The road to Color Loom has taken many twists and turns. Here is how we started out.

Jumping Ship

In India, we both had great corporate jobs. I worked for the clothing company Esprit overseeing production, living in Delhi.  Kiran was Administrative Manager for one of the first Indian computer company.

On our first date we discovered we both had dreams of having our own business. Something creative, linking East to West, bringing modern design to traditional crafts.

Fell in love…got married…moved to Berkeley…

I got a job as VP of Production for Jessica McClintock, overseeing 125 subcontractors in San Francisco making 90,000 garments a month. I barely slept a night, waking up, worrying about if we produced enough each day.

It was insane.

Kiran bought folk art and antiques from India and got them placed in Gumps and a leading interior design showroom in San Francisco. He sat at home waiting for his dowry boxes, and magnificent statues of Indian gods to sell. They sold.

But – it was so-o-o boring.

We knew we had to do something else.

I took a trip to India and made some clothing samples out of ikat fabric with the help of Kiran’s friends who had a factory.  The clincher was a black and white double ikat padded bomber jacket. Back in SF, while shopping at Saks Fifth Ave the sales girl asked me “Who’s the designer for your jacket?”  I was thrilled to tell her it was me.

Maybe we were on to something.

Local Heroes

We asked ourselves “What can we do that would be fun, creative and not too big that would connect us to our community?”

Kiran came home one day with the answer. “How’d you like to have a store in our North Berkeley neighborhood? I found a great space.” Maybe we’d do folkart and antiques.

Without a dime to our name, we met the landlords. When they told us they were looking for a natural fiber clothing store, without missing a beat, we looked at each other and said in unison “That’s what we do.” We were both thinking of that jacket. We forgot about antiques.

We signed the lease, persuaded an old business contact to loan us some money, took off to Delhi and hung out in the factory creating clothing for our new store- Laura & Kiran.

One of our original designs

From the beginning our collection was color co-ordinated with simple styles that fit well, in cotton and silk that we designed ourselves. Mostly ikat.  From the hour we opened the doors and the first customer came in and said “Wow.” And then bought several outfits, we knew the store was a hit.

At last, we were out of the corporate world.

Happy to be local heroes.

Laura Singh

Photos by Kiran Singh