With this film, Payal shares her views and approach towards her distinctive design language. She talks about the label's beginnings, her inspirations, and the brand's future.

A dynamic intersection of culture and art, Bombay has been a key interplayer in our explorations of craft and design. The city's rich and complex history of textile production over the last century, inspires our commitment toward creating exemplary fabrics.

The female form is always an anchor for PAYAL KHANDWALA’s silhouettes and the driving force for what a garment will look like. Payal takes inspiration from nature, culture, colours, and personal experiences to carefully design and create clothing that pays keen attention to form and comfort, and accentuates the human form effortlessly.

Made to maximise a multitude of shapes and sizes, the clothes have a structural but fluid quality and are meticulously made in measured quantities over a duration of several months.

The label works with wide and varied fabrics that feel comfortable and luxurious, and can be effortlessly paired together in colours that work well with each other. In many instances, therefore, PAYAL KHANDWALA continuously reimagines its textiles and colour palettes for a number of designs.

The brand also operates its own handlooms that are manned by skilled Indian craftsmen, to produce different types of prime quality silks, linens and cottons.

Click here to view our weaving process

Born in 1974, brought up in Mumbai, Payal spent her early years painting in the presence of her mother and grandmother, who were also painters and dressmakers. 

She received her first Art Scholarship at the National Board Level in 1990 and graduated with a Diploma in Fashion Design from SNDT University, Mumbai in 1994, with several awards for Illustration, Design and Construction. In 1995 Payal moved to New York City to pursue a degree on scholarship, at the Parsons School of Design.

She graduated in 1999 with honors, with a BFA in Fine Arts and Illustration.

In 2012 Payal formed her namesake label to create garments that stood at the intersection of what the East and West had to offer. And for her, as an accomplished painter and trained clothes maker, between art and fashion..Eschewing on her philosophy of making clothes that ‘feel good’ above all else and focusing on a minimalist and maximalist aesthetic, her softly tailored garments combine simple shapes with impeccable proportions, often in handwoven textiles to create a distinct house signature of timeless style and effortless luxury for the modern woman.

She resides in Mumbai, India with her family. Her artworks are currently on consignment in galleries in New York, Barcelona and Mumbai, and in several private collections in the U.S., India, France, England, South Africa and Belgium.