From Street to Silk: Gundi’s Parisian Evolution
Between Mumbai’s flower markets and Paris’s cold but cool light, Gundi enters a new chapter. Designer Natasha Sumant still builds from rage, ritual, and hand crafted memories, but the rebellion has matured to be sharper, subtler, more sure of itself. In conversation with MERDE, she speaks of the sari’s infinite folds, the politics of craft, and the freedom that comes from earning (and the power of keeping) your own money.
Bts Images from Gundi’s SS26 Presentation by Jonne Scholten
MERDE: our work has such tactile language. Can you walk me through how one of your most recent pieces came together, from concept to material and technique — and any surprises along the way you had while creating this SS26 collection?
Natasha: I went to Parsons, so I’m a super conceptual person. I approach everything pretty conceptually, which is great but sometimes can be a bit of a hindrance. With some of the pieces in this collection, I really focused on draping — finding the shapes within draping. The inspiration was an endless sari. I looked at old photos from the 1920s of women in Southern India and the way they would tie the sari differently based on caste, state, or culture. I found there was this way of tying it thick around the waist that still looked like a sari but more draped, and super functional. There were photos of women sweeping the streets like that. We have this blue dress from the new collection that we Shibori dyed. It’s draped across one side without a blouse — how women often wore it in the past — and it’s draped around the waist with this giant band. It falls beautifully as a dress. That’s an example of how we approached it this season. Even the Shibori on the dress — I thought conceptually about raveling and unraveling, since the entire collection is based on women’s rage and consent. Shibori was a nice way to replicate and embody that concept: you create a pattern with a machine, sew it, dye it, and then remove all the stitches, which creates the texture of the dye.I’m pretty proud of that dress.
MERDE: How do you navigate the balance between your design ambitions and conceptual thinking, and the technical limits you face?
NATASHA: I feel like that’s my everyday struggle. We let the medium and material tell us what we can do. We experiment, but at the end of the day, it’s about what the material can do and how it sits on the body. I also work with a lot of women’s groups, so there’s the challenge that many artisans are used to working with specific shapes or designs. To come in with something slightly challenging or innovative takes a long conversation — we prototype a lot together. That’s just part of the work, and honestly, it’s fun.
MERDE: Do you have any materials you’re dying to work with that you haven’t yet?
NATASHA: Absolutely. I went motorcycling through the Himalayas this summer, and in the villages, which are run by matriarchies, the native animal most women have are yaks. They make wool from yaks, which is super warm and beautiful. The only people consistently working with it are Hermès (for blankets) and a brand in Tibet. I’m very excited to maybe make some coats out of that — I think it’d be really beautiful.
MERDE: Is everything Gundi handmade?
NATASHA: The knitwear, yes. Some shell piece are not, many are a silk called Eri silk — it’s non-violent silk, made after the silkworm leaves the cocoon. It has a sheen but also a woolly texture. We put that on a flatbed machine — so it’s machine-made, but still a woman threading it through. There’s always a push and pull — not a factory process.
MERDE: The name ‘Gundi’ carries a lot of cultural weight and pride. What does it mean to you, and has that shifted since you started the brand and your geography evolved?
NATASHA: When I started, I was in New York, and I was also much younger. I was definitely influenced by American culture, which celebrates rebelliousness and subcultures and grunge, which is still the essence of the brand. But being in Paris, observing how women dress, and just growing up, I want cleaner lines and a more grown-up look. In the beginning, we were more street and casual and playful; now things are a little more polished. Paris is rubbing off on me.
MERDE: Has living in Paris shift affected your art direction as well, and how do you approach art direction as such a conceptual designer?
NATASHA: I think it’s shifted in how we approach lighting. We haven’t done too many shoots in Paris yet, but we’re about to! The art direction feels a little colder now, the colors more muted. We’ll still have some grungier shoots we shot in India — like our fall collection, which we shot in a flower market in Mumbai. These wholesale markets start at 7 am, and they’re where hotels and temples buy their flowers. It was chaos, which is my favorite way to shoot. We were jumping out of the car, into crowds of flower sellers, while people carried bags of flowers everywhere. It’s nuts, but so fun. It’ll be interesting to see those images next to each other, the Paris and India work, and find a new visual identity through that contrast.
