The Geometry of Love

 IF AMRITA KHANNA hadn’t been designing clothes, she would have been whipping up a storm in the kitchen. “I love, love, love cooking” she says. “Ev­ery now and then, I wonder about having a cafe and doing something interest­ing.” If this dream is yet to be realised, it is because the Delhi-based Khanna, and her spouse Gursi Singh, are perennially on their toes building Lovebirds—the clothing label that emerged out of their rela­tionship and shared instincts in 2014 and has, through a decade, grown into one of the country’s buzziest ready-to- wear labels.

Creating a clothing collection is not so different from crafting a menu—food and fashion are both sum of their parts. Khanna’s and Singh’s ingredients are numerous, from ballooning hemlines and boxy silhouettes to colourblocked godet panels and meticulously cinched waists. A supersized collar or sleeves season a classic white shirt; bows, sequins, and vivid prints garnish dresses and jackets. An assortment of details and techniques that find appeal in both Indian and interna­tional markets.

“It takes 10 years to make a point and stand firmly on the foundations of what we have been trying to build,” says Singh.

We are sitting at the Lovebirds studio, tucked away in a corner of The Dhan Mill compound in Delhi. On an October morning, a few days ahead of Deepavali, the mood in the studio feels laidback on the heels of the brand’s recently-launched festive collection which are on display at their flagship store located in the same complex. Dresses and separates in dramatic blues, pinks and yellows as well as staple black and white, with look-at-me floral prints, sequins, ruffles, and asymmetric tailoring carry forth a sense of revelry despite the lack of bling. When it comes to design, Khanna and Singh have a firm grip on their perspective—a clothing label built out of India that speaks to the global market.

“If we were to start a brand today, we would probably start with a proper plan, find a niche, do our market re­search, make presentations,” the duo laughs. “At that point, it was more whimsical. We wanted to do something together and have fun with it.” Over the years, Khanna and Singh have fielded countless questions about how they met and their working dynamic as a married couple. The answer can feel apparent in the way they com­plete each other’s sentences during a conversation. It shows in their ability to do things together—be it syncing their morning workout or running a busi­ness—but also in their desire to learn from and with each other. A decade ago, Khanna—a design graduate from London—ran a vintage store (also called Lovebirds) in Hauz Khas Village where she retailed archival and upcycled designs. Singh, on the other hand, was a Chandigarh boy who had moved to Delhi had a background in graphic design and had dabbled in art as well as interiors among other creative pursuits.

The brand’s aesthetics are a fusion of the co-founders’ talents and taste. “It was true to us,” says Singh, for whom fashion was an entirely new space. “I was interested in clothes, but not in how to design them or what to make for others,” he says. “I used to come to her [Amrita’s] studio and watch her work. I learnt while standing with her.” If Singh finds ingenious ways to combine florals with stripes and retain a graphic quality to every collection, Khanna translates her personal style and distinct take on power dressing into the silhouettes and con­struction. Lovebirds, as Singh notes, “started with Amrita and how she liked to dress”.

Carrying over the store’s name to the brand, the two sourced textiles from local markets and created a collection of original garments which became Lovebirds’ debut collection—a wom­enswear line rooted in androgynous tailoring and graphic details. Khanna laughs that she may not have thought further than selling the garments at the store and be done with it, but Singh got the collection photographed and shared images with Indian fashion publications. The brand drew attention almost instantly, as Lovebirds found its way into editorials and features. “If we hadn’t gotten this validation or op­portunities, we probably wouldn’t take it further,” says Singh. “We had a fresh approach to fashion, and found that there were people who were interested. It pushed us and we realised it could be a career for us.”

Critical acclaim arrived early for the brand though retail success took a little longer. The brand’s look was, to employ a fashion cliché, edgy—with silhou­ettes and detailing that looked and felt larger than life. Khanna recalls a recur­ring concern among women in the early days that they would drown in the oversized designs. Ten years since, the memory of customers mistaking the label’s offerings for menswear sparks laughter. “We were challenged on how to make people try the garments,” the founders say. “People came to us, but it took us a while to tell them how to dress it up or that style doesn’t always mean a body-hugging silhouette.”

