Imagine waking up, rummaging through your wardrobe, and reaching out for your go-to oversized cotton shirt. Now picture that shirt, not in the usual monotone of white or beige, but adorned with vibrant prints from artists around the world. This dream is a reality thanks to Drawn, the brainchild of Rhea Bhattacharyya, a fashion visionary whose frustration with bland wardrobe options led to something truly colourful.
‘You know, it was multiple lightbulbs going off at the same time,’ Rhea says with a laugh. Drawn started with a deep frustration she had with the market. Here she was, in her early 30s, earning enough to treat myself to better clothes but not being able to find something that reflected her love for art, colour and prints. ‘I wanted some nice wardrobe staples, and I saw that the market was increasingly monotone with the options that were available to me,’ she says.
While working at an art gallery in Mumbai, the idea hit her: why not combine her love for crisp cottons with the vibrant artwork she was already surrounded by? And that’s where Drawn was born—a fusion of comfort and creativity, designed for women who want to stand out, not just blend in.
Turning Wardrobe Basics into Art
If you’re like most of us, you reach for the same 20 per cent of your wardrobe—the comfy, well-worn pieces that just work, whether you’ve gained a couple of pounds or dropped a few. But, as Rhea points out, those pieces can often look drab. ‘I just figured there has to be a way where we can make it stand out a little more, not make it look like, you know, you rolled out a bed,’ she explains.
Rhea’s goal with Drawn was to give those comfortable pieces a new life. ‘The minute we launched Drawn, I saw that a lot of women felt the same way. I think they were sick of wearing the same beige, white, black, grey, you know, stripe. They wanted something a little brighter, a little more unique and creative,’ she adds.
A Love for Women Artists
Drawn’s unique selling point isn’t just its vibrant pieces—it’s the artists behind them. Rhea didn’t plan to collaborate only with female artists, but over time, she found herself repeatedly drawn to their work. ‘I think I'm just inherently more drawn to work by female artists because I feel there's such a great balance of softness and strength in the textures that they use in their artwork,’ she says.
It’s not just the story behind the art that matters to Rhea; the technical aspects are just as important. ‘Not all art can be converted into a print on fabric, so it's a very complicated process that we have to follow. An artist’s use of texture—whether it’s watercolour, acrylic, or digital and how it translates onto cotton or linen all comes into play. This intricate process ensures that every collaboration results in a wearable piece of art, not just a print slapped onto fabric.
When asked about her favourite collaboration, Rhea doesn’t hesitate: ‘Richa Kashelkar, hands down.’ She goes on to describe how she had admired Richa’s work for years, even having one of her artworks as her phone wallpaper for inspiration. When the collaboration finally happened, it was a dream come true for Rhea, setting the tone for what Drawn would become. ‘The artwork that she sent to us for the collaboration, I think all our customers loved it so much. It was something so new and so fresh, and at an early stage, it really established what the brand was about and what we were hoping to do,’ she adds.
Fashion as Storytelling
Rhea believes fashion and art are two sides of the same coin. "At the end of the day, both are forms of storytelling and self-expression," she explains. ‘Art, of course, is a very strong medium of storytelling, whether it's recording a scene, whether it's expressing a thought, that's essentially what art is. When we're putting together an outfit or when we pick something that we want to wear, it's reflective of how we're feeling that day. It's reflective of something that we want to say. So I feel that they're both connected very strongly.’
And that’s exactly the philosophy behind Drawn: to make women feel something through the clothes they wear.
Dopamine Dressing: The Power of Colour
Rhea is a firm believer in the power of colour to lift your mood. ‘I have personally seen the impact it makes to the way I feel when I wear a bright coloured outfit, you know, as opposed to, you know, something that's more neutral or beige,’ she says. This ties in with much research on Enclothes Cognition that shows how colours affect our mood and vice versa. Drawn's pieces are crafted with this idea in mind—vibrant, joyful hues that aim to make you feel positive, not just decorate.
‘That's why we focus so much on this, that when we even pick our artists that we collaborate with, we'll always make sure that the colour story is vibrant, it's joyful, even if it's a slightly darker theme, their interpretation will be something that will incorporate beautiful tones of maybe turquoise or red. So in no way is it something that is pulling you down. It's always something that will uplift you,’ explains Rhea.
While Drawn has had great success collaborating with some great artists already, Rhea is excited to explore more diversity in the future. ‘I want it (Drawn) to be a platform for all artists. You know, that's the great thing about being able to work with artists- with every artist collaboration that we do, the hope is that they can bring a fresh perspective to Drawn,’ she adds
For now, though, Rhea’s vision for Drawn remains simple: to create pieces that merge comfort with creativity, making everyday dressing feel a little more like art.
Rhea’s story is proof that sometimes, all it takes is a little colour—and a lot of heart—to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. With Drawn, she’s crafted not just a brand, but a canvas where fashion and art come together to tell stories, lift moods, and help women everywhere stand out in a sea of beige.