A Twist on Textiles: A Small Company’s Big Impact

In this episode of SolPod Studios, host Mia Rubiera sits down with sisters Rachna and Ruchika Kumar, co-founders of Ichcha, a sustainable textile brand dedicated to preserving India’s ancient crafts and promoting conscious consumerism. They share their journey from tech and design into entrepreneurship, how they collaborate with artisans across generations, and their initiatives that empower women through education. From natural dyes to zero-waste practices, the Kumar sisters reveal how Ichcha weaves artistry, sustainability, and social impact into every piece.

Visit the Ichcha website or follow Ichcha on Instagram to learn more. 

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Transcript

Ruchika: 00:00

So community is everything for us. We don't want to be another mass producer. Our mission is to avoid chemicals as much as possible, and that's how we set out in the beginning, was like to do good work with good people.

Mia: 00:13  

Hello and welcome back to another episode of SolPods Studios. My name is M Rubier and I'm recording from Cincinnati, Ohio. Today, I'm thrilled to be speaking with Rachna and Ruchika Kumar. They are co-founders of Ichcha, a sustainable textile brand that's doing incredible work to further ancient Indian crafts and promote conscious consumerism. Thank you so much for being here today.

Ruchika:  00:34

Thank you for having us.

Rachna:  00:36

Yeah, thank you for having us.

Mia: 00:37

Could you start by telling us the vision behind the brand?

Ruchika: 00:40

So, Ichcha, which means a wish, was basically a wish by my sisters and I to do good work with good people. Rachna always had a wish to preserve the Indian crafts, and it was a moment in our life where we joined forces and decided to go explore the crafts of India and work.  Like, make relationships with the people and develop our designs. I trained as a textile designer, so, we decided to make the products with different types of ancient craft techniques and hope that we could play a little part in helping this craft go further down the road and survive.

Mia: 01:35

That's really incredible. So, kind of talking about the textiles that you guys use and working with other artisans. Your website talks a lot about the importance of conscious products, especially reducing textile waste. For those who may not be as familiar who are listening to the podcast today, can you explain what a conscious product means and how it plays out in your brand's model?

Ruchika: 02:00

So our logo, or our saying of our logo, is to create conscious product or conscious living and that means to be aware of what we are creating, how we're creating, who we're creating it with, and whom are we creating it for. So we work with organic cotton farmers. It's pesticide free. It's grown in a very dry region requiring very little water, and from the fiber to where it's woven to where it gets printed and then stitched and then makes its way to us and to the consumer. So we try to think of the whole process and if there is any wastage along the way, what can we do about the wastage? How do we repurpose it, upcycle it? That's the generic view of us trying to be more conscious about the products we create. We don't want to be another mass producer.

So we work with limited quantities. We work with techniques that are slow. So, block printing, natural dyeing, hand weaving.  All of this gives us time to stop, pause and think about what are we doing? Why are we doing this? We've also done a lot of zero-waste products. If there's any defect in our product while printing, mistakes happen, there's wastage.  Maybe we can reprint, maybe we can make it into another product. We try to use as much of the fabric as we can to not have any waste basically.

Mia: 04:00

I love how each textile or clothing material is intentional and there's a story behind it. There's a lot of thought that's put in because I think we see a lot nowadays of mass production, and you're just trying to keep up with fast fashion. So I really love your mission with that at Ichcha. What are some of the crafts that you guys are helping preserve, and what is it like working with the artisan communities in India?

Rachna: 04:27

We are working with block printers, weavers. We are also working with an NGO where they've sort of employed the women of the village, and they do embroidery for us.

Ruchika: 04:43

And stitching. Some stitching.

Rachna: 04:45

Yes, and stitching as well. So those are the different kinds of crafts that we work with. 

