Dear reader,
Thank you for taking the time to read our first editorial.
I once wrote bars convinced they’d change the world. For a while, I truly believed I’d be the next Pac or Biggie. That dream faded quickly, but the need to write never did. It stayed—quiet, persistent—finding its way onto paper.
Chennai, 1999. At the grandparents home. Always helped that our mother dressed us well. Her turtle shell wayfarers have had a lasting impact on me.
Like most Indian children, I grew up imagining a future in engineering. A sensible path. One that would make my parents, and my orthodox, hardworking, first-generation entrepreneur grandfathers, proud. What I didn’t foresee was a winding detour—one of discovery and obsession—that eventually led me here.
Art has always been the foundation of who I am. Craft was the skill that grew out of it.
If I’m being honest, my first dream was to become a sneaker designer. Endless hours on Complex, Pigeons & Planes, and HipHopDX sparked that fever. At a time when sneakers barely existed as a culture in India, I was importing Angelus paints to customise my own pairs—graffiti on the walls, hip-hop on loop—while pursuing a degree in business management.
My mother is a dreamer too. An artist in her own right. Having run an interior design firm, a jewellery studio, and a boutique, she became my greatest source of inspiration—a constant belief system that carried me to Milan, where I pursued a diploma in leather technology.
Milan, 2012. A proud holder of a diploma in Leather Technology
Six days a week, eight hours a day, learning how collections come to life eventually led me to study footwear product design at Cordwainers, London College of Fashion. This is where the dream began to take form—shaped further by experience, including a formative stint at Crockett & Jones, working part-time on what felt like hallowed ground for classic menswear.
London, 2016. Final year of university, lasting an Oxford.
That chapter led me back home.
And there, OBLUM took shape.
