A textile-forward brand that’s the opposite of fast fashion

In Small is Beautiful (1973), economist EF Schumacher argued that while capitalism improved living standards, it did so at the cost of deteriorating culture. He advocated a shift toward sustainable development centred on human well-being, simplicity, and harmony with nature. Boito, a luxury clothing label founded by Richa Maheshwari in 2022, operates in the same vein.

It all started when Maheshwari—after a 15-year-long career at software company SAP—took a sabbatical after the pandemic to travel across her home state of Odisha. The trip was an eye-opener. While staying in the homes of locals, she discovered the multitude of weaving communities, each with distinct aesthetics and motifs, spread across the state—and that textile-making was at the heart of indigenous family life. However, people struggled to make ends meet despite having mastery over their skill set. “My husband works in the social impact sector, so a lot of that thinking was rubbing off on me in a big way,” she says. “I asked myself: How do I make my next few years slightly more meaningful?” And thus, Boito was born.

Maheshwari isn’t outright interested in sales. The main objective of her label is rather simple: celebrating Odisha’s textile traditions in a way that brings dignity to the people crafting them. She knows that she can’t beat the churn of fast fashion, but she’s not competing with mall brands, nor is she interested in scaling Boito to become a behemoth that mass-produces clothing. “We’re in the opposite game, really, where we encourage the weavers to show us the most complicated patterns they have inherited—patterns that are time-consuming and laborious—and that they want to pass on to the next generation. We cannot scale this business because it takes a lot of time and love and care to produce each piece.”

When it came to choosing the silhouettes upon which these textiles would rest, Maheshwari wanted the garments to have global appeal. For this, she called on designer Anshu Arora, of erstwhile label A Small Shop. “I was a big fan of her garments and used to buy a lot from A Small Shop. The way the garments used to fit and fall on the body was very cool. I cold-called Anshu, and she agreed.”

The result is a line of contemporary, wearable garments—loose kimono-style jackets, easy trousers, and overlays of various lengths. Each piece tells a unique story as the motifs are picked by the craftspeople themselves. Think a jacket woven with imagery of yoga asanas or a blazer with a turtle motif that reflects the community’s links to the sea. “People in Odisha don’t tend to move around, so there’s no adulteration or mixing of craft in that sense. Because of this, the textile traditions have remained pure as they’ve just been passed down generationally in those families or in clusters within those landscapes,” Maheshwari explains. Boito is not so much a label as much as it is a platform for collaboration.

The garments are the antithesis to what you might randomly add to your cart on a whim and consider your impulse purchase of the day. Each piece takes weeks to complete due to its complexity, and the label aims to keep it that way so that the artisans can go on creating work without compromising on the pace of their lives. “They make what they want, but we tweak it for a global audience. If you want a coat from Boito, you won’t get it off the rack. Most of our customers are now used to waiting for two to three months after they place an order,” Maheshwari says.

Now, in its second year, Boito is travelling to Goa for a special exhibition-cum-pop-up at Whalesong Gallery from December 15 to January 5. “At Whalesong, we are gatekeepers of memories and of craft. We try to combine energy in every way, especially through collaboration, as nothing works alone,” says Sonal Chowdhary, co-founder of the gallery. For her, the collaboration with Boito was a no-brainer. “We have very few brands and pieces, but they come from the loveliest people trying to do beautiful things. And I worked with Anshu way back. It’s almost like coming full circle. I really believe in human connections and that appropriate moments find us. It’s like it was meant to be.”

Srimoyi Bhattacharya, Whalesong’s closest collaborator, describes Boito’s clothing as “collector pieces”, the kind you wear occasionally, but safely keep in your closet and eventually pass down to your children. “It feels more like an art display than a fashion pop-up,” she says. As for what’s next for Boito? Keep an eye out for the label in 2025 when it will showcase an installation at the India Art Fair, in the hope of growing public appreciation for Odisha’s crafts and its people.

Odisha in Ceremony: Ritual & Practice from the Land of Artists, an exhibition and pop-up by Boito, will be on from December 15 until January 5, 2025, at Whalesong Gallery, Parra, Goa