The House of Things (THOT), a unique, curated online destination to discover and shop for luxury interior products, has acquired Moavi Design, known for its bespoke hand embroideries that give an exclusive touch to home linen and textiles, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition allows THOT to offer to its discerning customers unmatched luxury textiles, enhancing its current lifestyle collection, while also giving a perfect home to Moavi Design created to revive the country’s lost and struggling handicrafts, and targeted a global audience.
Astha Khetan, Founder of THOT, chanced upon Moavi Design at Maison & Objet Paris, in France on one of her travels. While Astha has always believed in the idea of India having the potential to be a forward-thinking design destination, Moavi’Moavi Design Founder Kavita Grewal Badsra had products made out of India that had caught the fancy of international audiences. For both Astha and Kavita, this was the starting of a years-long business relationship.
As part of the design acquisition, THOT gets access to the entire library of embroideries created by Moavi and makes derivative works out of the exquisite designs. Apart from this, Kavita will work to set up a design team in Udaipur that THOT can continue to utilize for developing more products. There is also a distinct possibility for Kavita to continue working with Astha towards the international expansion of THOT.
Astha, the brain behind THOT, studied Marketing in the UK, and worked for a London-based digital media agency before moving to Mumbai for an FMCG stint at Unilever. Kavita, a Textile Designer from NIFT-Delhi, founded Moavi Design in 2013 with the objective of exposing India’s hand embroidery techniques to the world in a contemporary setting.
Right from the get-go, there were synergies in what Moavi made, and their employment in THOT’s products, enhancing their beauty. That the two founders were within a road trip distance of each other, and met some 6,000 kilometers from home is a lucky coincidence.
And both of them are passionate about artisan-made products that touch lives by practising fair trade and sustainability, the acquisition is a win-win for them.
