Bodice

Bodice founder Ruchika Sachdeva has designed the pared-back interiors of the womenswear brand’s store in New Delhi to counter the “more, new and now” culture of fast fashion.Bodice’s flagship is located in New Delhi’s affluent Vasant Kunj neighbourhood, occupying a building on the same site as the brand’s design studio.
Sachdeva took on the task of designing the interiors of the store herself, setting out to create a simple, thoughtful space that would encourage customers to “think more consciously about what they’re buying and why”.

Top image: the exterior of Bodice’s New Delhi flagship. Above: floor-to-ceiling windows flood the store with natural light
“I feel there is a need to question the way we consume clothes,” Sachdeva told Dezeen. “The fast-paced, retail-driven space like a market or a mall does the opposite by encouraging customers to buy quantity instead of quality.”

“The culture there makes it alright to buy more and dispose quickly whereas our philosophy at Bodice is a little different,” continued Sachdeva, who is a judge for Dezeen Awards 2020. “We focus on longevity and for us, the essence of the product is a lot more important than the number of collections.”
“We are not really in the favour of feeding the ‘more and new and now’ culture, so I felt that the store should reflect that.”

Bamboo blinds partially cover the windows
Fixtures and furnishings throughout the open-plan store are therefore few and far between – those that do appear have been made from naturally sourced materials.
This sustainable ethos is also applied to Bodice’s clothing, which is designed to be a more minimal, practical alternative to garments currently offered to women in India.
Pieces are fabricated from non-synthetic textiles like wool or silk and then dyed with natural pigments such as those sourced from indigo plants.

Furniture inside the store has been kept to a minimum
The blinds in the store that partially shroud the floor-to-ceiling windows are made from bamboo. The triangular-frame rails where garments are hung have been crafted from light-hued mango wood.
Sachdeva also designed some of the tables and chairs that have been scattered throughout the space, borrowing samples from the adjacent studio.

Bodice clothes are for the women “challenging conventions” in Indian society

“Since this was the first space I have designed, I organically had a very clear idea of what I wanted,” she explained.
“I knew I wanted it to be surrounded by trees and nature, [the store] has a lot of clear glass so I wanted it to be filled with sunlight and since we are in India, we have plenty of it,” Sachdeva added.
“I feel that the store was a culmination of years of visual information that I have been processing.”

Clothes rails are crafted from mango wood
A growing number of designers and brands are attempting to slow the pace of the fashion industry and make consumers more considerate of what they purchase.
Earlier this year, Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele announced that the high-end label will now be holding just two fashion shows per year instead of the traditional five in a bid to reduce waste that accumulates from producing each collection and the subsequent harm to the environment.

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