our story

mehul spent his working life in marketing in mumbai. when he retired, he moved to vadodara and turned an old wish into work: taking post-consumer denim and making it into bags. he funded it himself. this is how it went.

it started at shukarwari, vadodara's friday market for old and antique things. among the stalls was a local scrap dealer selling old clothes. we came to an arrangement: we would buy his post-consumer denim by the pile. that became how the denim reached us.

mehul set up the studio on his terrace and in the room attached to it. the denim was stored and sorted there. ideas and designs were worked out there, and now and then a thought war broke out over ideologies and philosophies. when an argument needed backup, we raided mehul's library. when it needed a pause, there was the garden and its many plants to look after. over time, young volunteers joined to help run things.

sorted denim went to local washing units, the dhobis, as we call them. they washed it carefully and sent it back to the studio, ready to be cut.

then came the foundational part. we took the denim to our tailors in batches, and they sorted it again, this time by size.

smaller jeans became mini totes and totes. some were cut in half, and the half with the pockets became a larger tote or a shopper. the largest became large shoppers and backpacks. when a jean came with a detail worth keeping, we kept it in the bag.

we did not draw a bag first and look for denim to fit it. we let the jean decide the bag. on average, one pair of jeans made approximately two bags.

for hardware, we went to the old city markets for chains, rings and straps.

the bags were stitched in three batches.

the first was made by a renowned tailor from the old city, who runs his shop in raopura.

the second was made at the tailoring shop in the central jail, which mehul approached in an attempt to create dignified livelihoods.

the third was made by a group of women tailors in the city.

together, they made 1,050 bags.

stitched bags came back to the studio. the first 60 were stamped with a unique id, and we intend to stamp every one. an earlier batch of 50 went to an ngo. the rest were stored, ready to go out.

some of the volunteers took on giving the effort a face: a brand identity, a website, a way to be found. we ran a few shoots and put together a first catalogue of 60 bags, drop 01.

the bags went back to shukarwari, the market where it all started, to be photographed.