Naturally Timeless Strokes

Mother-daughter designer duo Hetal and Lekhinee Desai bring to their clients a timeless culture in the form of Indian handmade clothing. They aim to display their rich heritage through their creations writes Anurima Das

- Anurima Das

Handmade, homemade and designed with love, The Indian Ethnic Co, created by mother-daughter duo Hetal and Lekhinee Desai is contemporary and stylish with a broad hint at timelessness in its pieces. The brand aims to display its rich collections of Indian handlooms and handicrafts, from the hinterlands of India, while making it accessible to every style-seeker.

Both, Hetal and Lekhinee, have had no formal degree in fashion. But their love for handlooms and handicrafts motivated them to start The Indian Ethnic Co. This two-year-old brand has taken a unique approach toward making garments. Here’s looking at it more closely.

MERGING PASSION WITH TRADITION

Lekhinee, a professional Odissi dancer with an MBA in Marketing from NMIMS, Mumbai, left her new job within a matter of eight months to assist her mother with their label. Hetal, who had done her Masters in Home Science from MS University, Baroda, is extremely passionate of Indian handlooms and handicrafts too.

“My mother would always design our clothes. People would be so awed by her designs that they would invariably ask us from where we bought them. She gained fame once we collected photographs of her designs and put up a collage on Instagram. We soon began receiving orders thereafter. For the next two years we continued to receive and produce orders from home. We didn’t even have a website at the time. But what started off as a hobby in 2016 on WhatsApp and Facebook, has today become a full-fledged online business, with a website that was launched while I was completing my MBA,” states Lekhinee.