Kunal Desai & Michele Janezic of Umber & Ochre
Named after the earthy pigments that give color to their handmade textiles, Umber & Ochre is an apparel brand conscious about the life of their garments and ethics of their supply chain. Led by founder Kunal Desai and brand director Michele Janezic, Umber & Ochre’s values run through their garments.
Kunal was raised in Mumbai, India, surrounded by the apparel business. Umber & Ochre was born from his fascination with the work around him and its connection to his family history. Umber & Ochre takes inspiration from the past and brings their pieces to modern life through the mindful way they source material, develop designs, and dye hand-wove, natural fibers. Their designs support traditional methods and align with the field-to-fabric philosophy of the brand.
Where there is a great brand, there is a great brand director, and that’s Michele Janezic. With a history in design for her eponymous label Janezic and her time managing the Mill Mercantile brand, Michele’s eye and experience are all about twisting normative looks on clothing so that it can be fluid and playful – overlooking gendered expectations of dress, layering prints and colors, and embracing imperfections.
FROM FIELD TO FABRIC: Kunal & Michele work together to ensure the brand's values are tied directly to their processes.
NAME: Kunal Desai
CITY: San Fransisco, CA
THE BEST PART ABOUT DEVELOPING AN UMBER & OCHRE GARMENT: Fit, unique skills to embellish the garments and playing with natural dyes.
YOUR PERSONAL STYLE PHILOSOPHY: Effortless, simple with unique details, colorful.
HOW YOU GET INSPIRED: I get inspired by challenges of getting unique raw materials that we use to make our fabrics, patterns and prints and how intricate the process is to bring clothing to our customers. With sustainability being our core and having all our fabrics made by hand loom is a great inspiration by itself. We now have our own cotton and all of our fabrics in SS23 are yarn dyed which is rare. My travels in remote villages are inspirational seeing how simply my artisans live and how happy they are. We thrive to live that life but hardly get to live it...
THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AND LOVED: I love to watch mostly things on my travels and it could be anything like documentary salt, the last kingdom, chef's table, velvet coleccion narcos and Indian Bollywood films. I loved Velvet Coleccion a lot…feel good.
NAME: Michele Janezic
CITY: San Fransisco, CA
THE EXPERIENCE OF BUILDING THE UMBER & OCHRE BRAND: Expanding upon creative ideas and new ideas and watching them come to life in the most authentic way is exciting, inspiring and fulfilling.
YOUR PERSONAL STYLE PHILOSOPHY: Wear what makes you feel good.
TELL US WHAT DRIVES YOU: Love, truth, mystery, growth, authenticity.
THE LAST FILM YOU SAW AND LOVED: I saw Top Gun recently and had a total blast. It was the first movie I’ve seen in a theater in over two years and it was just incredibly fun.
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