It wasn't hard for me to come up with what I wanted to do since I practically spent my entire childhood around artisans and crafts.  Watching and learning from them, I have great respect for artisans in India and wanted to do something that would allow me to work with them and uplift them.  Liminal is born from my heart. The idea of merging the two main and distinct spheres of my childhood in India and my adult life here in New York. With a focus on spotlighting an art form for each collection that I create. All while raising awareness for the craft. 

The first collection ‘Dawn’ was built sitting in my living room in our apartment in New York City. Fortunately, I wasn’t able to travel to India at the time however I was able to gather a library of swatches to get me started. Dawn featured a dreamy palette in soft dusty pink, watery blue, light taupe and Ecru, the color of the raw fabric- off-white. I remember going to the local hardware store to pick out the Benjamin Moore paint swatches in order to create these colors. I had a vision and I wanted to get it just right.  

One cannot think of India and craft as it relates to textiles without mentioning ‘Lucknowi Chikankari’ hand embroidery from Lucknow, India. Ever so elegant, some call it poetry on fabric. Donned by royalty, it is believed that it was brought to India by the Mughals hundreds of years ago. It was a really easy decision for me to select Lucknowi Chikankari for the first collection. 

Given the colors I chose for the collection and the elegant chikankari hand embroidery, I decided to add a little drama with the fabrics. The collection featured 10 styles in total and I used so many unique and different fabrics to create them. Each style in this collection featured different types of embroidery and stitching technique and varied fabrics like cotton net, cotton khadi, viscose dobby, georgette, lurex woven sparkly georgette, cotton silk and linen. The collection was built to be versatile, dresses could be used as a tunic. To take you from the city to the beach. From daytime to night time. Casual day in town to a wedding party. I even styled the Ahalya maxi dress as my costume last Halloween with a hat and dressed as a ‘Prairie girl’ and walked around the townhomes trick or treating in the west village in New York City with my family and friends. And some people even complimented my costume!

The collection launched at a pop up in New York city on Sep 30, 2022. It was by invitation only for friends and family. And boy was I overwhelmed to receive the positive feedback and the support. It was the first time I was putting myself out there. I was a bit anxious. 

After the heartwarming response and appreciation for my creation, I knew it couldn't be a one time thing. This was such a special experience I decided to keep it going and launched our website. From that came the natural progression to work on the second collection: Reverie. To create something fun and feminine using the most delicious handwoven fabric ‘Kota Doria’  from Kota along with the age-old technique of hand blocking. Both Kota Doria and the art of handblocking are crafts from my state of Rajasthan. 

For Reverie; I went to India in November after the first collection was launched and created some swatches using different art forms. In March I returned to Jaipur during spring break to visit my family and I worked on completing the look of the new collection. I spent most of my vacation working and enjoyed every bit of it. This was a vacation like no other and I learned so much of about the art of hand blocking. Having worked so hands on, I have so much respect for the artisans and the craft. This process was very fulfilling, I hope I have done justice in translating the craft into this collection. I hope you get to enjoy the pieces as much as I have enjoyed creating them. They are truly unique in personality. 

I am so grateful to my friends and family for their support. Has it been easy? No. Does it bring me joy? Yes. It has been very satisfying and I can't wait to see what the next year holds.