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.

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.