Ruchika:  04:53

In block printing, we work with wooden blocks and natural dyes only. Our mission is to avoid chemicals as much as possible. Natural dyes.  To try to get colors from from leaves, flowers, minerals, giving us beautiful shades of reds, oranges, yellows, and greens like the clothes we're wearing. In weaving, we work with a village of weavers that use the organic cotton that is grown in that area. They transport that fabric to our printers where we work on printing and then it goes to the women embroidering community where they embellish the fabric a little bit further.  So its separate communities that we have joined forces with. And it’s amazing to work with these communities. There's a sense of family that ends up happening. You attend somebody's wedding, or their child is born, so you're taking gifts. Every time our suitcases are filled with gifts when we go. It's not a sense of doing business. It's more like, you’re hugging when you go there. Whenever we go to our block print community, they receive us with garlands of flowers and sweets and sometimes they throw roses from the ceiling. It's always a festival when we're there. 

Rachna: 06:28

The last time we went, the kids had actually taken the garlands they put on us, opened them up, and made the sign “welcome” on the floor. So it’s also recycled.  Even the garland was recycled. It was really nice.

Ruchika:  06:50

The kids were excited.  They were like, come on, let’s go.  We stay in the factories.  So they are like, come on, let’s go to your room.  They took us upstairs. So they were as excited. This is like the fifth generation that we're getting to be a part of their lives. Yeah.

Mia: 07:09

That's absolutely incredible. I love how you said whenever you come there, it's not like a business thing. It’s like we’re all friends here.  There’s hugging.  It's very welcoming. I think that's exactly how brands should be. You’re forming a community within a business.  I think that is absolutely incredible.  Can you share more about the social impact side of Ichcha, and how community plays into your business values.  I know you just said about community and how important that is.  If you don’t mind touching on that.

Ruchika: 07:40

Community is everything for us. We aim to create a family rather than a business relationship. That's how we set out in the beginning was to do good work with good people. Who do you enjoy working with? We met a lot of people but we've settled with a few that you can sit down and have a meal with them and not get bored. After being in this business for 15 years, we're not bored. We're excited to go meet them every year.  We didn’t end up going last year, and so, Rachna is really missing them.  Because there’s a lot of camaraderie, and you know, you tease each other.

In terms of social impact, we have some programs that we're working on and some things we've done in the past. We have an “Ichcha for Artisan” program where we try to encourage the artisans we work with to explore their own creativity and become a part of our business model. They benefit from the profit as well and get a sense of everybody working on it is as important as we are as owners of the business. We give out fabric to everybody in the block print community and say, “Go ahead, design whatever you want, color it as you want.”  And at the end we'll pick something that we feel would do well in the market and sell it. All the profit goes back to them, equally.  Equally divided among everyone, from the washer to the stitcher to the printer. They know it’s not just us profiting. So they know that when someone is laying down a piece of fabric, this will make them money.  It’s not just us who will be profiting off of it, but they will as well. So, that’s something everyone is excited and looking forward to when we go over there.  They wait for the fabric.  They also hide fabric from each other.  And the designs from each other because some people want to show off.  And it’s interesting to see what they come up with.  And how they manipulate the printing technique and the dying technique. They have been doing this for years.  Since they were children basically.  Because they learn with a parent or a friend. It’s an exciting program for them and for us.

Besides that, we do an education for women fund.  We funded so far 10 women.  We started just recently to fund the education for them for further studies.   So if they are becoming a nurse or teacher, and you want to get your master’s. We try to fund the scholarships for them.

During Covid we had a Go Fund Me.  Because at that time, you were trying to not spread the disease. Stay at home.  But if these artisans stayed at home, it would have affected them economically.  So we had set up a fund, that if you’re sick, stay home, and we’ll pay for your days off.  Or if someone passes in your family, and you can’t come to work because in your culture, you can't go to work for a few months.  We’ll pay for your months off. 

Beside this, recently, we also started a scholarship for kids of printers.  We’re setting up an application system and essay. They can apply for it, and we can provide funds for the children.  These are all programs we are working on, developing, and perfecting. It's about the community, and in any way the business can assist, we are all for it.

