Welcome toĀ The Jerky LoudspeakerĀ - an independent sports and culture newsletter, Iām super excited to have you here! Before you dive in, let me quickly break down how the newsletter is structured. Think of it like a mini newspaper, with three sections:
Deep DiveĀ - Each piece/series in this section will be an in-depth analysis of the thoughts and emotions that arise from my interactions and experiences with the arts
Consumption CornerĀ - A weekly review of what Iām watching, reading and listening to.
Balls, Bats & BasketsĀ - As always, sports on the back page. In this section Iāll geek out about the happenings in this world of balls, bats and baskets.
Passion Projects -Ā Once a month, I feature Q&As with creatives from different professional and personal backgrounds.
Passion Projects
Passion Projects is an attempt to break down the emotions, challenges and toil that goes behind following this inexplicable intuition we all have in us.
Finding your calling isnāt hard; answering it is the real challenge.
In this section, I feature interviews with people from different creative and professional backgrounds. The aim is to give the reader an intimate understanding of the journey behind making a passion, a profession.
In 1898, Will Kellogg and his brother Dr. Harvey Kellogg were trying to make a breakfast granola bar. But, they accidentally left the wheat in the pot for too long and it crystallised into a corn flake.
In 1958, chemist Dr. Spencer Silver was trying to make a strong adhesive for building planes, but instead ended up with an incredibly weak one. And thus, Post-It notes were born.
Play-Doh was originally intended to be used as a wallpaper cleaner. While the product didnāt become popular as a cleaning product, art teachers began using it for art projects. It was taken off the shelves of hardware stores and was repositioned as a toy.
Upshop, a sustainable clothing brand based out of Delhi, too has a sprinkling of serendipity in its founding story.
Fed up with the work culture at the investment firm she worked at, Gauri Ahuja quit her job. She bought a sewing machine on a whim, began to learn sewing off YouTube and started making dresses out of old bedsheets and dupattas. Her designs drew praise from friends and family who told her that fashion designing seemed to come naturally to her. It furthered Gauriās confidence that she could make a career out of this. Three months after buying her sewing machine, she launched Upshop.
If Gauri ever requires seeding for her company, thatās what her elevator pitch would look like. But after talking to her, you realise that Upshop wasnāt a product of chance as much as it was a culmination of the skills, beliefs and experiences Gauri had collected in the past few years.
Gauri called fashion design akin to āsolving a puzzleā. The same metaphor can be applied to understand her journey with UpShop.
Puzzle Piece #1 - The Skillset
While studying finance in college gave her the confidence to launch her own business, her pursuit of other artistic interests aided the creative process with UpShop.
āI used to do a lot of dance in school and used to teach as well. That teaches you discipline and there are some things you learn in pursuing artistic skills that resonate in different fields,ā she said.
Along with finance, she did a minor in Photography in college. The skill honed behind the camera comes in clutch for model shoots and product launches. One of the pre-requisite classes for the Photography minor was surface drawing. While unknown to her at the time, her arsenal was expanding.
āI also took an elective in Woodcutting and that class helped the most with the sewing machine. It's all about controlling the machine to make the shapes you want to,ā she said. āOne entire semester I did that class and it built my confidence to handle machines. When I came back, the sewing machine was a halka version of big industrial machinesā.
Puzzle Piece #2 - The Belief System
Gauri graduated from Northeastern University in 2020 and like most graduates from the Class of COVID, found herself drowning in the sea of transition.Ā
She recalls hitting rock bottom emotionally and questioning the meaning of what she was doing. She found herself distancing from the material world in search for a more āearthy and sustainable lifeā.
āA step towards that was working in a sector that supports my ideology so that I can work happily at least. So that's where UpShop came from,ā she said.
Gauri was clear she didnāt want to go down the route of mass production and fast fashion like most clothing brands.
āI do not want to produce unnecessarily. I want to use whatever waste I'm getting from all these companies, small and big brands and make something out of it. Since they're not going to stop, if I add to it then I'm also becoming a part of this entire system. So that's what upcycling is - not creating new things, but using whatever you have and creating something out of it,ā she said.
