Harri

Yes, I am! And it’s my pleasure to be here.

I saw a movie called Kinds of Kindness this week. The new movie from director Yorgos Lanthimos. I thought it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. I saw Poor Things before this and I’m just stunned by what a versatile director Lanthimos is. He can handle a wide range of subjects which is quite rare. I also felt like depending on where you’re from, how you’ve been brought up, what culture you follow, your financial situation, etc, you take something very different out of this movie. It appeals to a wide audience but everyone sees something unique in it, which I think is really special.

Dates. I usually eat dates with something, like the British dish sticky toffee pudding. But I’ve started having them on their own as a sweet treat after a meal, and they’re delicious. Also, I’m on a special diet right now which means I can’t eat most things.

No actually, I fully quit bodybuilding. It’s a very all or nothing kind of thing, all in or all out. You have to prepare your meals, go to sleep on time, it's all about consistency and discipline and it involves tons of calculation, or you won't get the results you want. The way I got into bodybuilding in the first place was kind of accidental. When I was about 18 I decided I wanted to get into modelling. In order to prepare my body for modelling, I started working out a lot and spending much of my time in the gym. And then, as I saw my body changing, I became aware of bodybuilding and got interested in that. After years of training, I competed in a national competition and placed seventh in the nation. Right when I won that trophy, I decided I was done, and that body building wasn’t for me. So that was the end of it.

Well, back when I thought I wanted to be a model, I thought that a good way to get into modelling would be through studying fashion. I left my village in India and went to the city to go study fashion at India’s National Institute of Fashion Technology. I was lucky enough to have developed an aesthetic eye at a young age. I was good at drawing and visualisation, skills I got from my dad. So when I stopped bodybuilding, fashion was already a part of my life but just not the main focus. What I loved about bodybuilding ultimately was not really showing off my body or being muscular. I loved what a meditative act it was. The gym gave me a space to go and do my own thing, to focus on myself, and express myself. I’m an introvert, I don’t talk that much, so it’s important that I find other ways to express myself. When you’re lifting, you focus on your breath, and the music, and the movement, and you’re kind of transported to another place. Plus, you start seeing these changes in your body. It makes you feel very in control. When I stopped bodybuilding, I was able to derive many of those same feelings, and to express myself through designing my clothing.

In India the education is much more based on industry. Basically, your education prepares you directly to move on and work in one of India’s industries after school. India has denim factories, leather producers, and big cotton producers. At school you study to specifically design for one of these industries. We were trained to design for these existing companies, so there was very little creativity.
In London it was the opposite. You’re not training to work for Zara, you’re training to work for yourself. There’s no direction given to you, you have to make that for yourself. In India there’s no experimenting, in the UK there was much more of that. It was very creative, so I liked it much more.

After school I took a two year break because of Covid. I started working as an Adidas customer service agent. One day, my current business partner called me and said that he’d registered a company, and practically forced me to come join. I hadn’t wanted to start my own business yet. If he hadn’t called me that day Harri wouldn’t exist.

Yes. I do all of the design and he does the business side of things.

Honestly, it’s something I’ve had to fight everyday. You hear people saying your name all the time, oh, here’s a pair of Harri pants, Harri logo, Harri meeting, etc. I find it kind of cringe to tell you the truth. Plus, there’s all the more pressure to succeed because the brand uses your own name. A bad review feels much more personal because a customer is saying my name. I’ve spent lots of time and energy the past two years on trying to disassociate the brand from my own name, but it’s definitely very hard to do. However, in terms of immigration status, it is helpful that my business shares my name, in that it immediately proves the brand is in fact mine as I apply for citizenship in the UK.

No. I don’t wear my own clothes. Sometimes I’ll try something on but I barely get time to.

This is another thing I definitely struggle with. Now that I have a team, everything is a different story. People depend on me, and without them I’m nothing. My brand would be gone. So there really is more pressure to make a profit. My team consists of seven people right now. I produce clothing hoping customers will buy it because of these seven people, to make sure they have a good career. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t care about profit, I’d be happy just making art.

Everything is made to order. It’s much easier this way, in terms of spacing. Designers who prepare inventory in advance end up having issues concerning where to store the pieces. Being made to order is also a sustainable approach. When an order gets placed, my studio manager, Harriet, comes running in and tells the rest of us the good news. At the end of the day, we always have some kind of celebration. We’ll do dinner for the whole team, for example. Around the holidays sales come much more often. Summertime is much slower.

In 2022 Sam Smith found me on Instagram and asked if I’d be willing to make them something for an event. They contacted me on Sunday, I got a confirmation note on Wednesday, and the piece had to be ready for an event on Saturday. The timeline of the whole thing was such a whirlwind, it really felt like a dream. I definitely received lots of attention after the Sam Smith collaboration, but in terms of sales, it didn’t really change anything. At that point we were working out of a kitchen. There was no way we could handle demands like that. We didn’t even have a website at that point!

My process actually does not begin with a vision in the traditional sense. I start by building. I’m a very hands on person, so I just start by building and making changes and shaping things and seeing what works. We rarely ever begin with any sort of sketches or drawn out plans.

Actually, it's because I’m colourblind. Because of that, form is my language. I make a full black collection first, and then I consult others when it comes to colour choices. But yeah, that's why my collections are light on patterns or colour and stronger on forms.

The Black Hole Jacket.

A lot of research goes into it. There’s a materials library in London at Central Saint Martins that I often use. My process begins with materials – once I find a material I really like, I play with structure and come up with a piece. But again, it all starts with great material. I use a lot of latex – that's what the Black Hole Jacket is made of – and I have a great connection to that material specifically.

I really am an introvert. I’d always rather be in the studio, even during fashion week, to the point where I almost never attend the afterparties or networking events I’m invited to. My designs speak for me. I don’t need to speak in words. That’s what I love about fashion.

I don’t think so. The Indian fashion scene is a completely different thing. The third chapter of my life began in the UK. This is where I was born as a designer, Harri (the brand) was born in London. I have a good audience here in the UK, I feel appreciated and encouraged. So I intend to stay.