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There’s a particular kind of peace that comes from seeing the little “no service” symbol appear on your phone screen. I recently escaped to a favourite place I discovered last year in Himachal and I came back feeling like I had finally found some semblance of peace after months. As someone belonging to a generation raised on dopamine loops and blue ticks, being able to go offline felt like the ultimate luxury - one that cannot be bought, only chosen. In talking to many others, I heard the same thought echoed back; in a world that demands constant visibility, the truest form of self-preservation is now being able to forgo constant availability. Perhaps that’s why Ikshit Pande’s newest line for his label Quod, titled Social, felt like a revelation. “Offline since forever,” it declared - a striking statement, rendered beautifully in the language of handloom and humour.
Quod, which Ikshit founded in 2019 after graduating from Parsons, has been a study in balance: the crisp tailoring of businesswear meeting the irreverence of street style, the tension between structure and innovation. But Social - made in collaboration with WomenWeave in Maheshwar - marks a turning point. It goes beyond being a collection, to speaking of his philosophy. A musing on what community, connection, and creativity look like when they’re stripped of the algorithm.
When I speak to Ikshit over a video call, he’s recovering from a fever. He apologises for the raspy voice but insists on continuing. “I actually got rid of my personal Instagram about two years ago,” he tells me. “I only use the brand handle now - sort of as a semi-personal space. I’ve always struggled with social media. But do we even have a choice anymore as creatives?”
That meditation on participation and escape, visibility and invisibility, became the seed of his latest collection titled Social. During a trip to Maheshwar, a town steeped in the legacy of handloom weaving, Ikshit found himself surrounded by women working in small cooperatives. “You see these women finishing their chores and gathering in someone’s house or a shared space,” he recalls. “One is spinning, another is weaving, another is helping with dyeing. They talk, share stories, pass on techniques - it’s all so natural. That’s when it hit me: this is the original social network.”
In an age where “social” instantly conjures the image of an app icon, Ikshit’s interpretation feels almost radical. “The true intent of being social was always about coming together,” he says. “We’ve just let the meaning shift. These women don’t have cell service in many of these villages - some don’t even have a network. And yet, they’re the most connected people I know.”
The phrase “Offline since forever” emerged from that realization - a contemplative tagline that captures both nostalgia and defiance. It’s an homage to the quiet collectivity that has always existed, long before hashtags.
Ikshit’s path to fashion wasn’t linear. He studied business and worked in marketing for nearly a decade before pursuing design at Parsons at 40. “I was a business graduate from Nainital who had spent years in brand management,” he mused. “When I turned 40, I realised I wanted to rewire my career. Quod was born out of that turn I took.”
Ikshit's gamble in pivoting his life's path defines Quod’s aesthetic. Sharp silhouettes meet whimsical details; crisp poplin coexist with unexpected embroidery. “Our DNA has always been impeccable tailoring and a kind of restrained irreverence,” he explains. “Even as we’ve evolved over six years, those two things remain sacrosanct.” But translating that discipline to handwoven textiles was no easy feat. “We usually work with very crisp fabrics like poplin,” Ikshit says. “It behaves exactly how you want it to - it’s sharp, obedient. But Khadi linen has a mind of its own. Even if you iron it ten times, it refuses to comply.” He laughs softly. “So we had to negotiate with it.”
That negotiation - between precision and imperfection - became the soul of Social. Handloom fabrics come with their own language: uneven textures, irregular stripes, subtle warps and wefts. Rather than hiding those quirks, Ikshit’s team leaned into them. “It was about creating something beautiful through all those imperfections,” he says. “Heritage textiles have this incredible softness, they breathe. They’re perfect for tropical weather, but we wanted to make them edgy and relevant for a younger audience.”
The result is a collection that’s equal parts classic and contemporary. Familiar Quod silhouettes - oversized shirts, clean-cut trousers, voluminous skirts, layered co-ords - are presented according to the brand in 'the memory of colour — often expressed through high-contrast monochromes'; think shades of deep red, sand, slate blue, and vibrant green. The silouhettes carry a kind of looseness, an ease that comes from letting the fabric lead. “I wanted to push the boundaries of what heritage textiles could be,” he adds. “Why must we reserve them for weddings and festivals? Why can’t they be our everyday clothes - something you’d wear to brunch or a night out?”
For all its quiet philosophy, Social doesn’t take itself too seriously. The clothes are playful - cheeky even. A shirt named “Sad Boyfriend” sits alongside one called “Sunny Side’s a Mess”, complete with an egg motif embroidered across the chest. It’s these small flashes of humour that give Quod its humanity.
“All of those names come from real life,” Ikshit admits. “I write a lot of poetry - short fragments, really - and the names often come from there.” He pauses, smiling. “One morning, I was eating eggs after a terrible day, and the yolk broke and spilled everywhere. I looked at the mess and thought, ‘Yeah, that’s exactly how I feel.’ There’s no word for that emotion - but there’s an image. So that became Sunny Side’s a Mess.”
The “Sad Boyfriend” shirt has a similarly personal origin. “I was going through a phase where I literally was a sad boyfriend,” he laughs. “But there’s beauty in melancholy too. We translated that feeling into a graphic - straightforward and honest. None of our names are gimmicky. They’re all lived experiences.”
Even in its prints and embroidery, Quod rejects convention. Seahorses - “our spirit animals,” as Ikshit refers to them - appear alongside monograms and playful dice motifs, nodding to nostalgia and childlike wonder. “We’ve never really been known for our surface work,” he says. “But this time, we wanted to explore embroidery in a way that felt contemporary and unserious. The collection had to have humour; otherwise, it would lose its soul.”
Quod’s world extends beyond garments. Over the years, the brand has organically branched into jewellery, objects, and even installation art - each a medium for storytelling. “It wasn’t planned,” Ikshit says. “I’m not a trained jewellery designer. But there were certain ideas I couldn’t express through clothes. So we started creating other objects that carried the same emotion.”
Two years ago, Quod began showing immersive installations - first at a land art exhibition in Ladakh, and later at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion. “Now it’s about using any medium that allows us to tell our story,” he says. “It could be a product, or it might not be. I’m not attached to form anymore.”
Even Quod’s website feels like a conceptual playground. The three live collections - each distinct in tone and material - reflect a designer uninterested in seasonal churn. “When we began, we followed the standard fashion calendar: spring/summer, fall/winter,” Ikshit recalls. “But over the years, it’s become more about feeling. If I’m on a trip to the Himalayas, maybe that becomes a collection. If I’m in Maheshwar, it’s Social. I no longer feel the need to fit into the industry’s schedule.” The brand’s rhythm mirrors the designer’s own temperament - intentional, precise, but deeply emotional. “We still do one large annual collection, but I’d rather experiment through smaller, meaningful drops,” he says. “Less is more for us. We want to say something that matters, not just fill racks.”
What I find most compelling about Social is how it holds space for contradictions. It’s both heritage and modernity, humour and craft, rebellion and reverence. The pieces feel alive - creased, imperfect, deeply human. They remind you that the hand that wove the fabric have also borne withness to laughter, gossip, and lived experiences. In Maheshwar, Ikshit witnessed that experience first-hand - the clatter of looms, the chatter of women, the hum of threads moving through wooden frames, and how everyone knew what everyone else was going through, with no social media to keep them tuned in all the time.
Maybe that’s what luxury looks like now - not exclusivity, but intimacy. Not being seen by everyone, but being present with someone. In a landscape of constant digital noise, Social feels like an invitation to unplug and to return to the tangible. To wear something that reminds you of slowmade, handcrafted art, and not trendy designs and fast fashion.
Follow Quod here.
