Mint fresh and bustling with ideas, classmates from NIFT Bangalore, Pranav Mishra and Shyma Shetty, landed in Delhi in 2009. After a year of working under different designers, they decided to start their own label. Today, their brand is known to take risks and dress people who love their individuality, a quality the designers share. “I’m from Lucknow and Shyma is from Bengaluru. While our days at NIFT were breezy, Delhi was like a wake-up call, especially for me,” Mishra recalls. “Well, it was love at the first sight for me,” Shetty pitches in.
As they settled into the poetically chaotic city, their designs underwent gradual evolution. Their choice of colours and silhouettes became bolder. “When we began in 2010, the colour palette was darker. One reason can be that we were still struggling to find our footing in Delhi. It reflected our state of mind,” Mishra says. Their summer/resort 2015 collection has hot pinks and whites with airy silhouettes and lots of layering. A unique yet risqué technique fusing leather with silk was also used extensively this time. Artists can’t stay in a bubble. Mishra and Shetty’s designs too are a sum total of their experiences, their transition and their journey.
But you still can’t put Huemn into a box. Androgynous? Deconstructed? Easy chic? Each of their collection at Lakme Fashion Week—they’re yet to debut at Mumbai’s counterpart in Delhi—have been starkly distinct from the previous one. “We wanted to create a label as unique as every human being,” Shetty says.
Delhi has left its effect on their personalities too. While Shetty finds herself more in-tune with her inner voice, Mishra has become more aggressive and adventurous with his choices. “The city is fast-paced, but I don’t see myself complaining,” Mishra says. Shetty feels Delhi has some of the best customers. “Delhiites are not only open to luxury but are also ready to pay for quality. The usual questions don’t crop up anymore,” Shetty says. By usual questions, she means customers haggling over prices. While it was difficult to sell a shirt for `4,000 a few years ago, a shirt with a `20,000 price tag flies off the shelf now. The fabrics range from old Delhi traditional ones to upmarket luxurious variants. The city never disappoints them when it comes to sourcing. So when do they plan to give Delhi its first Huemn show? “We need to plan ahead. Repeating our collections doesn’t suit us,” Shetty says.