Brother and sister team Avni and Ambar join forces to offer edgy streetwear infused with the energy and tales of their fervent travels in Six5Six.

By Asmita Aggarwal

From studying psychology at Lady Shri Ram College to moving to England to hone her skills at the London College of Fashion, Avni Aneja did a whole turn around. But the 30-year-old founder of the label Six5six, believes this progression took organically, growing up in a garment exporter family, where talk about fabric, cut and finish made many dinner table conversations.

Interestingly, the inception of a sportswear brand came in school when she was part of the basketball team, which used to offer kits with poor quality fabric. Most of the time, the colours ran out, the zippers never closed, she noticed a huge gap, she hoped she could bridge. Fast forward to ten years later, and Six5six has two verticals—street and sportswear. Avni and her cricket loving brother have partnered with Mumbai Premier League, last year the national cricket team, as well as with kabbadi and table tennis designing their kits. But that’s not all. They also work with local schools and colleges to offer kits since 2018, the inception of the brand, with a name inspired by a flight they took many years ago. “Street wear constitutes to the passionate side of the business, launched in April 2019, and teaming up with my brother was easy as there was no convincing required. Having my father’s infrastructure to support our production further helped us save investment costs,” she assures.

Being the older sister to Ambar, who studied global business marketing and international relations, from Los Angeles, she has handed him the operations, which led the duo to design for FC Pune, Kerala Blasters and FC Goa. Though it wasn’t an easy trek, plagued with plagiarism, the IP laws were not strong enough, they had faith in young customers, who knew what they wanted. “I handle my own social media and answer all the DMs myself to establish a rapport with my buyer and potential customers, this keeps me abreast with the psychology of GenZ as their feedback forms the backbone of the label,” she explains.

The streetwear brand has people as its inspiration, artists, museums, singers as well as the need for experimentation. Everything revolves around her tales of travel, especially the motifs, and this LFWXFDCI line is about a 100 per cent wearability, taking you from runway to wardrobe, minus any tweaks. Most of the fabrics are recycled dead stock, from her father’s factory—denim, twill, cotton, suede, silk satin, lycra, as well as scuba fabrics. The focus is a 90s inspiration, the theme based on the postcards that Avni collects that are converted into motifs, highlighted by bold text that is inserted onto their bestseller varsity tees, 90s denims with long worn-out hems that would often face the rough and tumble of being caught under the sneakers of rappers, as well as oversized shirts.

This season the Six5six uniform, with vacation vibes at the core, enhanced with deconstruction techniques, patchwork in felt and suede, with basic silhouettes, offer a value-for-money price bracket. “My dad always taught me to take risks, he is a chartered accountant and he switched professions to start a business with no training, building factories in the capital city and Bangalore. My mom is a Hindi literature professor, who encouraged both of us to do what makes us feel satiated,” she concludes.