Let’s start with Eka’s journey. How did you get here?

I launched Eka in 2011. I was at a point where there was no going back to mainstream fashion. I had already worked in the industry for over a decade, with National Institute of Fashion Technology for about six years and ITC Wills for five years. The industry was very different at that time and I couldn't do what I wanted to do. 

My parents are from Kurukshetra and I have lived across different towns in Haryana, UP and Rajasthan. My roots are very rural in that sense. I always loved making clothes and never dressed as per the norm. I would never wear a kurta and salwar. Because of the kind of clothes I used to wear— big silhouettes, bohemian shapes with trousers— everyone in my hometown used to call me ‘jhablo’. 

I used to feel very disconnected when I was part of fashion. The 1990s were about glamour: the emphasis was on pretensions of fashion, on moulding your personality. I did try when I was in the U.K. for my studies but I realised that I just don't fit in. During my time in the industry, I did a lot of craft projects with NIFT and that is when I started connecting the dots. I started thinking of fashion as part of our everyday life. It doesn't have to be for the red carpet. It's not about executive dressing, it's not about power dressing. It is actually about how you express yourself to the world and it is a very powerful tool that we undermine a lot. 

So, I started my line and it was a big hit in all the Indian exhibitions I took part in. A few years later, I took it to London where I found really good retailers. One thing led to the other and before I could establish a label properly, I already had an interesting wholesale market abroad. 

Was it time for a new expression from India?

Maybe it was a movement, a large movement where women wanted to break free of stereotypes and embrace their individuality. You are an Indian without wearing a saree or paisley, without wearing henna, a bindi or sindoor. You're more than a stereotype and more than a gimmick of India. You're a woman who reads and travels, who has notions of how the world should be. But as it happens with stories from underdeveloped and developing countries, a lot of the narratives about women get lost. I wanted to tell these stories. I wanted to tell people that the Indian woman is not coy in the kind of choices she makes or the kind of clothes she wears. 

How much of your style is affected by Kurukshetra: from the people you saw and from the world around you? 

Honestly, I have moved far away from the notions of what Kurukshetra could do to me as a person. I don't think I am going to rely on what I learnt in my childhood for the rest of my design sensibility but I can't say that I disown it. I am very much a part of it. I like the little world that you can create and just leave the everyday behind. Design evolves forever, that’s the only way it is. Creativity changes literally every second of the hour. 

How do you arrive at the fabric of your choice? 

In terms of our foundation, they were very clear. I am going to work with handwoven, sustainable, and breathable textile, because in this country you cannot step out of your car if you're not wearing a textile that breathes on you or one that allows you to breathe and move. We need room around us. Everything about what our ecosystem is, is so different from the rest of the world. 

How do you go about discovering craft clusters?

This has been my one constant through the eleven years of Eka. My ecosystem exists where it was in the last ten years. There is some magic in doing the same thing well again and again. My craftspeople only make a 300-count of khadi or a 100-count of cotton, or maybe he works with me on a 60s linen. That is what they do day in and day out. All I do is tweak the design from time to time. For instance, I introduce a jamdani, a dobi, or a different colour. 

And of course, we work with different shapes, styling, motifs; we change colours, we dress up the women differently, we create different sets and backgrounds. But we do not change the story we want to tell the world. It is still about the same people who are at the backend. 

How have the artisans changed over this long period of engagement? 

They are more modern now. They have more resources. They have more communication. They have more retail places. They can do more exhibitions across Iindia. They connect to the audience directly, and even sell on WhatsApp.

Would you say artisanship is in a better situation today than it was ten to fifteen years ago? 

Monetarily, for sure. They have more avenues to sell now. But the truth is, they are so rich in what they do. I pay them what they want to charge me because I don't have an option when it is handloom. If I want to make a handloom but there is a power loom alternative — say something equally good is available for about 200 rupees a metre, nobody in the world is going to buy it for 1200 rupees a metre.

Is that a reason why prEt hasn’t picked up in India?

We didn’t develop a street language in India. You know we had the whole era of the princely states. They were the biggest celebrities of their time. We still have that nostalgia. It’s some kind of generic behaviour where people feel they look more beautiful when they dress in some rich brocade or whatever. 

I personally feel that from the zardozi and minakari of the royalty, we went straight into the East India Company culture where everybody just wanted to become Western and wear pants and shirts. Amid all this, the crafts that thrive on the streets of India were forgotten. I see a woman wearing Eka and just blending right in with the streets of India. You don't really have to fit her into a royal setting to make her belong to India.

How do you incorporate traditional crafts in your work?

Block printing is one craft I've worked with for over ten years. Honestly speaking, block-printed garments are available on every third street in India at different price points. It’s a craft that has existed years before Eka and will continue to exist hopefully.But I want to be that one indispensable link in the entire chain. I want people to say that we rendered something more important, industrious, and elevated the craft. People have to really wear your clothes and absorb the beauty of it. Just hanging it as a painting is not going to help carry the craft forward to the next generation. 

It has to be something that you could wear anywhere in the world, and people look at it and say, “Wow, where is this from?” You know the way we’ve started appreciating Banarasi saris. We’ve appreciated a lot of these couture things that are made in India for the world. So why not this street craft? Block printing is a street craft and I think that Indian street fashion hasn't really found its place in the world yet.

What role does story-telling play in your work? 

When I was younger, I was in a boarding school. I think the library was my biggest resource. I read fairy tales, and then books like Pride and Prejudice. These had such different notions of fashion. While I was growing up, the gypsy movement, which influenced the fashion of the likes of Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi, was really big in India. In my head, dresses don’t have to fit you like a corset. It doesn’t really have to seduce people. You don’t really have to draw attention to yourself all the time.

How important is destination as a part of the narrative? 

Very. How well do you refresh yourself? How well do you tell stories with newer characters and people and backdrops? The more I travel, the more I see of India, the more I want to include all of it. I want to talk to people from all over because I think I have that agency where people are listening when the brand is saying something. Why not use it? Why not use it to open different windows and to India? 

How important is this communication?

You know the pressure of telling your story every day. Communicating to the audience. Telling them who you are; what you do; what’s your backend; what’s your front end; what is it that your clothes do to people; why you sell at a certain price point; where you make; how you make.

The pressure really mounted on us, particularly after the lockdown. So I had to dig deep, do my research, and talk to experts. Earlier, designers never faced this kind of pressure because they were an enigma to the world. Their products weren't so visible. They didn't have communication strategies in place. They had product strategies. They had marketing strategies. But now we are dealing with a very different world.