Fashion / Check Out The New Craze Known As Kulture Shop

Check Out The New Craze Known As Kulture Shop

Fashion Feb 18, 2016

by Vallisa Chauhan

Kulture Shop is the new trend in India helping support local graphic designers express their art in unique and fun ways.

Places like London, New York and Tokyo are known for being the hubs of fashion and more so art and Michael Johnson, founder of Johnson Banks (UK) declares, “Fast forward a decade and I can see Kulture Shops in every major Indian city (and London, New York and Tokyo too)." It would be incredible to see a small boutique shop that is tucked away from the bustling streets of Mumbai to push its way into a global market.

^{Gola designs in store.

Photo Credit: www.janineshroff.co.uk}

Launched in October 2013, in Bandra, Mumbai, Kulture Shop is the brainchild of Arjun Charanjiva, the founder and CEO, whose inspiration came from watching the struggles of his wife Jas and other talented local graphic designers who were unable to sustain themselves. People from all over the world are now looking to visit Kulture Shop and experience the art it has within its walls.

^{Arjun Charanjiva, Jas Charanjiva and Kunal Anand

Photo Credit: www.homegrown.co.in}

TimeOut Explorer considered Kulture Shop amongst the 10 hottest places to shop around the world in their 2014 summer issue noting, “Kulture Shop invites no ordinary experience. It’s a shop, art gallery, collaborative platform, a design studio and defiantly sub-cultural entity, all rolled into one.”

Kulture Shop has aimed to make art more accessible and to push the Indian graphic art scene with their roster of 30+ designers who are inspired by culture not only in India but globally.

^{Kulture Shop designs.

Photo Credit: www.anewlifewandering.com}

The way Kulture Shop works with artists is to allow them to create exclusive work of different styles and moods based on a theme provided by Kulture Shop as an inspiration. These works of art are then printed onto numerous products which vary from t-shirts, to notebooks, to mugs etc. and the artist is then compensated for the pieces sold. This helps artists show the world their designs rather then just draw stuff that is hidden away as there is nowhere for it to be seen.

"We just couldn’t bear to see so much brilliant work forever hidden in their sketchbooks and computers,” Charanjiva explained.

Kulture Shop is not just using India-based designers for their work. They are also looking to collaborate with a whole host of global designers, for instance with Meera Sethi, a Toronto-based visual artist whose work has been exhibited and featured in NBC, Vogue India, CNN and MTV.

^{Meera Sethi

Photo Credit: www.meerasethi.com}

Kulture Shop have also worked with some very interesting people by collaborating two separate fields together. They picked people in the fields of aerospace, music and film and paired them with artists and named the series Katalyst. The outcome was mind blowing. The collaboration included Kalki Koechlin, spacecraft designer Dr. Susmita Mohanty, guitar hero Randolph Correia and musician Karsh Kale.

^{Kalki Koechlin (right) and Sameet Kulavoor.

Photo Credit: www.kultureshop.in}

Not only do they have the best collections, Kulture Shop has thought about their packaging design. If you were to buy a tee from the shop you would be surprised to find it comes in a tube for you to take home.

^{Kulture Shop packaging.

Photo Credit: www.packedinindia.com}

^{Kulture Shop designs.

Photo Credit: www.kultureshop.in}

Kulture Shop is being supported by the famous as well as a number of well known publications who have written about their work. ELLE India says “Kulture Shop is fast gaining a name as the new champion of Indian Graphic Art” while the New York Times Magazine recommended it as one of three homegrown boutiques to visit in Bandra.

^{Main Image Photo Credit: www.lbb.in}

Vallisa Chauhan

Author

Vallisa Chauhan (@vallisachauhan) presents the Flagship breakfast show on Lyca Radio 1458. She has scripted and produced a full feature film called "Those 4 Walls" and is currently working on other projects. She loves travel and movies and tries to fit in both as much as she can.

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