Last year, after a long day at a craft fair in LA, we were heading back, feeling depleted by everything happening in the world. On the way, we passed a graffiti tag with the word LOVE painted in shapes.
The way the letters were drawn caught our eye and made us pause.
We didn’t know who had put it there, but there was something about stumbling upon love in an unexpected corner of the city that stayed with us.
In that moment, love felt like the kind of possibility we all needed. But the months that followed revealed a much harder reality. Around us and within us, things began to unravel—war, grief, disappointment. Love began to feel far away, almost uncool. Choosing humanity made you feel naïve.
So when we began working on a new collection this year, in a world heavy with hate and extremism, that faint memory of the graffiti came back. We kept circling the same question: how do we speak of love in times like these?
The Thandatti
Our work often draws from culture, and one form we’ve always been fascinated by is the Thandatti—a traditional South Indian ornament.
We noticed beautiful parallels between the geometry of the letters L, O, V, E and the Thandatti’s striking form. The thandatti has always captivated us, not just for its design unique to Tamil culture, but for what it carries. Traditionally, it was a gift from parent-figures to a daughter—a passing on of responsibilities, values, culture, and love. A quiet gesture, unspoken, but worn until the last word.
If we were to seek inspiration from the Thandatti, we knew it had to be done with care. So we began working with Mukesh Amaran, an arts and culture manager who collaborates with indigenous and folk musicians in Tamil Nadu, to research its history. There isn’t much written about the Thandatti or its design lineage—at least not digitally. And we may be witnessing the last generation of women who still wear them.
This left us with a question: how can we keep this form alive in a way that respects where it comes from? How do we bring the story forward without taking away from it? From the sales of this collection, we’re establishing a grant to fund a local design researcher from Tamil Nadu to document and study the Thandatti in depth.
Love Crew
We had put months of thought into this collection. But as we began telling the story, we went looking for that wall again.
Mukesh discovered it was the work of @lovecrew. To our surprise, what we thought was just a single graffiti tag was actually part of something much larger—a movement across years and cities by the people behind @lovecrew.
We didn’t want to move forward without speaking to them. We’re excited to be collaborating with them and honoring their work with royalties that will help them paint more walls and spread the love.
It felt strange, almost fated, to realize we had been holding onto a fragment of their work without even knowing it.
In this way, the collection has become a tribute to two worlds: one where love is lived, not spoken, and one where it’s whispered through walls, stages, and subcultures—an underground anthem of resistance.
