Studio Log - February 2026
The studio log runs you through the minds of the design team as they explain their own personal tasks, challenges and goals through a month at GARUDA.
SUHAIL'S FEBRUARY
Firstly I think we started the month with glazing Gurkamal on the 1st of Feb, because two of the videos we posted in January kinda crushed. We hit 2 million views in a 30 cycle for the first time, I think the most we had prior was like 900k.
A fair bit of the month was preparation for a trip we had to take to Ahmedabad. Essentially we were asked by a University to give a talk at their annual festival, and I asked Gurkamal if he wanted to come. We have multiple suppliers in Ahmedabad, and also Bhuj is a 5 hour drive from Ahmedabad which is where we get our naturally dyed fabrics from.
So it was a wild opportunity to 3 birds 1 stone and get amazing b-roll for videos. We always noticed that hand dye and hand-loom processes have little to no stock footage shot in 4k vertical available so fuck it lets just go get it ourselves.
Before leaving for the trip the two weeks prior was spent making some operational adjustments and tweaking those adjustments a few times to reduce miscommunication between the design and construction teams.
Speaking of communication between teams… we cut a hole in the wall so that the team sitting in the new studio extension can talk to the team sitting in the older area easily.
Mushrp eating lunch near the new window
Speaking of new studio extension… Theres a new studio extension. We doubled the size of the studio by taking the space next door, its been vacant for 2 years maybe. We didn’t really need it, but someone was about to come rent it out so we took it before they could honestly just future proofing.. kinda a loss making decision for a few months/a year. But damn this shit crazy, all the way from a studio that was 100sq feet in 2017, to 2800 sq feet in 2026…
Suhail standing in the photography area of the new studio on the day we signed the lease.
We’ve also been working on samples. Like a lot… at this point there are probably 10+ samples that we just have to pick and choose from and release. But we’re just holding off till we make the exact combo that will feel right. So far we've sampled.
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Mac Coat V3
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Shirt V4 in multiple fabrics
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Tunic V4 in multiple fabrics
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Masters Pants V2 (3 iterations)
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Camp Collar V3
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A new Nehru collar variant on Shirt V3/4
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A woollen variant on modular skirt
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New bags (2)
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Pants V3 in corduroy
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Poncho V2 in a new milled to our spec fabric
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Some others I'm forgetting
New Shirt V4 pleat with netting fabric for ventilation (also Sharan making a face thinking his opinion matters)
Then we finally went to Ahmedabad… and sadly Mumbai. Ahmedabad was sick, easily my second favourite city in India. Was nice to meet suppliers who we’d been buying from for years. Also got to meet some customers who were amazing and took time out to show us so much stuff. Ahmedabad is a great city for design it seems, there was something going on every single day were were there in terms of design and art. The indigo museum was so cool I got my mum a indigo dyed clay tea set (she likes tea).
Then we fucked off to Bhuj to meet the NGO we purchase naturally dyed fabrics from, and subsequently went to visit the small village clusters they get the hand weaving and dyeing done from.
Via referrals we also got to meet the Siju family, who are doing a fully natural indigo dye. There are other people doing natural indigo dye too but the difference here is that even the fermentation process used for the indigo dye is natural where as most others are synthetic fermentation with natural dye. The amount they know about this one topic is unreal, they’ve even been to XTANT before multiple times. XTANT is a fascinating invite only pop up on the island of Mallorca in Spain which showcases work done by makers working with natural materials.
Also we have been invited to XTANT this year thats kinda nerve wracking since its our first time, but I have a few weeks to figure my shit out for it so I'll stress about that another day.
Anyway then we went to Mumbai because Bhuj has no direct flights to Chandigarh, it only has flights to Mumbai, and I didn't want to drive 5 hours again with Gurkamal tf.
I think thats the noteworthy stuff from my end.
GURKAMAL'S FEBRUARY
I got glazed by everyone start of this month for bringing in a lotta views, and in turn, a lotta orders. Suhail and the tailors were deadass sweating because of all the orders piling up, but lowkey if they stressed then that means I did my job.
But I knew I don't wanna be one of those people who just milks what works, so I tried to keep my game up when it comes to experimentation, leading up to the Pour Moi video on youtube.
A lot of cinematic camerawork that mostly happened on the spot cuz I didn't wanna stop the team from working until I had the perfect frame, I had to improvise every second of it.
I also realized I wasn't able to get a lot of time to just jam and play music by myself so I thought why not just make music for a GARUDA video, perfect for the Pour Moi vid, I pitched it to Suhail and he loved it so I whipped up the good ol Garageband on my phone and started working
I took a lot of inspiration from ambient music since I was equipped to do that with the time I had, instead of pulling up with jazz drums and guitar outta nowhere. Luckily the app is not that hard to figure out.
The result turned out pretty well. I took whatever I'd learned watching movies growing up - the composition, the timing - put it out there, and also taking my love for music and using that as a cherry on top.
Not to brag but I don't think anyone else has ever done that for a brand. So it feels pretty cool to me that all of that was my own.
Me and Suhail also went to Ahmedabad for a lil sourcing trip, and also to capture footage of the processes involved in fabric making and dyeing. It was a lotta fun, specially for me since I had a whole ass playground to work with outside of the office.
Suhail meeting his match in Bhuj, two dudes talking about dye for 2 hours tf?
And the footage is amazing, needless to say, the fabric added to most of the beauty, I mostly took static shots because the wind and the machinery was my best friend in the frame, the only movement I wanted was of the process and nothing else.
Not to say that I understood everything they talked about cuz I'm not from a fashion background but they sounded like they knew ball. A lotta ball. And very down to earth.
Gurkamal BTS
Cant wait to use all that footage in the content moving forward.
