People:Beachwear designers display fabric installations

Shivan Bhatia and Narresh Kukreja, designers and founders of the fashion label Shivan & Narresh, were in the city recently to create ‘Chivas Studio - The Blend’, a visually immersive experience of the four notes of Chivas (luxury blended Scotch whisky brand).

They created four curated installations, styling them with fabric. “Each corner in the installation has a unique flavour — creamy, fruity, floral and citrus — and the location is spatially designed according to this,” Narresh told Metrolife.

An installation by Narresh and Shivan.

The label Shivan & Narresh focuses on resort and beachwear. So why did they take up something so different?

“We are now designing celebrations. We did a wedding in Vietnam recently. It’s a step forward from the swim and resort wear that our label stands for,” the 33-year-old designer said.

He added, “Even though travel is in the DNA of the category, the product has to be very destination wedding-centric.”

The duo created India’s first luxury beachwear brand. But their journey wasn’t a smooth sail. Narresh explains why.

“Indian mills didn’t make swimsuit fabric, so we didn’t have easy access to the raw material. The labour we hired didn’t know how to stitch a bathing suit. Retailers didn’t know how to sell a bathing suit. If you just hang two swimsuits between ten lehengas and sarees, it doesn’t sell,” he laughed.

The main hurdle wasn’t any of this, he said. It was the women themselves. “Culturally, we are told to wear many layers of clothing; and for women to feel confident about their body type and love themselves for who they are was their biggest challenge. Only the swimsuit falls into the self-love category which none of the fashion brands in India stands for,” he said.

Shivan and Narresh are planning to venture into mainstream couture.

This August, they will be presenting their first couture collection and start taking appointments.