The Kaahani of Kaahani // How it Started

In hindsight, it seems inevitable that I ended up choosing fashion. I grew up roaming Delhi textile markets with my grandmother, laying on the couch while watching my cousin sketch beautiful designs, and going luxury shoe shopping with my father. Using clothing as a medium of expression and art was natural and more than often an avenue for me to escape reality. The idea that an individual could make a statement about their identity solely due to the cloth they chose to put on their body was incredibly intriguing to me. In my mind, that was how you truly gained control over your self-concept.

And just as fashion seemed to be my inevitable path due to my environment, so did the decision to use it as a platform for social consciousness. I’ve spent my life living in a pristine suburbia of Texas, where I spent my days sipping iced coffees and living in privileged oblivion. But then, every year or so, I was uprooted from my comfortable naivety and put in the complicated, beautiful chaos that is India. It was there that I first recognized the raw nature of humans - hope, greed, ambition, spirituality, ignorance, beauty. It was eye-opening.

It was out of the duality of my Indian and American identity that Kaahani was born. I had seen both sides. I had seen privilege, comfort, luxury. But I had also seen loss, need, and hunger. I felt an intense desire to use the lucky hand of cards I was dealt with in my life to uplift others along with me. With my exposure to handicraft markets and love for fashion, it seemed natural and obvious to create a brand that provided beautiful products that tell the story of real people who have just as many hopes and dreams as I do. Many of the artisans in India practice crafts that have been carried down from generation to generation, and they continue to sell their handicrafts with a common goal in mind: sending their children to school. It is my hope that through the efforts of our brand, we can sustain these hardworking, talented people. Rather than going through third-party vendors, our clients are able to purchase straight from craftsmen. We carefully curate collections of artisan-made products, allowing them to earn much higher margins on their craft than they typically would through third-party vendors. Kaahani is our medium of choice to showcase the artisan trade. It is their story and mine.