Between 2017 and 2019, my 20s went through a massive transformation.
The year 2017 began with the end of what felt like a fairytale love story, the kind of heartbreak that leaves you changed. Soon after came a big promotion at work. And somewhere between the two, love found me again. But this time, it wasn’t fireworks or frenzy. It was a quiet knowing. A hand held through the bustle of Mumbai. A gentler kind of falling, that felt like coming home.
But this isn’t that love story. This chapter is about another kind of becoming.
Flash forward to 2019. One morning at 6AM, my partner and I left Mumbai with two cats in the backseat of our car and memories of a beloved home in our bones. The destination: Goa. The shift: total. From fast pace city life to stillness and sea breeze. I was on a six-month sabbatical from my job(in social impact) at the time, unaware it would soon become permanent.
It was the first time in years I wasn’t working through the night, a common pattern for a Vata-driven creative like me. But stepping away made space for something new to arrive. Or rather, for something old to be remembered.
Growing up in Odisha, I had always been surrounded by saris, handloom textiles, and the rhythm of creating with looms. My mother’s wardrobe was my earliest museum. Style became my language, design my instinct. Later, working in social impact took me often to Rajasthan. That’s where I first experienced hand block printing. Watching artisans carve stories into wooden blocks, dye by dye, layer by layer. The romance of it stayed.
The move to Goa gave it ground. The sun, the slowness, the village rhythm, gave me the space to think about the kind of life I wanted. One with meaning. One that honoured my love for textiles. One that worked with artisans, not on them. One that felt aligned with the people and the planet. That’s how MAIKAI was born.
India’s cotton story is rich and often under-celebrated. 60% of our textile economy is cotton-based, not just the commercial kind, but luxurious, heritage-rich, slow-crafted cotton. Through MAIKAI, I wanted to place Indian cotton and craftsmanship on the global stage in pieces that feel modern and feminine, but are rooted in something ancient.
At the same time, the fashion industry’s wasteful patterns were impossible to ignore. Fast fashion was exploding. Plastic-wrapped, polyester-based, trend-led pieces were everywhere. In contrast, life in Goa taught me to consume more mindfully. I switched to reusables. I learned about the impact of microplastics. I followed slow fashion thinkers. And I asked: what would it mean to be a responsible producer, not just a conscious consumer?
From the start, MAIKAI had to be ethical. We would not greenwash. We would not over-produce. And we would never underpay. A fair percentage of every retail price would go directly to our fabric makers and artisans not just because it’s fair, but because that’s the only model that’s truly sustainable. Our made-to-order format at launch wasn’t a trend. It was an invitation for our customers to slow down, choose with care, and co-create a new culture of consumption.
Around this time, another personal challenge became a creative opportunity.
I move a lot. I dance. I lift. And I had never found a sports bra that fit the way I wanted it to. Soft, breathable, without plastic fibres, and made for my body. So I designed one. One for me, one for a friend from my yoga teacher training. I wore it, posted about it, and the DMs flooded in.
The rest, as they say, is IP.
The 100% Cotton sports bra from MAIKAI sold out collection after collection. Women wrote in, grateful. They told me they’d never felt this good in something so functional. And when similar brands tried to copy the design, it was our community who stood up for us. “This is MAIKAI’s IP,” they said, tagging us again and again.
We had created something meaningful. So I filed for patent protection and this year, it was granted.
I don’t believe sustainability should look beige and boring. I want women to feel fierce, fun, and feminine in pieces that fit like a dream, last for years, and never compromise on values.
This is MAIKAI. Rooted in the past, created for the present, and designed for goddesses.
If you’ve worn MAIKAI, you’ve helped rewrite the story of Indian cotton, artisan livelihoods, and what slow fashion can feel like.
And if not, there’s always tomorrow.