Mia: 11:54

That's amazing how many things that you support.  From from the youth to the adult side. I think that’s all absolutely incredible.  And I really love how you're empowering local artisans as well as women.  And even through the whole Covid, like helping support people who were sick and like sometimes you need to go to work every day but being able to help pay for those days off because when you are sick all you want to do is rest and that's what's most important. So I love how you guys were help supporting people.

After taking a look on your website, I have a question for both of you. Do you mind telling me the process of how a clothing item comes to be? Like the step by steps, because it sounds like there's a lot of people who are involved in the making of one singular clothing item, which is incredible. Do you mind going step by step?

Rachna: 12:42

Yeah. So it depends on what kind of end product we're making. So if we talk about our table linens, that's something you would start at the point of, we are supporting organic farmers first. So the cotton is grown, sowed, and weaved. And then once they have the cotton it's then made into yarn, and then it's handwoven on the handle. And once the fabric is ready then it goes to the block printers where it gets block printed. And

Ruchika: 13:20

Washed. Yeah, washed. You have to wash off the impurities first of like the starch or anything that's in the cotton weaves stuck or whatever so it's ready to take in the dyes afterwards.

Rachna:  13:36

Yeah. So it would be about a few days before the fabric is ready, because it takes about two or three days to wash off all that.  And then they start printing on it. And that printing and dyeing could be a multiple-day.

Ruchika:  13:54

Three-to-four day process.  Depending on how complicated the design is.

Rachna:  13:58

Yeah. And then after that it gets washed and dried in the sun. So if it's like right now, monsoon season, nothing is getting done over there. So all work is stopped. But on regular time it gets dried in the sun and then it gets washed and then stitched. And then it comes here. Some of our table linens have also been embroidered. So then it goes to the NGO where they embroider our table linens. But that's the longest of all the processes.

Otherwise, our other fabrics like our crop tops or scarves, we get the fabric and then they go directly to the block printers and then they make it ready and then block print and naturally dye. So these are not handwoven but our table linens are all handwoven.

Ruchika:  14:55

Yeah right. So yeah, it can go from the cotton to the weaving to the printing to the stitching for one process. Or there's times where we just source the fabric and then print and stitch. We also have a seamstress here in New York City that we work with to do some of our stitching for our clothing as well. 

We design in-house.

Rachna:  15:19

The shirt I'm wearing.  This is actually inspired by Ethiopian art. And so it has gone through multiple steps. It's gone through like about three steps of printing and dyeing and washing and drying.

Mia:  15:37

Yeah, that's insane. The whole process from start to finish. I think it's so cool learning about each individual step because I think sometimes we don't think about the in-between. We think about, "Oh, the clothing's here now. We're just going to go buy it and bring it home." But it's like clothes can be on a whole journey to get to where it's like from fabric to rack, which is absolutely incredible.

You both have described yourselves as world citizens. How has global travel influenced your design process and business decisions?

Ruchika:  16:08

To be global citizens, we were born in different countries because our dad was a diplomat. So we spent about three to four years in different countries and absorbed the culture, the people, the food, the craft of that specific region. And that's just stuck with us. We've been enthralled with discovering more new places. 

And for me as a textile designer, I've been very attracted to repetitive patterns. So wherever we go, I'll be taking photos of trees and flowers and anything and everything—and that then comes out into our patterns and our blocks.

Rachna:  16:59

Yeah, this shirt that I was telling you about.  We stayed in Ethiopia for three years, a little over three years. And so that's why we have.  We love Ethiopian food, we love Ethiopian culture. And I have very nostalgic memories about that time. So that's why we wanted to do something with that. And this shirt was inspired by that art from there.

Ruchika:  17:26

It's basically also paying homage to our time there, the people there, because they were lovely as well. And having fond memories of them. So it's in a way continuing—keeping alive a photograph or carrying it into our future and bringing it into other people's lives as well.

