It’s a sweet, fashionable love story. Fashion marketing student Neha Singh met Pranav Guglani on her last day at Pearl Academy of Fashion. The two immediately hit it off. “We were sweet on love” is how Guglani describes it. Two years later, the pair started dreaming together of having something of their own, and in 2014 they started Cord with a line of leather bags that they uploaded on a Facebook album. Now 11 years later, the brand boasts five stores—two in Mumbai, two in Delhi, and one in Hyderabad—and they’ve expanded their line to include women’s and menswear. Among their fans are celebrities like Kareena Kapoor Khan, Farhan Akhtar, Alaya F, and Neha Dhupia.
With Cord, the designers have created a whimsical, nostalgia-fuelled world of their own. One that makes for Instagram eye candy but also tugs at the heartstrings of those who long for a simpler time. Its filled with red-tiled cottages and verdant fields (that’s a print on a velvet coat), high-neck, smocked blouses that look like they could be worn by an English farmhand, polished leather accessories with brass hardware, wide-leg pants fit for a ’60s dandy, even saris covered in painterly landscapes of flowers.
“If there was anything that we were 100 per cent sure of, it was this: we wanted to create something that is more timeless, not season-based,” says Singh, who herself could be seen as her own best billboard. Her Instagram account is a delightful lesson in how to wear the brand’s distinctive, vintage-inspired designs, from their bishop-sleeved dresses embroidered with birds to their patchwork gilets and jackets that she wears with wide skirts and chunky brogues. Right before their anniversary celebrations in New Delhi, the pair spoke to The Nod about their new life as working parents and their love for men’s ties.
What were the two of you doing last night?
Neha Singh: Putting the baby to sleep. It takes an army.
Pranav Guglani: For the last six months, that’s what our routine has revolved around.
NS: And it’s not just once at night. It has to be done three times a night. I sing songs, nonsense lullabies.
PG: We feel a special kind of victory when it happens.
NS: Especially Pranav. He looks like he’s conquered it all.
What is it like being new parents who run their own business?
PG: There is no leave when you have your own company.
NS: I was working till the day I delivered. I actually went to the doctor for a regular check-up and we were supposed to come back to work after that visit. But then I found out that it was going to be an emergency C-section and I had to deliver right then. My life completely changed in that one hour. I did take a short 15- to 20-day break after it. But work still carried on. It’s nothing to be proud of, it was just very natural. Plus, it doesn’t really feel like work when it’s the both of us.
PG: We usually just naturally start discussing work over lunch or dinner. It’s become so much a part of us that we don’t even realise it. Like we say, Cord is our first baby.
So there is no work-life separation for you.
NS: None. That’s the best and the worst part.
Do you divide responsibilities?
NS: Honestly, that doesn’t really happen anymore. As much as we want to, there’s always a sort of co-dependency in terms of taking calls. We always want the other’s opinion.
Cord is replete with references to vintage fashion. What is your favourite era in fashion history?
PG: Mine would be the ’60s. I like the flared pants or even the oversized shirts with frill details. One of our most important shirts, the Farmer Top, is very ’60s-inspired; it has both frills and smocking.
NS: Mine is the ’20s. I love that it was flamboyant, but comfortable. Lots of loose silhouettes, almost lounge-like, but heavy on the accessories. And I also love the period in which the story Little Women is set. The older film [from 1994] really inspired me. The way they dressed was so simple, detail-oriented but functional.
