2 Yards' Love Letters to Bombay is a tribute to Mumbai's everyday rituals

Designers have long drawn inspiration from Bombay—now Mumbai—the city that never sleeps. Love Letters to Bombay by 2 Yards is one such collection, with designer duo Vreha Surya and Vrisha Surya looking back at the city that shaped them. The collection arrives at a particularly significant moment in their lives. While one left a career in New York to return home and build 2 Yards, the other is preparing to move to the same city. "Between departures and homecomings, Mumbai remains the constant thread," they say.

Celebrating Mumbai's food, culture and memories through fashion

When conversations turn to summer, we often romanticise long European holidays and Mediterranean escapes. But Love Letters to Bombay turns its gaze closer to home, celebrating the rituals, flavours and memories that define an Indian summer. Familiar references appear throughout the collection—from nimbu mirchi hanging outside homes and bottles of Maaza during mango season to colourful golas, roasted bhutta by the seaside, vada pav, and countless everyday moments woven into the fabric of city life.

"For us, it'll always be Mumbai or nowhere," says Vrisha Surya. "While working on this collection, we kept coming back to one question: does an Indian fashion brand have to make ethnic clothing to tell an Indian story? For us, the answer was no."

She continues, "We believe cultural storytelling doesn't begin and end with the garment. It can live in the styling, the imagery, the campaign, the references and the world you build around the product. India is much more than textiles and embroidery. It's the food we grow up eating, the rituals we barely notice anymore, the objects we see every day and the memories attached to them. That's what we wanted to celebrate. The clothes remain contemporary, but the storytelling is unmistakably Indian."

The duo believes that while every generation dresses differently, the little rituals that shape everyday life remain remarkably unchanged.

"Our grandparents wore saris. Our parents wore kurtis. Most of us have grown up wearing Western clothing. But every generation has still hung a nimbu mirchi outside a new home. Every generation has had cutting chai during the monsoons, gola on summer afternoons, Maaza while watching cricket, Rajnigandha flowers at celebrations and Kolhapuris tucked away somewhere in the house. Those aren't trends. They're memories. They're traditions. They're the little things that quietly get passed down without us even noticing."

Yet, they point out, we often fail to appreciate these everyday symbols until someone else validates them. "A Kolhapuri suddenly feels fashionable after it appears on an international runway," they say.

With Love Letters to Bombay, the duo hopes people fall in love with the ordinary all over again.

Price on request. Available online.

—manuvipin@newindianexpress.com

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