Rina Singh’s medium may be clothes, but she is a poet — and makes clothes for them, too. The slogan of sorts for Eka, which can be spotted at her Delhi store, featured on her website, and even woven into some of her pieces, states the same. Eka has been intersecting with art in various ways, creating pieces that urge one to move with quiet confidence and to wear them to be their best selves.

I first met Rina in her store in Delhi. She’d served me Adrak Chai and told me how she had looked far and wide before finding this space that felt like home, in Lodhi Garden - one with a courtyard through which a soft breeze could pass by. By then, I had already encountered her label, and written about her Spring/Summer 2024 collection Kohima, but meeting a designer in person, seeing parts of themselves while learning about the origins of these beautiful pieces - it reaffirmed my choice to become a lifestyle and culture writer. She had stories galore and perspectives left me with food for thought, for days. 

Garments Meant to Be Lived In

I’d seen the lightness of the clothes from Eka online and could imagine their gossamer-like nature. At the store, I could touch and feel every piece; they all felt like clothes meant to be lived in. When I met her for the first time, she radiated the same kind of lightness. Eka Co. is an extension of Rina—a way for her to share all of her readings, her fascinations, and creative explorations through her chosen medium of garments.

When I started to talk to Rina, she told me something that has continued to resonate with me. It is also what she reiterated to me when we talked recently, a year to the dot—“I want my clothes to be those that allow people to be their best themselves.” When I had this conversation with Rina, I was reminded of an adage that one often forgets when they write and think about fashion all the time—“clothes are supposed to fit the person, people shouldn’t have to fit themselves into clothes.” But Rina’s designs from Eka Co. do much more.

Eka pieces somehow come with stories woven in—sometimes messages. They hold the essence of the person who designed it, the weavers who crafted it, and perhaps every person who meticulously put their effort into it. They are homes for your body—filled with character and stories, and they somehow feel lived in, even when you try them on. And in all the best possible ways.

When I was leaving her store, Rina had gifted me a beautiful green jamdani shawl, along with two small boxes of tea blends — an act that they do with all purchases at Eka, Rina had mentioned. They had been developed by the brand No. 3 Clive Road and packaged into Eka co-labelled dabbas; enough for a few cups. They’d chosen a masala tea blend and a Kerala-inspired tea blend—the perfect choice for me, of course. And after all, it’s these little things that often count for luxury. The threads, the stories, and the design process are all part of making Eka pieces a worthy investment.

It’s all these small, intentional details — the softnesss of the fabric; how they chose to pixelate their weaved designs during the pandemic to reflect the times; the little totes they make out of their leftover fabrics — that make their pieces special. Eka works with handwoven fabrics for their collections — from jamdani and pure cotton to cotton-silk blends that feel light as air.

The love for fabrics and techniques is front and centre for Eka, best exemplified perhaps by how their website is designed with the option to categorise pieces by technique: Handblock Print, Jamdani, Sozni Embroidery, Embroidery, and Quilting, so far. I can’t seem to recall the exact piece, but I remember a gauzy pink jacket that had embroidered poetry inside it. Almost a secret message — not a brazen display of the brand, but rather a message for the wearer.

An Invitation You Can’t Refuse

When Rina gifted me the shawl, I had no idea that I would end up wearing it to her runway show at Lakmé Fashion Week, almost a year to the dot. At Lakmé Fashion Week’s 25th anniversary, she presented her Spring/Summer collection, 'Amer', to a filled-out room. I had gotten a few invites already but didn’t know if it would be worth the hassle to go to Mumbai on such short notice.

On the occasion of her upcoming store in Kala Ghoda, Mumbai and the show, we had gotten on a call and had a conversation that twirled between the personal and professional. When I said I might not make it to the show, she invited me to be her guest and see what she dreamed up. And that’s the thing — the same way her clothes beckon you to try them on, she invites you into spaces in a way that makes you feel so welcomed, that you can’t help but show up.

Of course, attending the whole week was an experience unto itself, but the Eka show that had no runway was a singular experience worth the hassle I had dreaded. To the hundreds in attendance, there were only chairs in concentric circles of sorts, a space in the middle. This was the setting for a moving performance by the Omaggio Performing Company from Goa. Dressed in gauzy Eka dresses or shirts in white, they performed to ethereal music — they leapt through the air, did pirouettes of sorts, and held soft yet stunning formations as a group. The models and the dancers had moments where their choreographies interacted and overlapped; a true spectacle that made me put my phone down to properly appreciate it.

Of Amer and Rite of Spring

Rina's vision translated powerfully into the space, where dancers shared the floor with models, blurring the lines between performer and observer; fashion and feeling. It felt like a blessing to have been part of the experience in person. 

The Amer collection, inspired by its namesake, carried this same emotionality. “It is a collection that explores movement and restraint, softness and strength. It’s a continuation of everything Eka stands for, but through a new lens of performance,” Rina said. Soft blush pinks, delicate lilacs, muted sages, and watercolour-like designs on textiles were layered with ease. There was something ceremonial and quietly radical about the show, especially as it eschewed the traditional catwalk format entirely.

Art, Design and Memory Live Together at Eka, Kala Ghoda

Just the way she had taken the time to find the perfect location for her flagship store in Delhi at Lodhi Garden, Rina took her time to find a place in Mumbai. She had been looking for two years before finding a space that felt right. “I didn’t want it to be a shop in a mall or a conventional boutique. I wanted a place where someone would walk in and feel like they were entering a home; a world — not a shop,” she told me.

The Eka store is now nestled within a heritage building in Mumbai’s Kala Ghoda, and is “an extension of Lodhi in a way,” she said. "It’s where art and design and memory can live together.” The store shares a courtyard with the iconic Kala Ghoda Café, and within the space — marked by wooden furniture, art books, ceramics, and naturally, Eka’s signature garments—there’s a sense of calm curiosity.

Rina spoke of the value of location, not as a branding exercise, but as a feeling. “You should walk into a space and feel like you belong. That’s when you know it’s right.” And I think it’s the same way of seeking to design a feeling of comfort and quiet beauty in everything that she crafts, that defines Rina Singh as a designer, and Eka as a homegrown label. 

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