Meet the rose and the warrior behind Gul Sohrab

The story behind the name

Amit Malhotra: “My grandparents used to call me Gul while growing up and that has stayed with me. Meanwhile, Saurabh became Sohrab because it’s just so much more poetic. Gul ultimately means ‘flower’; I think rose. And Sohrab is a warrior, or something that illuminates. It makes sense, because my sensibility is ultimately softer and delicate. And you’ve seen Saurabh’s clothes—they’re very structured with a lot of geometry. So, we complement each other that way.”

Both their grandparents were tailors

AM: “My grandmother was a really renowned tailor in her own circle. People would wait six months to get things made by her.”

Saurabh Kumar: “I don’t remember meeting him, but my grandfather was a tailor back in Allahabad. Even now relatives say that I look like him, that I’m built like him.”

A pre-emptive brand launch

AM: “On a whim I announced that I was launching a brand with Saurabh on Instagram (soon after he asked me if I would), but it was before I said yes to him. The response was overwhelming; I had, like, 5,000 DMs to go through. This was months before we had a product.”

SK: “I was like, okay, you’ve announced it now. You can’t back out. I guess that’s a yes.”

AM: “We were both so anxious about the decision. I had an entire career in publishing behind me as a book designer with Harper Collins and Oxford University Press. Saurabh has worked with couture houses like Anita Dongre and Shantnu & Nikhil. I wanted to be taken seriously. Then when we launched, everything sold out in three minutes. I was so grateful but I thought, okay, maybe they’re friends, so they want to be supportive. Then when we did our second drop, that sold out in a few minutes again. That made us realise it’s getting serious. It’s not just fun.”

The first collection

AM: “Saurabh and I started with literally ₹10,000 each, the antique or vintage textiles that we had been collecting over time, and a logo that we paid a friend to design. Neither of us came from a business family, there’s no generational wealth. It was literally just a result of my 18 years of working in publishing and Saurabh’s time in fashion.”

SK: “It’s taken me three or four years to create the silhouettes we have right now.”

AM: “He’s very particular. People have been asking us: When are you going to make more? But we wouldn’t release something we’re not satisfied with. Although, the patterns we’ve created have evolved so much in the last year.”

Erykah who?

AM: “Erykah Badu shared one of our videos and we got so many international orders after that. We sent a load of shirts to the US and in the next six months we shipped to 30 or 40 countries. I’ll be honest, though: I didn’t know who she was, but, of course, Saurabh did.”

Does clothing need a gender?

AM: “I don’t think I’ve ever shopped in the men’s section.”

SK: “We don’t have a men’s and women’s differentiation. It’s only the trousers that fit a bit differently for women, but that’s not as much about gender as it is about body type.”

AM: “We have a client from Saudi Arabia who told us that she shares our clothes with her husband and her mother. Another couple in the UK also wear each other’s clothes. When we launched our wrap skirts, we had initially photographed them on a female model, and apart from one or two orders nothing really moved. Then I convinced Saurabh to pose and suddenly we got a tonne of orders.”

SK: “It’s like people saw the same thing in a new way. Maybe the design kind of transcends the idea of gender. It positions us as a brand that’s a little more fun, that’s making clothes that prioritise ease and confidence.”

Manifesting these style icons

SK: “I think Jackie Shroff is quite stylish.”

AM: “I would love to see Zeenat Aman in our kimono jacket and pants.”

Will we see a Gul Sohrab bridal collection?

AM: “We actually had a Gul Sohrab groom last—a Sri Lankan client who married a Dutch man in Prague. And then we had someone who wore one of our outfits to their sister’s wedding. I personally don’t know if we would do lehenga cholis. In India we’re so good at embroidery and embellishment, but we wanted to really focus on the silhouettes, on making something unexpected.”

SK: “I’ve done the bridal stuff for other brands and I’ve learnt that it needs a lot of patience and it’s very competitive. Instead, I want to focus on what we’re doing and see where that leads us.”

Work is life and life is work

AM: “Saurabh is mainly the creative head and I look at social media, styling, and other things, although there is always an overlap. We’ve had so many fights in the last year and a half! We’ve broken up, left each other’s house in the middle of the night, taken the two dogs, the bags, and everything. Luckily, the desire to stay together is stronger than the desire to separate.”

SK: “We’re both highly creative people and it’s an ongoing process to find the right frequency where we can be together personally and professionally.”