Ria Mehta: How A 22-Year-Old Is Building Nishorama For Gen Z

When Ria Mehta introduces herself online, she keeps it simple: she is 22, a co-founder and creative director. But behind that introduction is a young fashion business that has already built a sizeable customer base, crossed Rs 8 crore in reported revenue and taken its Indian aesthetic to international fashion platforms. Mehta is the co-founder and creative director of Nishorama, a digital-first fashion label she started with Ramnek Chhipa. The brand was founded in 2024 and targets Gen Z consumers with Indian and fusion clothing designed for everyday wear rather than only weddings and festivals. Her own social media presence has become an important part of that story. Instead of presenting only the polished side of entrepreneurship, Mehta regularly shares the process of building the company, including its mistakes, experiments and successes.

The idea behind Nishorama

Nishorama began with a simple problem. Traditional Indian clothing often gets associated with occasions. Weddings, festivals and family functions can dictate when and how people wear it.

Mehta and Chhipa wanted to approach Indian fashion differently.

The brand’s own philosophy describes the idea as “jhumkas and jeans coexist” and men being able to wear kurtas without waiting for a special occasion. It also focuses on bringing Indian colours, prints and silhouettes into more contemporary wardrobes.

That means a kurta can be styled casually, a traditional textile can become a more modern silhouette and Indian accessories can sit comfortably alongside everyday Western clothing.

The result is a brand that sits somewhere between ethnicwear and contemporary fashion, while keeping Indian craft and visual culture at its centre.

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Six failed ideas came before Nishorama.

Nishorama was not the founders’ first business idea.

Mehta and Chhipa met at a local gym and had already experimented with several ideas before settling on the fashion label. The brand says they went through at least six failed business ideas before starting Nishorama.

They started young.

The founders used their own crypto investments along with family support to fund the initial months of the business. That makes the early story more accurately described as self-funded and family-supported, rather than a conventional venture-backed startup.

From there, Nishorama built its business largely through its direct-to-consumer model and social media presence.

From a small fashion label to Rs 8 crore in revenue

The brand’s early growth has been rapid.

Nishorama says it has served more than 20,000 customers worldwide. More recent reporting from Inc42 states that the company claims to have generated Rs 8 crore in revenue within its first 10 months.

Earlier reports had cited Rs 5 crore in revenue within eight months, showing how quickly the numbers changed as the company expanded.

But the numbers are only one part of the Nishorama story.

The founders have also used social media to build the brand in public.

Ria Mehta became part of the brand.

Mehta’s content does not stop at showcasing clothes.

Her Instagram videos often begin with her introducing herself as the 22-year-old co-founder and creative director of Nishorama. She talks about business decisions, setbacks, growth and the reality of running a young company.

That has created a founder-led identity around Nishorama.

For audiences following the brand, the founders are not distant names behind a clothing website. They are visible throughout the process — from product development and launches to the problems that come with building a growing business.

That approach has also helped Nishorama build a community around the people behind the clothes.

Industry commentary has identified Ria and Chhipa’s approach as an example of founder-led marketing, where the founders themselves become closely associated with the brand’s voice and storytelling.

Ria’s move to London did not mean stepping away.

Mehta’s own life has also changed alongside Nishorama’s growth.

She moved from Mumbai to London to pursue her master’s at Imperial College London while continuing to manage Nishorama.

In a LinkedIn post, she explained that moving to another country forced her to rethink how she worked with the team. She spoke about building systems, documenting processes and delegating responsibilities so the business would not depend entirely on her being physically present.

Her LinkedIn profile lists Imperial Business School among her education and Nishorama as her professional experience.

That transition has itself become part of her founder content, showing what it looks like to run an Indian consumer brand while studying abroad.

Taking Indian craftsmanship to global fashion stages

Nishorama’s ambitions have also moved beyond its online store.

Ria Mehta has represented the brand through fashion-week showcases in London and Milan, taking Nishorama’s interpretation of Indian clothing and craftsmanship to international fashion audiences.

The presentations have focused on more than the clothes themselves.

One of the brand’s showcases highlighted sheer mul, Indian glamour and hand embroidery, while incorporating the names of the karigars who helped create the garment.

The idea was to put the craft and the people behind the clothing into the story rather than treating traditional workmanship as an invisible part of the finished product.

Nishorama has also used the platform to engage with questions around women’s clothing and the expectations placed on women to dress a certain way.

That gives the fashion-week presence a larger context: the brand is taking the same idea that drives its everyday collections, making Indian fashion feel more wearable and contemporary and placing it on an international stage.

Why Nishorama is speaking to Gen Z

The appeal of Nishorama is not simply that it sells Indian clothes.

It is also about how the brand talks about Indian identity.

Its collections use familiar elements such as block prints, Indian textiles and traditional silhouettes, but present them through contemporary shapes, styling and colours.

That positioning fits a generation that may wear a kurta with sneakers, pair jhumkas with jeans or style Indian textiles alongside Western pieces.

Inc42 describes Nishorama as a digital-first brand focused on modern ethnic and fusion wear, with everyday clothing designed around younger consumers rather than occasion-only dressing.

The brand itself frames that mission around making Indian clothing part of everyday life and encouraging consumers to embrace being “desi”.

More than a fashion founder

For Mehta, Nishorama is now more than a clothing business.

At 22, she is balancing product design, creative direction, content creation, business management and a master’s degree in London.

Her online presence means audiences are following not just what Nishorama sells, but how a young founder is building the company.

That has become an important part of the brand’s identity.

From six failed ideas and a gym meeting to a self-funded fashion label, more than 20,000 customers, reported Rs 8 crore in revenue and international fashion-week showcases, Nishorama’s journey has moved quickly.

And Ria Mehta’s role in it reflects a growing model of entrepreneurship in which the founder is not hidden behind the brand.

The founder is part of the story, the content is part of the marketing, and the community gets to watch the business being built in real time.