Poetic Restraint

Designer Rina Singh straddles rationale and intention to navigate the complexities of time-honoured craft and textile traditions.

- SHIVPRIYA BAJPAI

I hope I am not boring you with an onslaught of information?” Rina Singh pauses as she sifts through 15-odd blocks of all shapes and sizes used in a single block-printed floral motif on a piece of handwoven textile, and asks me. Her reverence for craft and her ‘people’ is beyond obvious as her eyes gleam like a child proud of her treasured toys. How could I, or any other fashion writer, be bored in an interview where you have to hardly look at the prepared questions to tick off the topics of discussion? The brilliant mind behind the textile-led design studio Ekà, Singh, is fresh off the launch of her third retail space at in Gurugram, where she unveiled her much-lauded Autumn/ Winter’25 collection, Chamba. Early on in the conversation that started at her store and progressed to her studio, she tells me, “Two languages have established fashion at large—first is couture and the second is glamour. When it is neither, then it takes a while for people to take you seriously, especially when it’s not a basic clothing line.”