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After 12 years of first setting up shop in his grandfather’s home, the fashion label has moved to a new space that draws liberally from its local identity and Kochi’s eclecticism
“I think this is a very personal space, almost hand-sewn to bring all the elements together,” says Sreejith Jeevan about the new premises for his fashion label Rouka. The craft-based conscious brand renowned for a modern but homespun take on the textile traditions of Kerala—including the Kasavu sari—recently found a new home. The 600-square-foot store occupies the ground floor of a three-storey structure in the heart of Kochi. The brand’s production and office spaces are on the top two floors. The shift is significant, given that the former location was a house that belonged to Sreejith’s grandfather. The brand was there for 12 years, right from its inception.
Moving, therefore, came with the mission of accommodating those familiar references of the former space, which are also baked into the brand’s aesthetic vocabulary. Sreejith Jeevan talks about what went into doing up the new premises, the connection with the original store and the symbiotic relationship between brand and space.
Sreejith Jeevan (SJ): I think retail is more about the experience today, rather than just an impersonal place to shop. When creating this space, it wasn’t really about the number of products I could fit in or the sales per square metre. It was about creating a space where visitors would feel like they belong and are comfortable while they shop. Ultimately, that’s what Rouka is. It is what drove the whole idea of creating the feeling of comfort and familiarity—that sense of a home.
SJ: It was a bare shell; all it had were columns. We added some details to the architecture instead of keeping it simple, minimal, brutal. The idea was to make the space a little more ‘heartwarming’. So we included elements like arches and little windows that gave it a more personal touch. There are also sliding glass doors to ensure the space works with or without an AC (in case of power cuts). I also extended the store a little outwards. We redid the concrete staircase in front to create more parking space. Now, there’s a balcony-like structure at the entrance, giving the building a more vintage look. I find myself very connected to things that we see disappearing—maybe it’s a millennial thing.
SJ: I went scouring for just the right kind of furniture pieces to have around the space. There are some basic desks and stands, and some that are very ‘statement’. I wanted furniture that would last. There’s something about old-world material; it’s so timeless, nothing happens to it. We wanted things that would endure, that had history. For instance, the cash desk is Art Deco and reclaimed from an old hotel. Another Art Deco cupboard is to display jewellery. The racks are all hand-carved by a local carpenter and made with reused wood. I also brought furniture from my house, like my kids’ toy shelf, which we are using as an open cupboard. As a metaphor of our ‘no wastage’ policy, we repurposed the toy shelf door as a display niche.
SJ: Well, the floors are red oxide, which is typical to the region. I’ve also used brass chains to hang my products. As a material, brass is rooted in Kerala—ubiquitous in different rituals and ceremonies. There are also the trial rooms. Around the time I was brainstorming on their design, we visited Mannar’s Parumala Church, an Orthodox Syrian Christian church. They are very dramatic spaces, with red altars and curtains. I wanted a similar, dramatic experience in my trial rooms, which have red curtains backed by red walls. We’ve also used carvings on the top. That idea came to me on a visit to the Durbar Hall Art Gallery, just a couple of minutes away. The space had some elements on the ceiling. I found that very interesting and got these little round carvings made for the hooks to hang the clothes from.
SJ: I set up the previous space right after I started Rouka, created the logo and defined the brand. And as I was doing up the [previous] space, I realised that some of its aesthetic touches had seeped into the brand’s graphic vocabulary. Slowly, everything I started doing became red, black and white. We started using elements from [my grandfather’s] house—the mango tree and the plantain leaves—some consciously, some very subconsciously.
This move wasn’t about being different from what we were. Rather, we were evolving and growing. I wanted to maintain that same graphic language here to convey that. So the red and white colour palette runs through all three floors. We gave the concrete and brick walls a look of lime plaster to make them feel like our home. I’ve hung artworks of the mango tree from my grandfather’s house, so that the tree is with us in spirit. A lot of the art is textile-based because we wanted to use our appliques, which are made with waste fabric. We’ve done our signature embroidery on the upholstery for the chairs as well.
All Images by Rouka
Will you be living in your space during the renovation ?
DEC 2023
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17 Oct 23, 03.00PM - 04.00PM