The Designer
I was born and raised in Lucknow. Growing up, I always had a fascination for my school uniforms. I would feel the most comfortable while wearing them. Looking at my school uniforms, I would often wonder how one good design can work for so many different body types and personalities. This led me towards believing in the importance of thoughtful designing. I would often raid my brother’s closet to find items that I could get altered for myself, and style them with my school skirt. I think I was drawn to the simplicity and comfort menswear clothing provides, and wanted to create a label in the future based on a similar ideology.
The Label
We began in early 2018, with Bombaim and Elahe as our first retail partners in India. With the support of FDCI and Elle India, Notebook started expanding in India and overseas at a good pace. I often believe that menswear clothing has an unfair advantage over womenswear clothing. I don’t know whose idea it was but women's clothing was inherently made ‘pretty’ and ‘non-functional’. This mirrors much of society's perception of a woman. We wanted to challenge this perception and make clothes that are both functional and intellectual. Hence, I would say that the core of the brand is in engineering and remodelling menswear classics to fit a woman’s form. To provide them with the same comfort and utility that menswear clothing has.
The Process
My creative process involves a lot of research on pattern manipulation techniques and silhouette constructions. I usually start with an idea of manipulation, for example I want to make a blazer, but hate how ‘uptight' and ‘formal’ it looks. I would sketch with the intention of making it look ‘easy’ and ‘relaxed’, maybe by combining it with pants to make a blazer-jumpsuit or add hints of knitted patches for comfort and stretch, at the right places. Constructing something that won’t be restricted to a formal dinner, making it extremely versatile. After achieving the silhouette, we work on the functional part of it — where I want the pockets to be, the weight of the overall garment, the mobility aspect of it, et cetera. Finally, we work on the aesthetic. Making the garment look visually interesting is often the last thing on our minds. Developing an idea, and infusing functionality, are the main priorities.
The Pandemic, Sustainability and Beyond
The situation did affect our business majorly, however, with the help of FDCI CSF Fund for designers, increase in our digital sales, and support from clients and our own team, we were able to navigate through this new reality and adapt to the changes in time.
I think, with many labels working towards slow fashion, they tend to really make it about ‘slow fashion’. The production is slower, and prices are higher, which doesn’t make sense to the consumer in the end. Now more than ever, customers are willing to switch towards sustainable alternatives, but currently very few brands are able to utilise an economical supply chain. We have to realise that we need more and more designers re-working their business model in order to attain some substantial outcome because we are competing with fast-fashion giants, whose production power is 1000 times more than us. We have been successful in changing the mind-sets of consumers, we now have to shift our attention towards retaining them and offering them a service that justifies their new expectation.