close to home : ranvek’s debut collection

some places stay with you long after you leave them. for us, that place is lucknow.

close to home is our debut collection, inspired by the place where it all began. it is an attempt to piece together the feeling of home through art: through the architecture we remember, the streets we know, the craft we grew up around and the details that remain familiar even as everything else around us changes constantly.

a homecoming

home is rarely just a place....it is the courtyard at the centre of a house. the familiar geometry of a doorway. streets we could navigate without thinking. the craft that existed around us so naturally that we never questioned where it came from.

for two people who eventually stepped away from their childhood home, these details became memories. close to home began with the desire to revisit those memories but instead of recreating them literally, we interpreted them through art. lucknow became the starting point. its architecture, its courtyards and gateways, its streets and geography and above all, its tradition of chikankari became the visual vocabulary of the collection. the familiar was taken apart, remembered and pieced back together in thread.

a traditional craft, reimagined.

chikankari has existed for centuries. its language is imbedded in patience, precision and repetition- qualities that remain at the heart of what ranvek creates- but close to home asks what happens when this traditional craft moves beyond the garment. instead of clothing, the embroidery finds itself on the walls of contemporary homes. instead of following familiar motifs exactly as they have always existed, they are reinterpreted through abstraction, geometry, scale, line and composition. the intention is not to move away from tradition, but to give it another place to exist.

tradition survives not only by remaining unchanged, but by being carried forward by people who understand its value, respect its history and allow it to evolve. for us, that is one way of keeping the craft alive.

the works

lattice of light

inspired by the traditional jalis of Awadhi architecture, lattice of light takes the intricate geometry of these architectural screens and reduces it into a study of positive and negative space.

the familiar structure becomes lighter, more abstract and distinctly contemporary....a play between what is embroidered and what is left untouched.

at the heart

in the old homes of lucknow, the courtyard often sits at the centre of the house. it is where people gather, where conversations happen, where everyday life unfolds. it is the heart of the home. at the heart translates this idea into two organic compositions built from concentric circles that expand outwards.

like a courtyard, like a family, like love itself.....beginning at the centre and continuing to grow.

patterns of patience

patterns of patience takes inspiration from the geography of modern lucknow. a larger composition is divided into nine connected pieces, allowing the artwork to exist as individual forms while remaining part of a larger whole.

two traditional chikankari stitches repeat across the nine panels, shifting in colour and taking form through repetition. the work is also a reflection on the nature of the craft itself. each stitch requires patience. some of the smallest stitches demand the greatest amount of it.

the repetition becomes both the method and the message.

city in motion

lucknow’s topography becomes threadwork in city in motion. roads, rivers and footpaths intersect, separate and reconnect across two connected pieces, creating a new visual language from the movement of the city.

it is less a map of lucknow and more an interpretation of how a city moves, grows and connects.

before and becoming

before and becoming explores the relationship between the past, present and future. the past takes shape through complex, intertwining organic lines. the future is represented through a more linear, structured language. between them runs a red river- the present.

the three remain connected because there is no future without what came before. but there is also no becoming if we remain too attached to the past to let it evolve.

forms of passage

inspired by the rumi darwaza and the many gateways found across lucknow, forms of passage looks at the idea of moving from one space to another. the gate becomes more than an architectural element, it becomes a symbol of transition....of entering, leaving and crossing.

home, in memory

home in memory returns to the language of chikankari itself. traditional chikankari motifs are reinterpreted into a new format, while the entire artwork is created through traditional chikankari stitches.

it is perhaps the most direct connection between memory and craft within the collection.....familiar forms, remembered and given a new place to live.

the people behind ranvek

ranvek began with two sisters and two designers who wanted an outlet for their artistic instincts. saumya, a fashion and textile designer, and bhavya, an architect and interior designer, found themselves drawn to the same question: what could they create if they brought their disciplines, their memories and their love for craft together?

the answer became ranvek, a space for their creativity to co-exist and eventually, for those artworks to become part of other people's spaces. at its core, ranvek is an attempt to build a community around a shared love for design, art and the traditional crafts of india.

one artwork, one space, one connection at a time.

where it begins

close to home is only the beginning. it is rooted in lucknow, but it is not meant to remain there.

the hope is to continue exploring traditional indian crafts, histories, places and visual languages.....and to keep asking how they can be interpreted for the spaces we inhabit today. because perhaps the best way to keep something close to home is to carry it forward.

close to home

ranvek’s debut collection.

out now.

© ranvek 2026.