THE SCENE IS dramatically different today. If visibility is the measure of success for a fashion brand, Lovebirds seems to have hit the sweet spot. Celebrities such as Aditi Rao Hydari, Khushi Kapoor, or Bhumi Pednekar draw attention but the label’s roster of clients is more diverse—packed with influencers, entrepreneurs, and creative profession­als whose photographs often make it to Lovebirds’ Instagram grid.

What has worked for the brand is a consistency of vision and product design. The label turned their use of geometric details, graphic and oversized silhouettes into signatures, recurring across collections. Motifs such as the polka dot—christened the ‘Circle of Love’—have transformed into house codes, used in designs as well as brand storytelling. Khanna and Singh have also worked to expand their design vocabulary, incorporating more feminine designs, youthful silhouettes, prints, and colours in their garments. The clothes—dresses, co-ord sets, and separates—have a versatile quality and promise ease of wear despite their stylised, hyperbolic details. “The most important thing is that no design can go out [into the market] without me trying it,” says Khanna. “Clothes may look beautiful on a hanger but the main focus is on how it feels.” As their collec­tions and clients have grown, so have their product offerings—Lovebirds now offers jewellery and accessories, and more recently launched a clothing line for men.

Retail growth and exposure played a major role in this evolution from “conceptual to wearable”. From retail­ing their first designs at the vintage store, Lovebirds has grown to five flag­ship outposts, including three in the Delhi-NCR region, and retails through multi-designer boutiques. In 2022, they opened their Mumbai store in a 19^th-century church in the city. Earlier this year, they made their retail debut in Hyderabad, and the brand also stocks at multi-designer boutiques. “Our main concentration was India,” says Khanna. “We did [international] trade shows, but I am so glad that we really grew here in the Indian market. It is our foundation.”

INDIA REMAINS rife with promise, but there is now a rising emphasis on the global market as Lovebirds invests in outreach and events. The brand’s international stockists include the likes of Harvey Nichols, Neiman Marcus, and Liberty London among others. Earlier this year, Khanna and Singh hosted a ‘Circle of Love’ soiree in London, marking its 10^th anniversary following a similar event in Delhi. Travelling popups are also part of the annual calendar, with recent outings in Georgia and Texas in the US where the clothes are drawing buyers beyond the South Asian diaspora swelling the numbers of what Khanna and Singh call the Lovebirds community.

A popular word in contem­porary fashion, community is used ad nauseum and not always thoughtfully. At Love­birds, the co-founders incorporated the idea into its brand building from the start. “It is a space, an opportunity to express ourselves,” Singh observes. “We understood the power of how people can get together and do something big­ger and build a relationship. We always looked out for like-minded people in our ecosystem.” Lovebirds thrives on creative collaborations, partnering with artists like Princess Pea or the How Are You Feeling Studio helmed by Doyel Joshi and Neil Ghose Balser, or the musician Gaurav Malaker aka BLOT! The brand curated Showroom, an art publication featuring the works of different designers, visual artists, photographers, writers, illustrators, art directors, architects, typographers and curators. Lovebirds stores in Mumbai and Hyderabad include spaces which Khanna and Singh have christened Communion—open to creatives to showcase their work and collaborate with Lovebirds.

The community-led approach sparks consumer interest, turning buyers into loyalists over the last years. Singh, however, adds that the relation­ship is not merely transactional. “In the Mumbai store, we have a good sound system and rocking chairs. People come, listen to music and go home,” he says. “We wanted spaces that wouldn’t just be for selling clothes.”

Clothing and community have proved to be Lovebirds’ recipe for suc­cess, evident in their growing business behind the scenes. Beginning with a 1,200 sq ft workshop with a handful of tailors and artisans, the brand’s fac­tory is now a multi-storeyed building situated in the same neighbourhood as the design studio with close to a 100 em­ployees overall. Khanna’s father serves as the CFO, and many of the artisans and tailors have been working with the brand since the early days.

Helming the label is a full-time job, but Khanna and Singh also have two young daughters commanding their attention at home. The couple still make time to spend with their family and friends, travel with their children, or pursue hobbies and learn new skills which they consider crucial for per­sonal growth whether as designers or simply as people. If Khanna is hoping to take up lessons with a chef, Singh aims to get back to his canvas and oil paints. Getting it all done may seem like a woefully impossible task, but the duo is unfazed. After all, they have a winning formula—leaning on each other and a circle of love that keeps growing.