Mia:  17:50

So you didn't start in fashion or sustainability. Rachna, you started off in tech. Can you tell us about what it's like switching paths and becoming an entrepreneur?

Rachna:  17:59

Yeah. I think even though I was in tech, I had a dream of having something of my own, creating something of my own. So I had a passion towards it. And when I did get the opportunity to switch, I switched. And it took a long time to do that, but I finally did. And I enjoy what I do. Every day is an enjoyment. It's not something that I have to do. It's something that I want to do, you know? So it makes every day more peaceful. And you don't have a boss. You're your own boss. You make your own hours. So I have not regretted the day. I mean it is a lot of hard work as well.  You know, there's a lot of long hours. But it's something that brings me joy. So I think, yeah, it's been great since then.

Mia:  19:00

And Ruchika, you were in design school. Is that correct?

Ruchika:  19:04

Yes.

Mia:  19:05

All right. Do you mind telling the viewers out there a little bit about your time at design school and how that helped shape the business you guys have now?

Ruchika: 19:12

So, I started out at FIT as a textile designer, and I did my bachelor's there. I got an internship in the City that turned into a full-time job. I was designing shower curtains, table linens, anything and everything. And I started to feel a little stuck or lost in the middle and I wanted more meaning. I wanted to really have more connection with my art. I didn't want to just design on the computer, send it off, and have pieces come back.  It was always like, "It's due yesterday." Everything was due yesterday. And I started to feel like it's not that serious.

So I decided to get my master's in textile design. I searched a lot of schools. I looked up schools in the US and I got accepted, but I felt it wasn't anything new. I felt like it was just a repetition of my bachelor's degree. So I didn't feel it was challenging enough or that I was going to learn anything new.

So I then started applying.  I waited another year and I applied for schools in the UK. And I got accepted over there. So I went and looked at all the schools I got accepted into to see which one I wanted to go to. And they were all different. I did London, I did Leeds, and I did Edinburgh in Scotland. And I actually dragged the whole family over there to go look at all the schools.

Funny thing was the last school in Edinburgh.  We had my other sister Monica. She and I got on a bus, switched like three buses, got off at a field in the middle of nowhere, and crossed this lawn to get to this school. They were great schools, but I felt like I needed to stay in the city. So I chose London as my city and school to study at. The master's degree over there was for one year, and you had to work on your thesis.

So I chose to do block printing with natural dyes. For some reason I was very curious about it and that's what I wanted to learn and do. But when I got there, they didn't really have the tools to teach that. So then I set out to India and I worked with a family over there, the family we work with now. I learned the whole process with them and I came back and finished my master's doing natural dyes at that time.

And basically sustainability was just picking up at that time. So I learned a lot about reusing fabric, thinking about the whole life cycle of our textiles. And Rachna at the same time was still working in the tech world, but she was about done. And I also did not want to continue working in the industry where I did not feel fulfilled and close to my heart. So I called her one day and said, "All right, let's do it. I know you've been wanting to do this and I don't want to go back. So let's set out and start this business."

And Monika, our other sister who has done environmental science—she was actually on this podcast a while ago—she became our sustainability officer to keep us and our business in line so we don't stray. And that's how this started.

Mia:  23:23

Wow. I love how, there might have been a few different paths for all of you, but you all came to the same point and drew your backgrounds in to create the business like Ichcha.

So, kind of going off universities, going off colleges, for students or young people who want to explore careers in sustainability, who want to explore careers in entrepreneurship, fashion, or just start their own values-driven brand, what advice would you give them?

Ruchika:  23:51

Just start. That's basically it. The hard part is starting. And when we decided to start, it wasn't like, "Oh, we just started." We did a lot of research. We set out to explore, meet people, discover. For us, it was discovering the techniques in India.

Get a mentor. There were people that I looked up to, businesses I looked up to. So I reached out to them. And you'd be surprised.  There are a lot of people already in the industry who are very willing to help and talk. Meet them for coffee or send them an email. That's how I was able to learn. It started with a connection, who then connected me with somebody else, who then connected me with somebody else, and then I ended up in India. And then we started the business.

