What started as a pinterest board is now a successful brand a lot of celebrities are seen wearing! So what’s the Jodi story? What is the label known for? Let’s find out…
Whenever we think of high street fashion brands, the two names that rush through our head are Zara and H&M. The two have pretty much become synonymous with the term. With international fashion brands completely taking over the Indian market at the moment, there is a need for high street fashion brands that are Indian in their roots as well as designs. Jodi, a fashion and lifestyle label co-founded by fashion stylists turned designers duo Gauri Verma & Karuna Laungani is here to bridge the gap!
While working together at Elle, Gauri and Karuna had their big idea moment. “Karuna and I have a shared interest in local Indian crafts so we would often talk about it. But it was after Karuna had styled Sonam Kapoor for Khoobsurat, we decided to launch Jodi.” To which Karuna adds, “India has a lot of potential in terms of the craftsmen and art techniques that is not being used by Indians themselves. We saw it as a gap and that’s when Jodi happened!”
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If you’re familiar with the label, you’ll know that Jodi is known for its block prints and capsule collections. But India is famous for a lot of local art techniques, so why does Jodi choose to with block prints? “I’m a graphic designer myself so it’s interesting to work with block prints instead of something that is a lot more material oriented” says Gauri. “Prints are fun to experiment with since there’s scope to play with colours and how the product looks visually!” she adds. Producing 4 collections a year, the label likes to position itself as a slow fashion brand available at a fast fashion price.
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Jodi’s claim to fame is the fact that their capsule collections are inspired from the duo’s travel experiences. Whether it’s their Bali collection or the Pondicherry one, the brand always has a story to tell through their designs. Since traveling is an essential part of what they do, does it mean they travel keeping in mind the collection that might be inspired from it? “Not at all. We love travelling together because we have common friends. So whenever we visit a place that is culturally rich and has scope to be explored in terms of design, we work on it!” says Karuna.
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If you notice the Jodi’s older collections, their festive wear isn’t conventional or blingy at all. “We take inspiration from how we’ve seen our mothers dress. There was simplicity about the way they dressed and we’d like to put that forward with our designs as well.” says Karuna. The label is launching its festive wear collection ‘Noor’ on 19th September and we wonder what we should be expecting from this years festive wear collection? “The collection is inspired from a classical dressing. It will have the aesthetic of the Jodi festive and we’re not moving away from that idea at all. The collection is inspired from the Samarkand silk route and we’ve tried to develop that into print”, adds Gauri.
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We saw a teaser of their festive wear on Instagram and wondered what the label is bringing to the fashion front with the ‘anaar’ (pomegranate) print. “The fruit is a symbol of life! This year we’ve mostly worked with gajji this year unlike last year when we played with chanderi for our festive wear collection. There is a lot of interesting work on the surface as well”
If you’re looking for festive wear that’s subtle and modern, Noor should be your shopping destination this Diwali! The fusion wear styles along with the bold block prints, make these outfits apt for the woman who has a slightly different take on festive wear. Here are our favourite picks from Jodi’s festive collection:
The Tashkent Lehenga Set
Buy this dress here for Rs 18,899
The Samarkand Lehenga Set
Shop for this here (Rs 22,430).
The Tashkent Jacket Set
Shop this jacket set here for Rs 18,990.
You can check out their full collection here!
