The Human Touch

When Pranav Mishra and Shyma Shetty teamed up to launch ready-to-wear label, HUEMN, they were attempting to fill a gap in the market with clothing that reflected their sensibilities

 

Tell us about your journey in design.

PM: I come from Lucknow where there wasn’t much exposure to modern design. While growing up I didn’t know I wanted to be a fashion designer; that happened only after I got through NIFT. After three years I got into an internship with an export house and I started understanding fashion. Clothing as a concept can be taught. You can be trained how to mix and match and come up with combinations. It has been a process, an evolution, understanding one’s self and completing what I have done before, and making it better than it was.

SS: My parents worked in the garment industry and I have always had a very strong voice - to throw myself into creative work was a natural progression. Fashion was so empowering; it crept into my life early, widening my horizons in a lot of ways. Pranav and I met at NIFT (Bangalore) many years back. We both shared an immense love for fashion and a strong need to be able to create. After college, when we moved to Delhi and worked in Indian fashion, we spent all our free time discussing our business strategy. HUEMN was born out of the best of both of us. It’s a mish mash of the stories under our skin. We are so different from each other in our approach to the business that we bring separate skill sets to the table. Yet, we have the same vision and similar sensibilities. This is our biggest strength.

What is the story behind HUEMN?