MALVIKA AGARWAL LOVE OF CASHMERE

Cashmere is a growing market among young consumers as they follow the quiet luxury trend and seek to invest in high-quality fabrics. Buneko Cashmere, a Nepali brand is winning the market share with non-traditional styles and bold colours, without compromising on quality and traceable sourcing.  Malvika Agarwal, the Creative Head of Buneko Cashmere Tales, wanted to work with a fabric that is home grown and less explored. “Cashmere was always in my head and when I returned Nepal, I knew this was the material I would be working with as a designer,” she recalls.
With a post-graduation from Milan in luxury brand management, Malvika launched her label in 2023. “While in Milan, I worked with multi luxury online store, Salovan and Myriam Volterra,” she says. Twenty-five-year-old Malvika lives by the philosophy “Life is too short to wear boring clothes”. Her collection of pure cashmere includes majorly dresses, cardigans and scarves, mostly keeping to a bolder colour palette.

Cashmere and organza are the young designer’s focus: in her hands, these fabrics transform into dresses with almost fluid movements. They are punctured with pearls and fastened with bows. “I always wondered why cashmere is only restricted to structured cardigans and shawls, why not a dress or skirt? I combined four things I loved – art, design, fashion and bling, for my first ever collection,” says the young designer.
Talking about what makes the fabric luxe. Malvika says, “It’s not just the production that makes cashmere a coveted fabric, it’s also supremely soft on skin. The most important characteristics of cashmere are its fineness and softness.” However, it’s less commonly known that cashmere also wins points in the practicality realm: “It has good elasticity, meaning that if stretched it can recover its shape, and doesn’t crease as much as cotton or linen, making it great for travelling with,” she adds.

What’s more, cashmere is hygroscopic, which means “it absorbs and releases water readily, so helps to regulate body temperature and when spun in finer counts, works as a trans-seasonal fibre too. In fact, a lightweight cashmere jumper is great choice for end-of-summer evenings spent outside. And finally, perhaps the biggest benefit: cashmere is a natural, renewable fibre that, at the end of its life, will simply biodegrade,” Malvika informs.
So, what are the barriers for herself and for other young designers in the cut-throat world of fashion? “Sustainable financing is the biggest factor. Also, I don’t obsess over my designs. It’s not about me anymore. It’s about my team, their happiness in the studio, their productivity, their learning,” she says. “There are so many clothes out there now that it’s really hard for young designers to build a design identity. And to be able to do so without sacrificing quality? Even harder. Knowing how wasteful fashion has become, you have to rethink your way of making and be brave with what you create,” she states.

Malvika has had some great opportunities career-wise but she believes there’s always so much to learn and new areas to grow and push which ultimately keeps her working.
We ask her what she considers to be success. “As a designer or owner of the brand, you have to do a bit of everything. I learned quickly that things aren’t how they initially seem. Success is ultimately staying above water in this industry,” she responds.
She then reflects, “As a creative now, I think success is more like running water. Dynamic and continuous, rather than a fixed destination. I never have had that feeling of having succeeded. It’s like one task ends and another one starts. Even if I set a goal, it’s about how I move forward.” In the coming times, Malvika is planning to exhibit her collections in India and abroad.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.