Soham Dave

from Glocal- A sustainable fashion magazine- GeoFocus Ahmedabad

Moral fiber

The brand that offers a contemporary range of lifestyle products for the conscious urban consumer with emphasis on biodegradable fabrics, and hand-crafted items for the eco-conscious consumer.

In the fast-paced, cutthroat and dare we say it, materialistic global fashion industry, designer Soham Dave is spearheading something of a quiet revolution. Drawing on the best of age-old traditional methods from his native India combined with a cutting-edge urban style for which New York is renowned, While aesthetics are obviously fundamental, at the heart of Soham Dave’s brand is also an earnest social and environmental philosophy which drives his company’s products and practices. , Soham Dave aims to create clothes with a conscience.

For initially having studied electrical engineering in a way of following the path his family lined up, Soham Dave took some time to explore his true calling in design. After pursuing a year-long course at NIFT Gandhinagar in garment production technology and

working at SEVA, the NGO, for two years, he finally realised what he was meant to do and enrolled at New York’s Fashion Institute Technology to study fashion management.

Seeking inspiration from the rural roots of India, Soham launched his eponymous label ‘Soham Dave’ in New York, immediately after he graduated from FIT in 2011. What followed was a twoyear long cycle of understanding the business, coupled with a series of successes, failures, and self-realisation. He came back to India and finally started his production from Ahmedabad. And since then, Soham, without engaging much in the rhetoric of ‘sustainability’ has been giving it a new dimension. He has schemed out his brand’s vision truly on the phenomenon of ‘Made in India’. From using natural ingredients to dye and cleanse his fabrics to washing and drying them naturally, under the sun, he ensures minimum wastage of resources. Most of the fabric he uses in production is hand made.

One of the major motivations behind launching the label immediately was that Soham wanted to work on his concepts rather than to be a part of a big western label. Understanding the market, production, traveling all over the US and figuring out the business on the whole. Now everything is done in house, apart from the textile part, which happens in different corners of India.

“For me, it’s more about the textures and the textiles. We don’t follow trends to create designs which are comfortable. In my collections, I celebrate the exquisite Indian rooted textiles in a modern way. My process starts with my decision to work with a particular textile and then the entire story is woven along. Silhouettes come at the end of the story but are equally important. When I create something, the core of each and every detail is ease. My aim is a table and easy to wear.”

“I hail from a small town where my grandfather owned farms. Though my parents and grandparents were all educated, they inherited the farmlands and we still have them. I used to visit them very often and observe how the villagers were in sync with nature. Things were recycled and upcycled and that fascinated me. All this roused my imagination since I was a kid and it remained at the back of my mind.”

The brand makes sure that they work with fabrics which are woven on hand looms, most of which is hand made without using electricity. When coloured or dyed with natural ingredients. The entire process is focused on producing something by wasting minimal resources, that fits in the definition of sustainability. Other than that, bags and shoes are created by using the leftovers of the collections, so up cycling is also a part of their creative vocabulary.

Indeed Soham Dave’s efforts in social responsibility and providing fair incomes for their skilled artisan workers have not gone unnoticed. This year Soham Dave was awarded the prestigious Innovation USA by the Ethical Fashion Forum, an influential industry body set-up to promote sustainable fashion. Nevertheless, Dave’s focus is not limited solely to the social sphere.

The fact that Soham Dave’s clothing is environmentally responsible as well as socially responsible is perhaps unsurprising given that these two goals seem to go hand-in-hand.

“Now it’s returning in a different way and I’m trying to incorporate it in my professional life. As I travel and meet artisans, I reconnect with that ideology. I feel comfortable around them and they feel the same around me. More than working for me, they feel they work with me, and that’s the environment I try to create, outside and inside the brand. We always work together with intensity.”

“Then is the decision about the count of yarn or quality of fabric to work with. Mostly it is handwoven, but I weave it in different areas according to the thickness of the fabric I want.”