Inside Moonray’s surprising pivot to Chorus

A few months ago, it looked like Moonray, the luxury ready-to-wear label co-founded by Karishma Swali and her daughter Avantika Swali, was closing down. The label’s smart, tailored separates—beloved by women for their off-kilter elegance and wearability—were suddenly marked down online in a prolonged sale. Its flagship store in Kala Ghoda, too, closed without notice. In group chats and at office desks, fans of the brand began speculating: Was Moonray closing? Had the brand folded? It seemed unlikely that something so cherished and considered would just cease to exist.

Then came the announcement last month: Moonray wasn’t gone. It had evolved. On the brand’s Instagram, co-founder and creative director Karishma Swali unveiled Chorus—not a new label, exactly, but a complete reimagining of the working girl’s favourite homegrown label. The new project expands Moonray’s quiet, craft-led sensibility into something more ambitious: a multidisciplinary atelier that expands its vocabulary beyond fashion into art, objects, rituals, and even food.

“When Avantika and I began Moonray three years ago, our whole idea was to place craft at the centre in a way that’s accessible and can be enjoyed every day,” Karishma says over a video call. “For her generation, seeing craft as something contemporary was so important to its perpetuation.” That generational conversation—between continuity and change—still anchors their work. But as Moonray found its footing and garnered admirers, Karishma began to feel something else tugging at her. “Over time, we began to feel the need for a deeper dialogue. One that allows craft immersion in a way that is not seen as decorative or opulent but as part of our culture and our collective identity.”

If Moonray was an ode to simplicity, its next chapter is a study in expansion—not louder but broader and more dimensional. Karishma describes Chorus as “a living atelier that effortlessly jumps between practices and disciplines”. The name, she says, comes from the idea of harmony, “of many voices coming together and celebrating the beauty of a collective act”.

At the heart of Chorus is its design collective: LVMH Special Jury Prize-winning designers Tina and Nikita Sutradhar, artist and designer Joohi Mehta, embroidery specialist Renu Sahu, and 13th-generation master artisans led by co-founder and creative director Karishma Swali and co-founder Avantika Swali.

“You could tell that Moonray was me and my daughter,” Karishma says of some of Moonray’s older silhouettes, like the miniskirts and raw-denim jackets. “With Chorus, it’s far more age-agnostic, experimental, and sculptural.” Their ready-to-wear offering has evolved to include shapes and silhouettes that are more architectural than before: asymmetrical midi skirts that twist off-axis, structured jackets with microbeaded florals, and dresses in cuts that feel nostalgic and futuristic all at once.

Edition, the made-to-measure couture line rooted in rare and revived craft practices, pushes that idea even further. For its first collection, the team began researching 18th-century lacework—specifically the Italian reticella technique that had long fallen out of circulation. This led them to also look at the costumes of the period for inspiration on silhouettes. “For instance, we looked at corsetry from that period—it was so beautiful but also so restrictive—almost like a cage,” Karishma says. “We wanted to keep the sculptural aspects but remove the sense of constraint. So, there’s this interplay between something intimate and something expansive.”

As a result, the garments in Edition tend to have an element of performance. A standout piece from the collection is a skirt in silk moiré featuring tension-and-release pleats that resemble the bellows of an accordion. “That detail also came from a historical reference, but originally it existed on the inside of the garment. In the original construction, these wave-like formations at the hip held everything together, and we thought it would be incredibly playful to bring that mechanism outside.”

Karishma describes the Edition wearer as someone who values craft but still wants something light, modern, and a little playful. “It’s reserved for a moment where you want to pause and invest in something that you’d like to pass down. You’re acutely aware that you’re honouring the past when you decide to choose an Edition ensemble. So, I think it’s for people who are able to appreciate the place of craft within our culture.”

At the core of Chorus is the belief that craft is a medium, not a motif. Karishma draws deeply from her three decades of work at Chanakya, the Mumbai-based embroidery and design atelier known for collaborating with global fashion houses like Dior and Fendi. “Within craft, there’s an innate wisdom and sensitivity,” she says. “Practitioners do it more for alignment with themselves than for anything else. We wanted to present craft in that light—as a medium that allows you to align with yourself.”

That spirit of alignment runs through Chorus’s other verticals, extending far beyond the wardrobe and into daily life. In addition to ready-to-wear and Edition, there’s Chorus Concept, an art and design studio for sculptural objects; Chorus Wellness, a small-batch apothecary; and Chorus Café, a new restaurant inside the Mumbai flagship. “We wanted to not restrict ourselves to fashion anymore, to really create without condition, and to be led, almost through a spirit of submission.”

Concept shifts the lens from the body to object. “We wanted to explore women’s art practices across the globe—things like basketry and wicker work that are often dismissed as domestic when they’re actually fine art,” says Karishma. Think woven sculptures, throws crafted out of regenerated cashmere, and mouth-blown glassware. The Wellness and Café verticals extend that idea of handcraft into the sensory realm. “There’s so much ancient wisdom within the country about how we align with nature. We wanted to mix that with contemporary science and apothecary—to make things that are lighter, easier to use.”

And the café? “The menu is inspired by craft,” she laughs. “You’ll find the Chorus Quilt (house-made dips served with warm pull-apart bread), a woven salad, a woven pasta—dishes that play with the same ideas of harmony and making by hand.” The space, she adds, is meant to be a pause: a place to read, reflect, and have unhurried conversations. Everything is conceptualised and designed in-house “with communities we’ve known for years—from the glassmakers in Firozabad and to the nuns in Kerala whom I’ve known for two decades, who helped us formulate our botanical oils. It’s very much a collective act,” she adds.

Moonray’s pivot to Chorus has been in the works for over a year and a half. All of it comes together in the brand’s new flagship, opening this week in Kala Ghoda—in the same space where Moonray once stood but reimagined as something more elemental. “We wanted to stay in Kala Ghoda because it’s the cultural hub of Bombay—there are museums, galleries, and soon, it’ll be a pedestrian-only space. You can really feel the pulse of the city there,” says Karishma.

The new flagship unfolds across three levels, designed to follow what the creative director calls a “natural elemental flow”. “We looked at nature and how there’s so much harmony even with different elements coming together. So, we brought in water, air, and light—that interplay became central to the space.” Inside, the materials mirror that philosophy: there’s blue marble that’s reminiscent of a cloudy sky reflected on water, soft light that pools and shifts through the day... “We wanted it to feel like nature was within the store,” she explains. “A space where you can pause, take your time, and experience craft slowly.”

Each floor features large tactile artworks—woven and tufted pieces that invite touch rather than distance. “Behind me right now,” she says, gesturing on our video call, “is a large crafted textile piece we call ‘The Offering’. On every level, there are pieces visitors can touch and feel, see the interplay between techniques like couching, weaving, and carpet tufting.”

The second floor houses both the Chorus Café and the Edition couture salon—a deliberate pairing. “With Métier at Moonray, we saw that clients often come in groups and spend hours with us. We wanted them to have a space where they can pause, reflect, maybe have a coffee. And for all the bored boyfriends and husbands, a place of their own,” she laughs. The space will also host monthly craft-focused workshops led by Tina Sutradhar. As much as it’s a store, the flagship feels like an installation—a meditation on craft, community, and time.

Address: Chorus, Mittal Avenue, Fort, Mumbai 400001