Nimish Shah’s label, ‘Shift’ is housed on the top floor of a two story building, due north of Mumbai’s hustle near Mira Road. By the time you reach the studio you feel a sense of calm and quietness,  having driving for kilometers alongside the lush and green Sanjay Gandhi National Park. Nimish welcomes you to his studio and workshop space by offering tea on a thoughtfully arranged tray. The thoughtfulness has less to do with hospitality and more with his time spent in Europe (working a Chloé, Burberry and Jigsaw). It’s clear he was a part of studio culture that largely exists outside of India, that includes a curated space to attend to meetings. A simple but important observation as this is the way he runs his business.

It is through this exposure, coupled with working for Sabyasachi on their Khala Ghoda stores, that Nimish aims to create a space reflecting his brand values: designing for a woman who is very much of today yet loves the past in all it’s tea-drinking, floral loving glory. Shabby chic and vaguely retro – but never shabby retro.

When we visited, the workshop had an adjoining 300 sq ft empty space, which is today filled with a consortium of embroiderers. Admittedly, the initial trek there made us think twice. Now, we can’t wait to go back, watching Shift flourish, as it shall.