How Nicobar's Simran Lal and Raul Rai built India’s anti-fit fashion movement

Judging by recent runway showcases, a trend is becoming clear: clothes with space to move. Clothes with boxy or free-flowing silhouettes offer a quiet sexiness and elegance without drowning the wearer.

A decade ago, fashion screamed quite the opposite. Skinny jeans ruled, whether you were headed to the office or a shopping mall. Fitted kurtas and dresses were the default, alongside saris, for festivals, parties and weddings. So when Nicobar entered the market in 2016, combining traditional textiles like cotton and silk with relaxed cuts and contemporary shapes, it struck a chord with well-travelled Indians looking for elevated everyday clothes.

Without the heavy price tags of established designers, its shirts, dresses and kurtas embodied a breezy, tropical ease, with traditional motifs, strong cuts and contemporary shapes that fell well on different body types.

Founders Simran Lal, then chief executive of lifestyle label Good Earth (founded by her mother Anita), and her husband, Raul Rai, an investment banker and private equity partner, positioned Nicobar at the intersection of design-led minimalism and accessible luxury. Today, Nicobar has evolved into a lifestyle brand with 30 stores across India. Its offerings now extend beyond clothing to home furnishings, dinnerware and accessories. The brand’s revenue for the financial year 2025-26 was ₹200 crore.

As it marks its 10th year, Nicobar is entering the wedding space with an evening wear line built around separates designed for layering, placing comfort and ease over excess. It is also launching a limited-edition collection of clothes and homeware with designer Rajesh Pratap Singh. They have also launched an ecological initiative, Nico Eco, to rehabilitate land.

Lal and Rai talk about their 10-year journey, and the big learnings along the way. Edited excerpts from the interview:

What was the idea with which you started the label?

Lal: We began with a simple idea. Many Indian women wore the little black dress to parties—we asked, can we offer alternatives? Keep it glamorous, infuse a sense of India, but without conforming to a Western lens or feeling overtly “ethnic”. That was the starting point. For instance, we want people to wear saris more—that’s one segment at Nicobar. If not saris, we explore textiles like Chanderi in dresses.

We don’t use synthetics. It’s tempting, because even small blends can reduce costs and create a certain drape. But this constraint has pushed us in a good way to be more creative and patient with materials. Customers too have evolved. There’s a broader awareness now of what’s possible with fabrics, silhouettes and styling. Styling, especially, has become huge.

Tell us about the way Nicobar has grown in the past decade?

Rai: If Nicobar launched in 1990 with the same aesthetic and quality, we would have probably flopped. People came before us and paved the way. Like (the late) Rohit Khosla (regarded as the designer who brought ready-to-wear fashion to India in the late 1980s); (photographer) Prabuddha Dasgupta with his gift of looking at the world through a lens in ways that words will never capture; Good Earth, which helped people believe that luxury can come from India again. I say “again” because India was originally a country of luxury.

Our first collection (in 2016) was only in black and white and it validated something I’ve always believed: in India, market size is a function of the product.

Lal: Our first collection had no patterns, except some stripes and a little bit here and there. Everyone told us we were crazy to launch with black and white in a country of colours. We felt there was a segment that was looking for alternatives that were simpler, more relaxed and effortless. Today, I can say that we’ve played a role in growing that segment.

What’s it like to work with your partner?

Rai: Simran is the guardian of the brand’s soul. She’s the one who every time I say, “let’s do this, let’s do that”, she takes us back to “this is who we are, this is what we stand for”.

Lal: Raul is hugely democratic and wants to try many different things. We fight a lot about this (laughs). I want to keep things a little bit more contained.

What changes in consumer tastes have you noticed in the past decade?

Lal: One big shift is how much consumers prioritise fabric, materiality and comfort. A certain simplicity in clothing is now being deeply appreciated.

Rai: The biggest trend I see is that Indians are becoming more comfortable in our own skin, more rooted in our culture, less driven by external trends, and more inclined to do what feels authentic.

You are entering wedding wear, a world of highly embellished clothes. It seems contrary to your aesthetic.

Lal: It’s the kind of wedding wear I would have loved for my own wedding. We want to bring back the original spirit of weddings, the joy, the ease. Before heavily embellished lehngas became the norm, many brides wore their mother’s sari or an heirloom piece. There was intimacy and lightness in that choice.

Today, youngsters are looking for clothes that are glamorous and fun, but also light. So when you come to our store, you don’t have to buy an entire lehenga. You can pick a blouse, a skirt, a dupatta—mix and match the way you want. The idea is to create pieces you can repurpose.

Rai: Are we confident? No. Consumers aren’t used to the idea of lightness and mixing and matching in wedding wear. But we do sense there’s a real need for lightness and versatility in wedding wear.

Lal: Our first collection was a big gamble. We came from the lap of Good Earth, which gave us years of learning—retail, consumer insight, quality, finance, markets. We weren’t doing this purely for money. We were trying to build a different kind of an India-proud brand.

Did the Good Earth experience help?

Lal: Many began to follow, or even copy, its (Good Earth’s) visual language. Over time, you risk getting boxed into a singular idea of what India is.

I believe India is a never-ending source of inspiration. You can take the familiar route, which is easier and more acceptable, or create your own path.

Were you able to take more risks since money wasn’t a concern?

Lal: We never started with the intention of making money. Would we have struggled financially if Nicobar hadn’t taken off? No. But emotionally, it would have been very, very tough.

Rai: The prevailing whisper was that Nicobar would just be a cheaper version of Good Earth. We weren’t confident when we launched, but we made a pact with ourselves: we wouldn’t judge the brand for at least three years.

What’s next?

Rai: We are offering gifting concierge services. Let’s see how that works out because it’s tougher to pull off services than a product. There are plans to double our footprint. If we find a great partner, we would like to go international.

You are launching a collection with Rajesh Pratap Singh, who’s known for sharply tailored, structured clothes.

Rai: My purpose is to make sure that every man has his bandhgala (laughs). Now to answer your question. We want to deepen our focus on menswear, and there’s no one better, in my mind, than Rajesh. He brings elegance in a way that can still feel relaxed.

Lal: If he were flowy like us, or if we were already structured, then what would be the point? We love the contrast; it’s a bit like Raul and me. Maybe our purpose is to gently bend your definition of structure.

What have been your big learnings?

Rai: Taste and style exist all over India, but often as a long tail, and not always easy to find. For instance, we do very well in cities like Chandigarh and Ludhiana, but not as well in Lucknow. I don’t think that’s about Lucknow; it means we haven’t done a good enough job identifying and reaching that long tail. It also underlines how crucial retail location is.

The other big learning is that the product is always foremost. But if you want to grow the market, not just serve the existing one, then storytelling and experience become critical. Product alone can sustain a brand, but storytelling and immersive experiences are what expand the market.