That's it.  Just start, talk to people. It's very exciting to start learning, to just living and learn every day, and then you'll get somewhere. Maybe not where you thought, but you'll get somewhere.

Rachna:  25:11

And you don't have to have a business background either. 

Ruchika:  25:15

We didn't know any business.  We're still learning. 

Rachna:  25:18

And I think that's probably the most exciting part of the business, figuring it out and then feeling good about having figured it out.

Ruchika: 25:27

And there's going to be challenges. I feel like a challenge is always a good thing. For us, it's a closed door because then you know there's another door that you're supposed to open and go through and figure something else out. Or your business will take a turn.

Like for us, COVID, everybody was scared. What's going to happen? Businesses are going to go down, nobody's going to buy. But at that time, Rachna started to use her brain, her techie brain, and we started making clothing out of our scarves. Because who's going to buy scarves? But we started making crop tops and dresses, and that's been really good for us. It's brought a different aspect to our business since then.

Mia:  26:14

I love that. It's like.  Starting now, taking the leap, making sure you're also networking and making connections, because other people can help with their experiences and draw knowledge in. And yeah, it's like taking that leap, which can sometimes be the scariest part.

Ruchika:  26:29

It is.

Mia:  26:30

So since starting the company, you all have worked as sisters. How has your relationship evolved since becoming co-founders?

Rachna:  26:40

Yeah, so I think it's gotten stronger, in my opinion. I think working with family is one of the biggest blessings you can have. And the relationship is one of no ego. So you are able to say things to each other and not mind, and take it with a grain of salt.

Ruchika: 27:07

Says the eldest. The youngest has to listen to her.

Rachna:  27:14

So like I said, we might have different answers, but I feel like it's been great. It's been evolving. I feel like I've evolved, and as the business has evolved, I've also grown with her. So it's good.

Ruchika: 27:33

I think we fought a lot more in the beginning, but then we got into a little system. And we know our strengths and our weaknesses. So where I may falter, she'll pick up. Or where she falters, I'll pick up. And we both just know.  Like, especially when we go to India, like she handles the dyeing. I'll do the printing. We both know our strengths in the field, and you know we'll ask each other, and then Monika will be our tiebreaker. So it's always good. Yes, the ego thing.  There’s really no deep ego, but yeah, you'll get mad at each other and you'll fight. Sometimes we'll say, "No, I'm not compromising. I'm not listening to you."  It’s good.  But it's been a learning experience and a growing experience together.

Mia:  26:25

I love that. It's like helping each other where you might need it, but also recognizing each other's strengths to help promote a great business. I love it.

So, as we come to the final question today, we end every episode with this question: if you had a sustainability superpower, what would it be and why?

Rachna:  28:45

Okay, I'll start first. I love oceans a lot, and I feel horrible when I see plastic filling up the oceans and killing the animals in there. So I feel like if I had a power, I'd like to get rid of all the plastic, especially in the oceans, but really all around the world.  And also actually eliminate it from where it originally started. Or when it started from.

Ruchika:  29:25 

Back to the past.  So that's another superpower.

Rachna:  29:29

That would be my supernatural power.

Ruchika:  29:35

I would like to eliminate chemical dyes. I would love for everything around us to be colored with natural elements. So if we have anything we're wearing, anything that's in our homes, just to be dyed with flowers and leaves and bark—everything. No fake colors out there basically.

Mia:  30:01

Those are both such beautiful superpowers. Thank you so much for sharing, and thank you so much Rachna and Ruchika for joining us today on SolPods. To learn more about Ichcha, you can visit www.ichcha.com or follow them on their social media.

And if you would like to hear more from their sister Monika, she joined the SolPods podcast a while back, and you can find that on our website.

Thank you so much, guys.

Rachna & Ruchika: 30:26

Thank you.