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SWGT

The brands mantra? Seeker, wanderer, gatherer, and thinker.

Words by:

Aarushi Agrawal

Photos by:

Nitin Sadana

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It all began with a trip to NIFT when she was 13.

It began at NIFT. When Shweta Gupta was just thirteen, she visited the fashion college’s Delhi campus. The hustle and bustle of the students, the large, dark library, the colours and patterns in the corridors had her bewitched. She watched in teenage awe as students sat in the lawn with their artwork, while others made structures. “It was transformative,” she recalls. Already she was keen on art and extracurriculars. The possibility of getting to do it the whole day had her sold: this is where she would study, she decided on that very day. 

Years later, after completing her course in NIFT Delhi she began her career in fashion. She worked under illustrious designers such as Tarun Tahiliani and Gaurav Gupta. She studied their approach and aesthetic, picking up practical skills no college course could provide. She refined her own aesthetic, diving deep into the craft and design process. In 2018, she launched her own label known as SWGT.  

Her process is laid out in the words ‘seeker, wanderer, gatherer, and thinker,’ the initials of which form the name of her brand—SWGT. Gupta values the journey that she must undertake to create a new collection.

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Megha wears a blue colour-blocked textured bib from SWGT; Megha wears a green crochet shirt dress from SWGT; Ana wears a green textured yoke dress from SWGT.

“After working in the industry for so long, I didn’t want to do anything that was already there,” she says. She sought a muse and inspiration and found it in a small town called Harsil, deep inside Uttarakhand. It manifested itself in the mountains, the awe-inspiring peaks galvanised her then as they do now. 

Observing the natural folds and ridges of the mountains, the way different colours reflected off of them, she sat with a sketchbook and drew. In the mountains she sought a colour story. The play of light and shadow that she observed throughout the day inspired the textures and silhouettes of her garments. She attempted to mimic nature in her garments, which manifested in the way the pleats and cuts of her designs moved around the body. 

The journey has now become a ritual, with Gupta travelling to the mountains and being amidst nature before the start of every new collection. 

Gupta’s fascination with the natural world goes back to her childhood. Growing up in Almora—a town in Uttarakhand—meant that she was always close to nature. She would collect things like small twigs, stones and pine cones. Entertainment included going on picnics, cycling, or trekking through the mountains. Plucking and eating fruit straight from the trees is an especially cherished memory of hers. “The brand reflects this same connection with the mountains, the people, and the culture,” she says.

Besides nature, SWGT also has a strong connection with handmade products. Gupta has always enjoyed making things by hand. As a little girl, she drew, sketched and busied herself with sculptures. It was only natural that handspun textiles and handmade craft techniques would appeal to her as she discovered the abundance of craft in India. “I realised that handmade things are getting replaced with machine-made things. It was so important for me to do something about it,” she says.

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Ana wears a beige colour-blocked textured bib along with a beige crochet shirt dress from SWGT.

Inspired by her grandmother who used to employ women to craft handmade bed covers and other items, Gupta also employs women to make her garments at SWGT. Building upon the idea that every Indian woman knows how to sew a button, she’s developed a technique of handcraft that any woman with this basic knowledge can handle. It took her close to eighteen months to develop the technique, where textures are created on the handwoven textiles by tying corners of fabrics with beads. And today, in her Delhi studio, it’s known as the ‘bandha hua’ technique. The girls and women working with SWGT are trained, and either work full-time or take the work home. They also do crochet and other handiwork. “These aren’t just finishing techniques, they’re part of the garment,” Gupta says. 

Gupta’s ultimate victory lies in creating clothes that the wearer can appreciate, from the minutest of details that one would only notice up-close. Then there is the lived experience of slipping into her garments. “If I make any woman feel good about herself, my job is done,” she says.

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Gabriella wears an off-white cape from SWGT.
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SWGT is a context-driven fashion house. Taking inspiration from the environment, the dress takes an organic turn.

Aarushi Agrawal

Arushi Agrawal is a journalist, passionate about research, reading, and writing.

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