MERDE: You’ve mentioned female-focused storytelling and building a production ecosystem based on female artisans and small-batch craft. How do you measure that impact? Is there a story that captures that way of working?
NATASHA: We work with a social impact strategist who creates annual reports on our monetary impact, and we’re starting to track material impact too, since we use a lot of organic materials. Recently, we’ve been working with two girls, who are the first female weavers in their families. They’re 22 and 24. They learned from a woman name Julie who started an artisan school teaching young women art and design . These two girls fought really hard with their dads because they didn’t want arranged marriages, they wanted to weave instead. Now, one of them calls me to talk about life and gossip, she told me her dad didn’t want her dating a guy she loves, but she wanted to marry him. I told her, “When you have control over your own money, no one can tell you what to do.” So she and her friend went together, opened their own bank accounts, and now she’s dating the guy.
MERDE: That’s incredible.
NATASHA: Yeah — it’s a soft way of measuring impact, but it’s a story I love. It’s so common for artisans to have us send money to their husbands or dads. These two handle admin themselves and they’re good with tech. With older women in the mountains, it’s harder, but we work with an amazing group that helps them.
MERDE: I’m sure those challenges make it all the more rewarding.
NATASHA: Absolutely. It’s empowering — when the artisans see the money hit their own account, they realize they have control.
MERDE: You started with patchwork and now expand into so many artisanal practices. What lessons from those early, experimental phases have stayed with you?
NATASHA: I’ve learned a lot from cultural differences in designs. My first patches took a while to convince the embroiderer that it would look good, we went back and forth. Artisans are used to organic embroidery, but I have a typography background, so I wanted more geometric forms. That was the jumping-off point. Now, I’m more patient and smarter in my design choices, and I understand where artisans are coming from skill-wise. It’s more of a conversation than handing over a design. I think Western education trains us to design and send things off — like with graphic design, you send to the printer and get a finished product back. Working this way has taught me so much about patience and context.
MERDE: Are there any cross-disciplinary projects you’re dreaming of? Something that pushes Gundi into immersive territory?
NATASHA: Hopefully! I’m really aiming to produce coats what we’re just starting to design, and I’d really like to make a film in the mountains of Ladakh, in the mountains. Maybe even collaborate with a motorcycle brand. Beyond that, we’re focusing on events and community in Paris.
MERDE: There’s so much a lot of talk around sustainability and craft discourse in fashion currently. How do you avoid falling into limiting language with your brand? And what’s one term or idea in sustainability you feel has lost its meaning — something you want to reframe through your work?
NATASHA: The word sustainability is so overused, and we haven’t come up with a better term. I’ve been seeing “co-creation” more, and I like that. I’m not great with words; I’d rather show through doing — by letting people into our process. There are so many reports, certifications, and labels which are great, but maybe not as effective as we think .For me, it’s about transparency, showing who we work with, and letting consumers decide if they align with that. I’m less concerned with the jargon.
MERDE: Good for you. When imagining Gundi in five or ten years, what kind of cultural impact do you hope to continue to build?
NATASHA: I’d love to normalize wearing more handmade pieces, pulling more of that into our closets. It’s happening in menswear with brands like Karthik Research, and Bode, and I hope it comes more into womenswear. I think we need a little aesthetic shift in how we approach artisanal, eco-friendly clothing, and then more women would adopt it.
MERDE: You carry the brand with this spirit of rebellion — helping women become more self-sufficient. How do you keep that energy alive as the brand grows?
NATASHA: The brand is deeply enmeshed with my experience, so I don’t have trouble keeping it alive. The world gives me plenty of fodder. Thing are changing, and things piss me off pretty easily, so I just channel it into the work.
