Homecoming, Not Homegrown.

As QUOD gears up to complete 5 years, we look forward to moving closer to home. With a marketing office in New York (2018) and a design studio in Delhi (2019), we are now looking forward to working with local communities and building capacity for the youth in the district of Nainital, Uttarakhand.

QUOD was founded as a one-man operation in my then New York City apartment in 2019. 

This was while I was interning at Vera Wang and still hustling to finish my somewhat much fast-forwarded design training. Opening a label was never a part of the scheme of things. Working for the likes of McQueen, Dries, Comme after design school. But then training to be a designer wasn’t the plan either. Soon after the day go, it wasn’t the best of times. With having only justbegun and a pandemic quickly changing the way things worked, there was extensive unlearning and re-engineering to do. But unlike the popular belief at the time, the world didn’t end and we’re still here. Come 2024, now in our 5th year of being, the unlearning and re-engineering is still on, now a core part of our DNA.

2024 is also when we’re finally ready to come home. By integrating local principles of design and production with an aspiration for an increased engagement and employment for the youth of Uttarakhand, it’s a homecoming like we had never imagined. Demanding, challenging, empowering; everything everywhere all at once.

 Ikshit x