This past March, Melody Ehsani the Los Angeles-based entrepreneur and founder of the streetwear brand ME. was named the first creative director of women’s business at Foot Locker. The announcement not only heralded the inclusion of women’s perspectives in sport
and sportswear as an increasingly powerful force; it also highlights crucial mainstream support for Ehsani’s visionary outlook when it comes to intertwining design and activism.
Granted, this notion has become quite buzzy over the last year in particular. But when you consider that Ehsani, who launched her line in the mid-2000s, has embraced this ethos from the very start, you see a greater picture of what she’s accomplished and where she’s heading.
Mriga Kapadiya and Amrit Kumar are the founders of
, a New Delhiâbased label that merges traditional Indian crafts and textiles with streetwear silhouettes. The brand also functions as a creative platform for POC voices and offers design and diversity consultation.
On a warm afternoon in March, after sharing a delicious spread of Kashmiri goodies and pani puri, we cut a buttercream cake in our New Delhi studio. We were saying goodbye to our studio manager, a rock who had kept our team laughing for years. It was bittersweet to see her leaveâshe was moving to Mumbai, about to get married, and giddy with excitement. Afterwards, the two of us sat down with our little chai cups filled to the brim to discuss how cute our team was, and finalize plans for NorBlack NorWhiteâs 11th birthday sale on April 20.
Ranveer Singh and the late actor Irrfan Khan’s son, Babil, may have slayed the red carpet with their eccentric style statement in skirts and flared palazzos, but make no mistake, India has owned this gender-fluid fashion moment for eons. Why must only girls wear pink? Or, for that matter, are suits or bomber jackets a male thing?
Delhi-based designer Suket Dhir would disagree. The eclectic designer has a line for women, uncharacteristically named He for She that comes with a distinct masculine silhouette. “This is the land of the angrakha, achkan, mundu, dhoti, kurta, shalwar, churidar and more. Each of these is as much a garment of the men as the women,” says Dhir. Likewise, the kediyu tops of Rajasthan or the shirts paired with ghaghras or shalwars in Haryana and Punjab, respectively. All more or less genderless.