The couple that collects Tabis together…

Delhi-based designer Bhaavya Bhatnagar has something akin to a uniform: a sleek, tailored jacket, a precisely cut skirt, a novelty bag, and—always—a pair of Maison Margiela Tabi shoes, the Parisian brand’s signature split-toe design.

Her partner in life and business, Rishi Baweja, too, is a stickler for a good suit. An obsession he shares with Bhatnagar? The aforementioned oft-memed, most divisive of shoes.

Between the two of them, Bhatnagar and Baweja run three labels: Nadi Nadi, a swimwear brand that reads like a love letter to the ocean; Hannan, a playful jewellery line sculpted from resin, metal, ceramic, and freshwater pearls with die-cast metal; and Bhaavya Bhaavya, a subversive evening-wear brand that rejects traditional glamour for something stranger, more sensual. The Tabi, then, seems the perfect embodiment of the aesthetic the two lean towards.

“The kind of reactions you get with Tabis, that’s one of the interesting parts about wearing [them],” says Baweja, “There are people who thought we actually cut into the shoes we buy to make them.”

“Our non-fashion friends,” Bhatnagar clarifies.

Bhatnagar got her first pair while at university in New York City—white split-toe, high-top sneakers created in collaboration with Reebok. “Ever since I was at FIT, I was just deeply obsessed with Margiela, what the brand stood for, and I had a few clothing pieces from them. After I got my first pair, it just never stopped,” she recalls. “I like a sense of oddness. And I think that’s why we’re so attracted to Margiela as a brand. There’s this essence of an eerie, unconventionally beautiful, out-of-the-box kind of feeling.”

Baweja agrees. “Both of us need to feel for the brand or the designer that we’re buying into. So, we really get into the world, the mind of the designer, and I think that’s why when we first visited the physical store, the one on Rue de Richelieu in Paris, it was crazy. [The experience] sometimes just cements what you already know. When you get into that space and you’re enveloped by that feeling and the staff...” The trip was also his formal initiation into the cult of the Tabi. (Bhatnagar left the store with her third pair.)

There’s something incredibly romantic about the way Baweja and Bhatnagar share their closet, their careers. Not matching, exactly, but in the same orbit. She leans gothic but futuristic—tulle skirts, tech-fabric tops (there are a couple of Marine Serre tops that keep popping up on her feed), and quirky jewellery and bags as accessories. He’s all structure and contrast—sharp tailoring, a soft hoodie or turtleneck for contrast, and the occasional pearl necklace. But the Tabis? They’re always the through-line.

Another unifying factor? “We’re both obsessed with outerwear, so we really love well-constructed jackets and blazers. So even in the summer, you’ll find us in blazers in this 40-degree heat,” laughs Bhatnagar.

Today, their Tabi collection—which, when combined, is 15 pairs strong—includes a pair of strappy black sandals, sneakers in black and white, classic boots in black and tan, and even the elusive glitter boot that would tempt the Tabi swiper back into action. When I ask if this is enough, they reply in unison: “No, it’s a growing collection.” Baweja explains, “It’s like you very much have to stop yourself from having it grow too quickly.” Bhatnagar can’t imagine an outfit without them.

What started as a fashion crush has turned devotional—a kind of language between them. A way of moving through the world just slightly off-kilter. At a friend’s wedding recently, a guest who spotted Baweja in the baraat scurried over to enquire if he, in fact, was wearing Tabis. “This Dutch girl spotted me from a distance and came up to me and asked, ‘Are you wearing Tabis?’ And then she held her skirt up and she was also wearing hers,” he recalls.

“Turns out, we had so many shared interests with her,” adds Bhatnagar.

They even wore Tabis to their own wedding reception—he, a burgundy Chelsea boot, and she, a white glitter boot that caught the candlelight. “When we were designing our outfits for the reception, Bhaavya had this caricature she drew and she knew that there was going to be a Tabi boot involved,” he explains. “I did a sketch, and I very naturally drew Tabis. That’s when we realised that he had to wear them,” adds Bhatnagar.

In the end, the Tabis are less about fashion and more about a feeling—odd, specific, slightly deranged in the best way. Like their closet, their brands, and their relationship, the shoes are a shared language: a little offbeat and totally intentional.