Salva Mubarak Senior Features Writer

When Gursi Singh and Amrita Khanna started their brand Lovebirds out of their “shared love for creating things” back in 2012, anti-fit and normcore clothing were virtually non-existent in India.

“Indian markets, at the time, were filled with embroidery and very embellished stuff,” says Singh, as we sit down for a chat following the release of their latest collection ‘Spaces in Between’, “Normcore, or minimal clothing, wasn’t big. Bringing that into the market at that time was challenging as we had to educate a lot of people and it was a slow journey.”

Over the past decade, Lovebirds has charted a journey that has established it as a brand that creates its niche with its timeless silhouettes and propensity to defy norms like adhering to seasons for their collections. According to Singh, this is one of how they’ve managed to maintain an edge over other brands that have flooded the anti-fit normcore market over the years. The other is their process.

“We don’t have a trend-based approach when it comes to our design,” says Singh, “We create clothes that can be worn anywhere in the world. They’re meant for a strong woman who is always on the go, confident and mindful of what kind of stuff she wants to wear. It’s never about showing the curves of your body but feeling sexy from the inside. Our process always starts with this woman. We ask ourselves ‘what is it that we can create for this woman that is new and can make her feel more powerful?’”

The brand’s most recent collection was showcased at New Delhi’s Australian High Commission in February and was a pleasing mix of a new colour palette for the brand and its signature features and motifs.

“As we don’t follow trends or seasons, all our new collections are always an extension of the body of work that the brand has been doing,” says Singh, “We skipped our usual Scandinavian colour palette of muted tones and pastels for brighter and more vibrant colours in the collection as we wanted to create something to uplift the mood, especially post-Covid.”

For Lovebirds, sustainability is not a choice or a trend to hop onto, it’s something that is embedded deep into the brand’s ethos. “Our clothes are not for just one particular season,” says Singh, “They are something that can be worn for a longer time.”

This basic philosophy challenges them to tailor the entire process of creation around making the clothes timeless and long-lasting. The clothes, for instance, are created using menswear tailoring techniques as it’s supposed to last longer. The fabrics sourced for the clothes are also passed through a stringent quality check to ensure longevity and performance. The pieces are also designed in a way that they could be worn and styled in multiple ways.

The co-founders understood that they couldn’t introduce the idea of sustainability to the brand before imbibing it in their own lives too. Singh says that it became normal for them to start consciously thinking about consuming less and being mindful of their impact on the environment around them.

“Nothing can be 100 percent sustainable, especially not the fashion industry,” muses Singh, “It’s a journey and not an endpoint. It’s about the choices we can make to create a difference.”

This, he says, is why we must think about building a mindful wardrobe. “One should understand the ethos of the brand they’re investing in and it should be aligned with their philosophy,” he says, adding, “People should also not hesitate before investing in versatile pieces that would last longer and get better with time.”

Lovebirds latest collection can be viewed on their website and their retail stores in Delhi and Mumbai.