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Founders Simran Lal and Raul Rai on the brand’s ₹200 crore growth and collaboration with Rajesh Pratap Singh
Nicobar at 10: Founders Simran Lal and Raul Rai on the brand’s ₹200 crore growth and collaboration with Rajesh Pratap Singh
I am seated next to the OG Anita Lal, under flowering mango trees, as she sings along with the band and is word perfect through Tina Turner’s 1984 hit ‘What’s Love Got to Do With It’. Hand-crafted wooden toucans from the Nilgiris flash from the branches, and models navigate the former nursery, its pathways briefly repurposed as a runway. The place is packed but intimate, as some of the country’s leading designers, industrialists, actors, and friends of the family celebrate Nicobar’s 10-year journey under the umbrella of Eicher Goodearth. While Simran Lal shares her mother’s joie de vivre, Nicobar’s trajectory is distinct from that of Anita’s heritage luxury brand, Good Earth: expansion is on the cards for the younger label and the vibe is relaxed. At the party in Tulsi Farms on the outskirts of Delhi, almost every guest arrived wearing or carrying something beloved from an older Nicobar collection (for actor and biker queen Gul Panag it was the classic black knotted Nicobar dress styled with an intricate phulkari stole from 1469 Original).
Husband-wife duo Simran Lal and Raul Rai, founders of Nicobar | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
With over 30 retail locations, strong e-commerce, and a revenue of ₹200 crore for FY 2025-26, husband-wife duo Simran Lal and Raul Rai clearly know what they are about. Raul commends their close-knit team and how when they launched the brand in 2016 with a black and white collection, critics scoffed that they “wouldn’t last longer than a Mumbai monsoon”. He recalls his first Rajesh Pratap Singh (RPS) bandhgala after years of renting tuxes in the US in his previous job as an investment banker. Now with their much-anticipated 2026 collaboration with the same Indian designer known for his precise, almost architectural construction, It seems the Nicobar family has truly come full circle. I speak to the couple about the new collection, the shimmer that was unexpected for a brand that usually avoids overtly decorative surfaces, and the RPS lineup.
Edited excerpts from the interview:
The Nicobar x Rajesh Pratap Singh collection | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Nicobar launched at a time when everyone else was doing fitted and embellished garments. How was the shimmer received in the new evening wear and the gota and mukaish work and metallics in the wedding line?
Simran: Everyone’s asking what this means for Nicobar but no one’s complaining. That’s the best part. It’s something new, but it’s a calculated risk. Every brand has to evolve, reinvent, stay relevant. I actually love shimmer but it has to be the Nicobar way. There must be a certain subtlety, while there is the glamour. And Aparna Chandra (co-creative director) is a queen of that. Growing up, I used to wear very simple Anokhi garments and Kolhapuri chappals, while many of my friends went to designers. My only ‘designer’ was Aparna Chandra. She was a friend and she had that cool factor without it being over the top.
The gota and mukaish work and metallics in the brand’s wedding line | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The Rajesh Pratap Singh limited edition of shirts, jackets and jodhpurs is crafted in breathable cottons, indigo denims and linens, with signature graded pin tucks, and kantha stitches. Was that your brief?
Raul: The brief was simple: we trust you, now show us what you see. We asked Rajesh to work closely with our co-creative director Aparna Chandra to understand the Nicobar design language, but beyond that, the creative freedom was entirely his. What made it work was that we weren’t starting from opposing positions. Rajesh’s precision and rigour met our ease and softness and the result was something neither of us would have arrived at alone.
Rajesh worked closely with co-creative director Aparna Chandra to understand Nicobar's design language | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
The new NicoBaraat or the wedding collection is light and refreshing, especially with the prints, the colours and mix and match options. I can imagine young brides opting for them, and friends of the bride.
Simran: Nowadays with the wedding becoming so OTT, all these poor brides look so weighed down by their lehengas. But things are changing; young girls are quite independent and have their own personality. And I think, why not? I am a big traditionalist. But if everyone’s doing pastel, we’re going to the other end, with roses and big dots. We used to wear our mother’s Benares sari or a Kanjeevaram sari in the past, not these heavy Swarovski outfits with the bride and groom in one colour! At Nicobar, we go back to our roots across categories, even for the home, with the roti box, or a ghee pot, or the masala box. We provide a contemporary solution.
The new NicoBaraat or the wedding collection is light and refreshing | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
You have a background in archaeology and architecture and you study the Vedas. How do these interests find their way to Nicobar?
Simran: There are these books that I like to give everybody who joins the the creative team and one of them is The Ocean of Churn: How the Indian Ocean Shaped Human History by Sanjeev Sanyal (see box). I spend my mornings studying. The design teams come over, and I have loads of design books. We open them up and go on beautiful design journeys, in our minds, in our hearts, and on our boards. That’s actually the exciting part, no?
The Nicobar x Rajesh Pratap Singh collection | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Raul, in addition to the gifting concierge, I hear there are expansion plans. Is Dubai next?
Our immediate focus is deepening our presence in India, across metros and in Tier 1 and select Tier 2 cities. International markets are genuinely on our radar and we’d love to take Nicobar to Dubai and beyond, but we’d rather do it with the right partner than quickly. Speed has never really been our thing.
The Rajesh Pratap Singh x Nicobar special edition is priced between ₹8,000 and ₹25,000.
The Nicobar x Rajesh Pratap Singh collection | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
Published - May 23, 2026 05:08 pm IST
The Hindu Weekend / fashion / textile and clothing / crafts
Source: TheHindu
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