Born in Mumbai in 1974, Payal received her first National Art Scholarship in 1990. She is a fashion graduate from SNDT in Mumbai. Amongst several awards for illustration, design and construction she also won Designer of the Year in a nationwide competition held by ShoppersStop in 1994.
In 1995 she moved to New York to pursue Fine Arts. She graduated in 1999 with honors, with a BFA from the Parsons School Of Design. Whilst in New York she worked with designer Sandy Dalal, CFDAs winner of the Perry Ellis Award for menswear in 1997. She also has a diploma from Metafora, an international workshop for Contemporary Art in Barcelona, 2005 and in 2007 she received Society Magazines Young Achievers Award in the Fine Arts category.
After a decade of exhibiting her art extensively in Mumbai, Delhi, New York, London, Barcelona, Tokyo and Singapore, she launched her eponymous clothing label in 2012.
In 2015 she launched a brass and leather accessories line called Tachi. She was featured as one of the five names to watch out for from India, in Vogue Italias September 2012 issue and has also been listed on Not Just a Labels coveted Black Sheep list.
As a painter, colour and proportions have always been central to her story telling. To her dressmaking is simply a shift in canvas. She orchestrates colour and textures to create layered separates that are dramatic yet minimal, with subtle attention to detail. Relying on a reductive method of pattern making she applies geometry, using simple beginnings; squares, rectangles, circles and manipulate them to create our signature silhouettes. She further drapes, twists, loops, pleats and tucks to sculpt the clothing around the body.
Her sensibility intuitively marries all these references to create an aesthetic that is deeply rooted in India but with a spirit that transcends geographical boundaries. As a philosophy the clothing is certainly not about trends, and perhaps not even about fashion. How the clothes make you feel is always more important, than how they make you look. The emphasis is on shape, but proportions are paramount. Architecture is always central to the design process but not in an obvious way. The silhouettes have a structural quality, but are fluid to accommodate the human form. The clothes marry menswear essentials with more feminine elements to create a design voice that is neither overtly masculine nor feminine.
Timeless and simple, fierce and feminine, they are made with love in India, from handwoven silks, brocades, khadi, cottons and linens.
