Shon Randhawa has been championing Indian quiet luxury for decades

The term ‘slow fashion’ has become one of those overused catch phrases devoid of meaning, but it’s one that Shon Randhawa believes needs to be understood. At its core, it encourages the creation and consumption of clothing that is timeless and made using artistic techniques, rather than focusing on fast trends and mass production. It’s about crafting clothes so beautiful they are heirloom worthy. This philosophy is at the very centre of everything Randhawa does.

Randhawa is the co-founder of two fashion labels: Patine (with its flagship store at Delhi’s DLF Emporio) and Talitha, which recently opened a store in Delhi’s Khan Market. She is also the co-founder, alongside her mother, Chand Balbir Singh, of the Sutrakala Foundation, a non-profit organisation dedicated to enabling research, curation, and innovation in Indian textiles. The foundation is holding its first exhibition, Surface, in Jodhpur starting this week. Like her labels, it puts the spotlight on contemporary Indian crafts, with participation from twenty artists, including New York-based architect, designer, and artist Ghiora Aharoni; Jaipur-based textile artist Chinar Farooqui (of the fashion label Injiri); and New Delhi-based fashion designer Ashdeen Lilaowala.

Mayank Mansingh Kaul—a longtime friend and collaborator—has curated the exhibit. “Surface is the first-ever educational, non-commercial, and curated exhibition to focus on the art of Indian embroidery and surface embellishment, beyond how such techniques are expressed in garments, fashion, accessories, and home interiors,” he explains. It took Randhawa and Kaul two years of travelling to craft clusters across India to complete the curation.

“I find threadwork sexy”

The 57-year-old calls herself an enabler of the crafts. “I am not the artist, but I am on a journey to learn and to keep learning,” she says. This statement perhaps explains why, despite owning labels that sell at prestigious stores like Ogaan and Ensemble, you might not recognise her name right away. She prefers her craft and creations to speak for themselves.

Having studied design at NIFT Delhi and London’s Central Saint Martins, Randhawa realised the potential of India’s artisanal traditions early on in her career. “I felt that India had a competitive edge regarding production and the artistic capabilities of our craftsmen,” she says. Randhawa recalls how it was her mother who opened her eyes to India’s textiles and crafts. “My mother has always been very discerning. She had things woven for her, printed for her, designed for her. She had two looms in Banaras and two in Kanchipuram. She always had a karigar making jewellery or something of the like in the house. This was, of course, before we had brands or designers in India.”

All this led to the launch of Patine in 2006. The name, derived from ‘patina’, refers to a refined surface that develops character over time. “We wanted to work with artisanal handcrafted embroideries but make them relevant to today’s lifestyle in silhouettes and shapes that could be dressed up or down, worn repeatedly, and still feel special,” she says. Randhawa launched the brand with her constant muse—her mother—and Geeti Mehra, an industry veteran with expertise in design and production management. “I was not living in India full-time, so without Geeti’s experience, it would not have been possible to start a fashion label.”

Patine is known for its modern take on the lehenga skirt, the shrug, and its classic saris. “Our pieces are collectibles. Once a customer discovers our brand, they often become repeat buyers, hooked on the quality of the product,” says Randhawa. Her clientele includes women known for their patronage of crafts, such as art patron Shalini Jindal, founder of artisanal rug company From Jaipur with Love, Elizabeth Morrison, and crafts revivalist and curator Lavina Baldota. While all are repeat buyers, they are also repeat wearers of every piece they buy from the brand. Baldota credits this to, “Shon’s keen focus on research and design exploration, along with her discerning attention to quality of materials and technique.” While Randhawa is known for layering different craft forms, she is especially celebrated for her use of Parsi gara and chikankari embroidery. “I find threadwork sexy; it just has its own appeal and glamour,” she says of her patronage to the craft. Even much of the zari work she employs is in thread, rather than metallic wire, staying true to her aesthetic. At the atelier in Gurgaon, a team of over 200 looks after both her labels; she also works with an additional 100 embroiderers who specialise in the chikankari and zari.

During Covid, Patine’s DLF Emporio store shut down, reopening only a few months ago. On the upside, the pandemic underscored the label’s niche appeal. “We started doing by-appointment sessions at our atelier in Gurgaon, and our sales actually doubled in the first year of Covid,” she says. During that period they saw a new generation of customers, many of them daughters of her first clients, coming to Patine for their wedding clothes—think lehengas and shararas covered in gara embroidery. 

A bohemian younger sister

Patine’s success led to the birth of Talitha in 2013, a label conceived in the UK but made in India. While hosting trunk shows for Patine in London and Hong Kong, Randhawa noticed growing interest in clothes with Patine’s ethos but a more global feel.  So the kurta became a shirt or tunic, the sari a dress, and the shrug became a cape or jacket. Today the collection includes multiple pieces in denim. “I wanted a collection that felt at home in London, Delhi, or New York,” she says. Collaborating with fashion consultant Kim Hersov, their first collection was picked up by online retailer Matches, followed by Net-a-Porter, and sold at stores like Harrods and Neiman Marcus. “It was a heady feeling,” she recalls.

They soon had enough confidence to open a flagship boutique in London’s Notting Hill Gate. But like many independent labels, Talitha struggled during the pandemic. “The large stores wanted extended credit terms, and it just became untenable,” explains Randhawa. The label shut down, but last year, she revived it with Mehra and new partners, Abhineet Singh and Emilia Bergmans, founders of the Delhi-based creative agency The Brewhouse, who also hold equity in the label. Now, Talitha is a label made in India for India.

The new Talitha store opened its door in Khan Market last November with interiors by Marie-Anne Oudejans (of Bar Palladio fame). “The Indian market has blossomed. People are looking for dresses and individual blouses for daily wear, not just traditional clothes from homegrown labels,” she says. “Some of our bestsellers are also the pieces with the highest price tags. We have this cutwork jacket in pure, cream-coloured silk with intricate hand embroidery and beading. We’ve sold almost thirty pieces and are now making it in black with pre-orders already placed.” Next up, Randhawa hopes to open a store in Mumbai.

Clients like Baldota believe that Talitha is a brand that can disrupt the luxury prêt market. According to the curator, “The clothes are timeless, extremely well-crafted and styled, with the possibility of dressing up or dressing down. Every collection focuses on a different craft, making it unique, thus offering the client a wide variety to choose from.” Take their most recent collection that sees the brand’s intricate embroideries scattered over denim jackets and blazers, or their breezy line of whites—tops, shorts, dresses—that’s perfect for a holiday and spotlights techniques like cutwork and chikankari.

But for now, Randhawa’s focus remains on the exhibition Surface—a testament of her commitment to Indian crafts. As exhibition curator Mansingh Kaul describes her, “She wants to make a difference beyond her own name, and this is an essential attribute required for anyone who wishes to contribute to the field of Indian textiles.”

'Surface: An Exhibition of Indian Embroideries and Surface Embellishment as Art' is on until February 23 in Jodhpur.