A colonial Portuguese villa with sprawling gardens. High ceilings topped with terracotta tiles. Textural floors, a medieval chandelier. The walls draped in glistening botanicals. As one browses through an eclectic collection of swim and resort wear for women and men, and an equally eclectic selection of accessories—lustrous jewels, statement hats, silk scarves, signature bags and home décor pieces—they are teased with a tantalising fragrance of tropical peaches, green tea, cranberry and oudh, accompanied by soft Spanish guitar acoustics. Dreamy? Exotic? A bit of both, actually. Welcome to the Shivan & Narresh Resort Store, a lush slice of paradise at Assagao in Goa.
“Goa has, over the years, become a melting pot of cultural conversation with a melange of individuals infusing diverse experiences in the holiday destination of the country. From offering exceptional gastronomy to wellness experiences, the state now attracts Indians all through the year, making it
a perennial haunt for travellers seeking a quick respite from city life. This prompted us to explore the idea of a store with a unique retail identity and merchandise,” say Shivan Bhatiya, head designer,
and Narresh Kukreja, creative director, of the brand.
The clothes are exciting and enticing, no doubt, but equally eye-catching is the dramatic décor. The walls are lined with the brand’s newly introduced wallpaper range, Palmera Art Wallpaper. It has a distinct Japanese photo-art aesthetic that amalgamates striking elements on a serene sakura pink surface. This is part of their Araki series of luxury wallpapers that have been envisaged to render striking artistic accents to modern-day interiors.
Reflecting the refined tastes of the designers, the store is a fitting destination to showcase the journey of the duo thus far. It started from the classrooms of NIFT, Delhi, in 2003, and culminated in a brand launch five years later.
“Our collective love for art, fashion and travel eventually led us to launch India’s first luxury swimwear brand,” says Shivan. “Both of us wanted to travel all our lives, so we decided to pick a category of clothing that not only evokes the feeling of being on vacation, but also inspires others to explore as well,” Narresh adds. It helped that swimwear as a category was missing from the Indian market, and they decided to focus on that as well as luxury resort wear.
The immediate challenge, however, was finding skilled labour for the segment. None of the pattern-makers or tailors had any knowledge about swimwear. “We had to fill in the gaps with new-age techniques, fabrics and right machinery to be able to make swimsuits in India,” Narresh says.
Next was retail. Yet another challenge they faced was reaching the end-consumer, particularly in a country where fashion only meant wedding attire. “India is so occasion-driven that women have felt more comfortable and confident in layers of clothing. That made us realise that the issue wasn’t fashion, but self-love and body confidence. So we started doing personalised retail educational pop-ups,” recalls Shivan.
The brand then introduced its own body-size chart and started focusing on solutions that were more diverse and visually inclusive. As a result, the designers were able to smoothly transition from swimwear to being a holistic holiday lifestyle brand consisting of clothing in categories such as swim, resort, cruise, safari and even, ski.
It is Shivan and Narresh’s passion for travel that also drives this diversity. “Art is at the crux of our creativity; we travel across the globe for it.
We live to explore new destinations and experience their plush geography and reverberating culture. It is more than just a means to unwind and relax for us. It is a channel of constantly drawing design inspiration as well. Be it Seychelles, Japan, Spain, or even our last trip to Rajasthan, each destination has seen us come back with creative ideas that fall beautifully into our different art print series,” they say.
Exciting new adventures await as the designers are all set to launch their home décor line next month along with a global roll-out later this summer.