IEVA

How did you become interested in fashion design?

I came to fashion quite indirectly when I returned to India after working for few Fortune 50 companies in US. My background is in engineering and technology, but I grew up around textiles. IEVA began when those two worlds finally met — a familiarity with fabric, and my instinct to keep learning and urge to create.

What's your design philosophy?

I want clothes to be noticed without looking like they are trying too hard. For IEVA, that usually means a distinctive original print, a clean silhouette, flowy fabric and just enough detail. I prefer restraint over decoration for its own sake.

Who are your design influences?

I'm influenced less by particular designers and more by things outside fashion — geometry, architecture, paintings, nature, even accidental shapes and patterns. I think my engineering background makes me look for structure and symmetry, while the creative part of me wants to disrupt it.

What's your process for designing a new collection?

It isn't always orderly. Sometimes a collection begins with an idea; sometimes with a colour, a line or a print that I simply cannot stop working on. We develop the print and silhouette together until they feel like they belong to each other. Unscripted, in fact, came from allowing that process to happen without forcing everything into one predefined theme.

How do you choose colors for your designs?

Mostly by interaction rather than isolation. I rarely think, "this season needs blue." I look at what happens when two or three colors sit inside a print, how they change its mood, and how they behave on fabric. Sometimes the slightly unexpected combination is the one that makes the whole design work.

How do you balance creativity with wearability in your designs?

That balance is really the point of IEVA. I can make the print expressive because I keep the silhouette relatively effortless; or add structure while keeping the fabric fluid. I never want someone to admire an IEVA piece and then wonder where she could possibly wear it.

How do you stay inspired?

By not limiting inspiration to fashion. I'm naturally curious, so I notice patterns everywhere — a shadow, an architectural line, the geometry inside a flower, a piece of art, something my daughter draws, or a completely unrelated view. Inspiration becomes much easier when you stop actively looking for "fashion inspiration."

How do you handle the business side of fashion design?

Probably more naturally than I handle the title "fashion designer." I spent years working in technology and solving fairly complex problems, so I approach IEVA as both a creative project and a system — product, manufacturing, customer behavior, data and marketing all have to work together. Creativity gets the attention, but execution builds the brand.

What's next for you in your fashion design career?

For now, I'm more interested in building IEVA than building a conventional design career. Taking the brand from India to New York this early has been an exciting test of whether our design language travels. I want to keep making IEVA more distinctive without making it louder — and see how far that can go.