to walk over to a frame and look at what is happening on it, and at that point I am running a company rather than making clothes."
On what she wants a piece to do
"Outlast the occasion. If someone wears a lehenga once at a wedding and it sits in a cupboard for a decade, we have failed at something, even if they loved it. The pieces I am proudest of are the ones people tell me they have re-worn in a way I did not design for."