Runaway Bicycle

Runaway Bicycle was born in 2014, in a small one-bedroom apartment. Raised during after work hours, Preeti Verma the founder, juggled her day job in advertising to put together a collection borne out of a personal need. To have access to clothes that felt comfortable before looking good.

Since then Runaway Bicycle has moved into a modest yet elegant studio trying to give expression to goodness in every sense of the word. A lack of experience in fashion and lifestyle was offset by a knowledge of traditional weaving techniques and a passion to incorporate comfort and beauty into everyday life.

Runaway Bicycle’s work today, essentially rests in linking the skills of traditional weavers and dyers spread all across India with those of the craftsmen working out of the studio. The collective skills they bring is an accumulation of knowledge passed down through many generations. Eventually resulting in garments and pieces of home décor, that defy trends and seasons, and will be handed down to future generations.

As a design philosophy, Runaway Bicycle believes the most comfortable clothes are worn by children and people employed in physical labour. The likes of peasants, painters, road workers, mechanics and very often the clothes our parents wore. This awareness bears out in a stubborn penchant for the lightness of the fabrics employed and a design aesthetic that values comfort over form.

 

What does sustainability mean to us?

It means many things to us.

It begins with working with traditional knowledge. Many of our artisanal traditions advocated a more time consuming and fastidious approach to making fabrics that lasted longer. Ironically these very traditions are now losing out to faster and cheaper methods, jeopardizing their business and eventually their craft too. These crafts are invaluable and need to be sustained at all costs.

 

Namai

Namai is an independent, New York-based fashion brand founded by Bianca Kuttickattu in 2020. We create timeless, zero-waste clothing from repurposed antique Indian textiles that can be worn by people of all genders, all year round.

Namai garments are designed to outlive transient seasonal trends. Each one-of-a-kind piece has already stood the test time: all of our items are made from second-hand Kantha quilts sourced in Jaipur.

Kantha quilting is the traditional Bengali craft of patching together and embroidering cloth and saris. By the time our designs are sewn, our fabric is on its third life-cycle and has passed through the hands of generations of women.

By combining the high-impact colors and patterns of our materials with low impact production, Namai looks towards a future of fashion that is earth-friendly, while celebrating the unique history embedded in every piece.