On a sunny morning in New Delhi, Nikhil Mehra descends to the ground floor of their family home in New Friends Colony with Julio, his light-brown cocker spaniel, in tow. The crew is setting up equipment to shoot a video for The Nod. He walks over to the monitor and muses, âLetâs take everything upstairs, the light is much better.â And up we go. His older brother and the brains behind the business, Shantnu Mehra, arrives while Nikhil is giving us a tour of the first floor.
Itâs been five years since the duo launched S&N, a ready-to-wear label that has shed its reputation as just a âdiffusionâ line of Shantnu & Nikhil, the duoâs eponymous couture label that they launched in 2000, and become a thing of its own: a playbook for a category they like to call âprestige prĂȘtâ. For the brothers, working together is a balance of instinct and structure. Nikhil, a Fashion Design graduate, leads with design and emotion; Shantnu, the MBA holder, anchors it with business clarity.
When they launched S&N in 2020, the idea was to democratise their very specific brand of couture, which, for the uninitiated, is all about combining stormy India-inspired drapes with sharp, structured tailoring, and a smattering of crest-heavy symbolism. âIt started with accessibility. Now, itâs about emotional resonance,â explains Shantnu. âWe werenât offering lessâwe were doing more, with intent.â Itâs prĂȘt that feels personal and accessible but not basic, serious but never stiff.
Five years on, the label has come into its own, and The Nod's Chloe Chou caught up with the duo at their family home, to chat all about it.
