Siddharth Kerkar, artist, designer and influencer speaks about his range of clothing which is based on the philosophy of sustainability
Siddharth Kerkar is a Goan artist, designer and influencer. His creations are a blend of his fascination with textures and minimalistic patterns. He merges fashion, art and lifestyle to create unique and luxury products.
His clothing is handcrafted, using sustainable fabric and unique artistic sensibilities, these creations are an amalgamation of design, craftsmanship and local stories.
Siddharth speaks about himself and says that he is primarily an artist. “I have always been painting from a very young age. Many people from my family are artists and I’ve been exposed to art from a very young age. Most of my travels as a kid were to check out museums and exhibitions, because of which I had a lot of exposure to art.” He ended up pursuing a degree in Fine Arts from The Chelsea College of Art, London. Living in London also opened up many avenues to art, where he would check out galleries every week which helped him hone his skills. “Being part of a University that was big on fashion, made me consider creating my own clothing line; I began wearing my own creations to different events and people would ask me where I’d get my stuff from. Eventually I began getting a few orders and later got into influencing.”
Siddharth later thought of creating his own brand, which would be more on the lines of sustainability and would be organic. “I went to Jaipur and got in touch with some artisans who would do block prints and after a week we made a few designs and went on to launch our first collection, last year in mid-August.” His brand slowly took off from there and later in December he turned one of the rooms in the museum into a store. Siddharth says that all his clothing is handmade, by local tailors, and they have about 50 women who create unique products for the ‘Museum in Goa’. Using their skills he also created the re-usable packaging material from waste cloth thus sticking to his brand philosophy of sustainability.
Siddharth’s range of shirts and t-shirts have unique names like The Pink Rosa, Sea Kelp. He elaborates on the idea behind his clothing range. “The designs were my idea, wherein most of the blocks were made by artisans, with each block being hand carved. We told the artisans the kind of colours we’d like for each block and if you see the colours they are really unusual like teals and pinks, basically different shades of colours than one would otherwise get. I wanted to give my clothing range names that would go with the identity of Goa and hence the quirky names for the varied collection that we have.”
Siddharth describes himself as an artist, a designer and an influencer and manages to juggle all three roles with aplomb. “My Instagram profile has a lot of fashion and travel videos. But apart from that, most of my videos are of me painting at home. I recently put up a reel where I designed my own bathroom, plus I paint, make lamps and I put all of this on social media. My role of an influencer is also that of an artist and a designer.”
He launched his brand during the lockdown when people were at home and malls were closed. The rise of social media during this period helped his brand grow, as there was a surge of people looking to turn into social media influencers.
My Instagram profile has a lot of fashion and travel videos. But apart from that, most of my videos are of me painting at home. I recently put up a reel where I designed my own bathroom, plus I paint, make lamps and I put all of this on social media. My role of an influencer is also that of an artist and a designer, says Siddharth
“People were looking to buy clothes which kind of saw an increase in sales. Being an influencer myself, I have friends who also helped me push out the brand, thus giving me a strong client base.”
Regarding roadblocks and challenges faced along the way, Siddharth says that he had to shut down a store of his because of the recent lockdown. “Online sales of course, do go on and my primary source of work is my paintings, which I will begin displaying on my website.”
Speaking on his future plans, he says, “I’d like to go in a direction that lets me grow creatively.”
Siddharth concludes with a message to aspiring artists and upcoming designers. “Find what makes your art or products unique. Go in a direction that makes you feel happy bring out your identity in the best way. This way one will not only be happy, but also successful”
