002: Coming Full Circle: Divya Saini on Founding Bodements, Leaving Linear Fashion Behind and Discovering Personal Style

⌛ 4 MINUTES

When Divya Saini set out on a solo backpacking trip across Europe in 2015, little did she know what she’d be coming back with. The entrepreneur and fashion-enthusiast talks about how she ended up bringing home a 30 kg suitcase filled with vintage clothes — and the culture of pre-loved buying that eventually led her to establish what we now know as Bodements.

Travelling and Making Discoveries

Back in India, she started wearing the clothes she had brought back to places and posting photographs on Instagram. Flooded with ‘where’s that from?’s, the realisation dawned upon her; there was a demand for vintage clothing in India. Saini called up some model friends, packed bags and took off for Alibaug where she shot Bodements’ launch campaign.

Within four days of the Instagram launch, Grazia had called her up for an interview and another week later, she was interviewed by Vogue. Bodements went from being an Instagram store to an e-commerce platform and had a flagship store in the works before Miss Rona hit the town.

Striking the Balance: Trends and Personal Style

When asked about her take on trends, Divya calls them cyclic. “It has all already existed,” she says. Designers across the world are turning to their archives (and those of other designers) to seek inspiration as fashion has reached a point of saturation. It’s this combination of inspiration and curation that is carefully imbibed into the concept of trends.

Divya has personally collected an assortment of pieces over the years that can be worn while effortlessly keeping up with any current trend. For inspiration? She looks to movies, travel and history. Watching movies with well-researched costume designs like Sabrina and Portrait of a Lady On Fire, travelling through unfamiliar cities to soak their culture and reading books like Fashion Designers A-Z — these have all had a strong influence on Divya’s sartorial journey. Bodements’ collections are a reflection of her personal style and she uses the same three words to define both — timeless, funky and elegant.

How to find one’s personal style? “There are no guidelines for discovering it. It’s a natural progression that comes at its own pace as people learn more about themselves.”

Approaching the Indian Market 

Being in the business of trust, authenticity and quality are non- negotiable for Bodements. How do you know which vintage clothes are authentic? Each piece of clothing speaks for itself and inauthenticity can be given away by a tag, wrong stitching, lining or even the fabric. Divya says, “I think compared to all the vintage shops all over the world, we’re quite well-priced when it comes to luxury vintage.” Early on in her journey, she established the culture of maintaining a standard of curation while keeping the prices accessible. The current popularity of a particular style, the quality of the fabric and other factors including the cost of disinfection, shipping, dry cleaning and packaging are all added up to establish the price of each piece.

Divya believes that fashion doesn’t need to be in a linear format, and her brand is constantly educating their customers to adopt a circular economy approach to fashion. At Bodements, their commitment to maximising the life-span of a garment before it ends up in a landfill reflects in its ongoing curation of a collection made entirely with old sarees, sourced from all over the country and created for both men and women.

The Journey Towards Sustainability

Fast fashion has made the fashion industry the second largest pollutant in the world. The need to develop a more conscious approach through redesign and to outgrow mindless consumption patterns is more pressing than ever before. Brands need to evaluate whether they promote a circular economy, match the humanitarian cost of creating a garment, create less waste and build transparency. Divya thinks, “It’s just a matter of us making a change as consumers.” This change can be brought about by embracing a minimalistic and mindful approach to consumption.

Despite being a business, one of the core values that Bodements established early on was to encourage its customers to buy less. How will the ongoing crisis impact vintage fashion? Bodements’ process of acquiring and disinfecting vintage clothes is already established in a manner that leaves no cause for concern amongst the consumers even at a time when hygiene standards have come under scrutiny.

“When people come out of this lockdown, something in their perspective will have shifted; they will be more self-aware of their choices towards the world and themselves in terms of their lifestyle and consumption,” Divya hopes. “This is going to be great for not only vintage fashion but for all forms of sustainable fashion.”

As we reach the end of the episode, we sign off with some rapid 🔥 questions. Get the popcorn and start reading!