Met a lotta nice people too along the way, hung out on some side quest type shit.
Ahmedabad wasnt bad, overall a chill place if you know folk. The only thing I fucking hated was no alcohol - the withdrawal symptoms I felt even tho I don't even drink that much in my own town.
A presentation we attended about embroideries and Kantha etc, and Suhail talking to students about design at Nirma University.
And then we went to Mumbai, damn I was expecting to be disappointed because over time I had gathered such unrealistic expectations of the city but it did not disappoint. Props to Kaira (former intern at GARUDA) for showing me around a bunch of cool places. Also caught up with my old friend - Beer.
Some cool ass Harley Davidson Gurkamal saw in Mumbai
Mumbai was really fun, hopefully I'll go again soon.
I guess that's it, for a non yapper ahh
(note from Suhail during the spell check: hes the biggest yapper out of all of us)
MUSHRP'S FEBRUARY
First day of the starting month I took a half day wasn’t feeling like working for whole cuz I hate this place, Nah kidding I had personal reasons for a half day.
Mushrp during a fitting for Poncho V2
Then later on again I have to get my ass up in the morning, n (drag) drive to the studio which is fucking 32km from my place each way 🙂 ↔️ sometimes I really hate driving so much just to get my ass whooped by Suhail.
But also there’s side of me thinks he better than the previous bosses n people I have worked with tbh I think he’s cute.
Anyway he n Gurkamal left for Ahmedabad & Mumbai for some presentation at some fashion college, institution or something. That means I got plenty of time to do some shit in the office cuz I’m the fucking (BOSS) nah just messing... but I did get to make a pair of pants for my self... I worked in the studio post work hours when everyone left cuz we have some work ethic n shit man. But I also didn’t ask Suhail for permission fuck it watchu gonna do about it homie?
While he was away we were at studio he use to call n everyday to check on us n if everything on track or not. Fuck he also scolds me on phone as well... ohh man Ig that’s fine.
Me n Sharan took over GARUDA for a week everything was going smoothly while we were on the studio the other side of the building is also being torn apart to extend the studio. That’s ryt we are spreading our seeds n there will be plants of clothes everywhere.
I got plenty of time to sit on the 3 specialty sewing machines to see how n when any fuck ups occurs. So i can fix it myself rather than calling Harish every time to come n fix them gwad I hate that dude but he knows what he doing ig.
Mushrp hanging with Harish the guy who comes to repair our machines
Also speaking of work in ohh we are behind our delivery timeline we’ve got a tons of orders to complete, but we doing our best.
Gurkamal and Suhail did a tremendous job making those videos n editing u should see their faces man they were all putting so much effort n all bruhhh
I got to feature in one of the reels with our new intern assistant designer Sharan, I flipped on my lines like 10x but got it right good... idk u guys tell did we fucking nail it or fucking fuck it up. Ig that’s it I don’t want to write anymore I’m feeling like going for a smoke now,
peace y’all.
SHARAN'S FEBRUARY
So it's been around 2 months of me working as a design intern at Garuda for my Graduation Project and Final year of my Graduation.
I remember in my 2nd year, I learned about Garuda, and ever since I have been tracking the brand and have wished to work with the brand and its team.
I applied for my 2-month summer internship last year at Garuda too but due to their ongoing annual collection they were way too busy to look at the applications.
So this year for my graduation project, I had only 2 plans in my mind... either working with Garuda or doing a self sponsored Graduation Project, so after my semester completion I sent my internship Request mail to Garuda one again, and the next day I received a reply from Suhail, that he liked the work and he was curious to know about my internship details.
so then 19th of jan I Joined Garuda, i knew the studio work culture is gonna be very exciting ( as the content itself is so quirky ), I got to witness it literally on the very 1st day, everyone was kinda chill and everyone knew what they were doing, I remember them shooting for their another reel and how creatively and lol absurdly we were trying to come up with ways to offend people.
Suhail showing Sharan the Garuda cinematic universe, why is he wearing the same shirt in both tf..
Suhail invited us for dinner on the 2nd day and then I got to know that this is his thing to invite the newbies for dinner on the initial days, for casual socialising rather than just being very formal about it.
My initial days went by knowing the people and the workplace. I took over the weekly Instagram feed post as I always enjoyed collaging, sketching and compositions and since then I have been doing feed posts for Garuda every week. I recently did a feedpost where I drew every team member's caricatures and introduced them as a character archetype at garuda ,( their likes, dislikes, fiction picks etc) it was fun getting to know everyone more personally.
we started with working on masters pants v2 and that was the 1st product Suhail and me worked on together, and guess what "we really don't sketch here" we went up straight on exploring the pleats by folding sheets of paper and fabric swatches, folding them into combinations and variations. Then moving to CLO to quickly check their drape so that we don't fu*ck the sample and waste fabric.
After multiple variations we chose the best one, checked the Visual Drape on CLO and then we did the sampling. While discussing the whys and whys not's? With Suhail I really understood his approach to design garments, an approach more driven to functional products rather than making just pretty-looking fashion pieces. ( like NIFT people do. lol kidding )
Suhail sketching a rough pattern leaving Sharan with instructions on what to tweak on Clo3D on screen.
Then we did the Poncho V2 ( Big Ahh Pattern) took 2 samples and the final one I was literally lying on the studio floor Drafting the pattern, Poncho was fun, and it turned out so good.
Sharan sitting on the floor because the construction team were all using the cutting tables at the time
well another thing that Suhail, Pransee ( she is a new joinee as a business strategist at Garuda ) and I, discussed about the business aspects of products and how we could better plan drops or products it was really interesting because " WDYM you Designed it BUT you CAN'T SELL it?". We don't always learn about this stuff in college so it was cool.
waiting for more cool products to work on till then walllahh.