Every two weeks, Gauri drives around Delhi picking up the waste material discarded by the factories of clothing brands. Her output is solely dependent on the waste she procures. Upshopās lack of inventory is its defining feature; each product in its catalogue is one of a kind.
While demand for her clothes poured in, her concept wasnāt getting out.
āThe problem was that people liked the designs and loved the products, but they always wanted the same thing because they didn't understand upcycling and were coming for the designs instead. That was problematic because I can't cater to that type of demand which is mass,ā she said.
While the business model is a āheadacheā, Gauri says switching to a mass production route just wouldnāt sit right with her.
While she has no intention of formally studying fashion, she spoke of wanting to study sustainability and waste management. Most young entrepreneurs today focus their energies on understanding their industry and market trends. Gauri seemed more keen on furthering her understanding of her ethos. Others would do well to follow suit.
Puzzle Piece #3 - A Way of Life
When I asked her what her short-term goal is, her answer was simple: ā To keep creating without getting tiredā.
Gauri embodies the flow state. Talking to her, you realise sheās at the perfect confluence of purpose and passion. Sheās driven by the desire to deepen her understanding of her art, and in turn herself.
Everyone talks a lot about trusting the process, but Gauri is focused on enjoying it. Itās why Upshop doesnāt operate on a fixed timescale. āA lot of people have this pressure to keep churning numbers and grow the business, but I know it'll get somewhere slowly,ā she said.
While she doesnāt let herself be governed by sales numbers, she did say that sheās making more money now than she was at her 9-5 job. But more than the monetary freedom, itās the freedom from monotony she values.
āMaking money is an important part of your life but it's not your entire being. With being an entrepreneur and doing the work I do, I can give myself the freedom. Today if I'm feeling creative, I'll work more. The next day, I'll take a break. That's where my inspiration also comes from - relaxing and travelling,ā she said.
Itās fitting that the founder of a slow fashion label leads a slow paced life.
Puzzle Piece #4 - The Quest for Authenticity
Aside from sustainability, authenticity was the other key pillar Upshop was built on. Gauri says ignoring what other people were doing was a key step in her personal evolution as a creator. In the early days, Gauri followed the template set by other fashion brands and did everything by the books. But, the commercial photography and polish soon began to feel fake.
āThese are real people, this is a product I am handcrafting, let them see shabby Reels, no flashy photography, people wearing it casually. And that's when I started getting more customers too,ā she said.
Her designs too, didnāt match her personality at the start. If they werenāt clothes that she herself would wear on a daily basis, why was she selling them?, she wondered.
āI'm more artistic as a person, so I thought what if i combined art and fashion because I don't have time for both right now. So that's when I switched UpShop to be more artistic,ā she said.
āWhen I want to create something, I don't design clothes, I create artwork. I get a canvas and start painting on it, and if something comes out, those elements would just go on the clothes,ā she said.
She bought sweatshirts from brands that discarded them because of minor defects and began hand painting and drawing on them. Many of her canvas designs are replicated on the sweatshirts. These sweatshirts are now a staple part of the UpShop catalogue.
āA business person thinks in terms of what people want and what sells more. An artist thinks 'what do I want to create, what's my identity?'. So for me, it's a combination of not being swayed too much by other people and not being influenced by my own thinking. That fine balance is tricky,ā she said.
Gauri is an artist. Sheās a business woman. Sheās a fashion designer. But most importantly, sheās herself.
Consumption Corner
What Iām watching: I knew nothing about the Jake Gyllenhaal - Taylor Swift saga until I was filled in on its rich history at a party last week. I went back home and listened to the entire 10 minute song detailing their short lived romance and watched the accompanying short film as well. Fascinating stuff.
What Iām reading: An in-depth New Yorker profile on the creator of Succession, Jesse Armstrong.
What Iām listening to: A conversation between prominent organisational psychologist Adam Grant and former Pepsi CEO Indira Nooyi. Itās tough not to be inspired by her.
Iād love to hear what you thought of this weekās edition! Reply to this email or reach out to me on Instagram/Twitter/ LinkedIn
In last weekās edition:
Selection Gaffes: A look at the Ronaldo - United situation through the lens of a childhood story