A single scroll through Bianca Kuttickattu’s Instagram reveals her predilection for the arts. Raised by creatively-inclined parents, a dancer mother and an actor-director stepfather—Namai’s founder was surrounded by creativity from the outset. The eldest of four siblings, her diverse and culturally rich upbringing guided her towards an enterprising career at prolific fashion houses, including Celine , Acne, and Maison Margiela.
Kuttickattu’s artistic leanings began early. As a child, Easter days were spent painting and decorating eggs with her siblings, and autumn nights creating tissue paper lanterns with candles that would illuminate their countryside walks. “Everyday life had this innate sense of magic and creativity,” she says.
By her teens, she was combing through the shelves of vintage shops to recreate the latest trends, learning to sew on her mother’s hand-operated machine, making her own clothes, and even piecing together a quilt from old jackets —subconsciously planting the seeds of her passion for upcycling . Studying fashion professionally felt natural. After an undergraduate degree at the London College of Fashion and later at Middlesex University in North London, she started off as a designer in London.
But it was after her master’s degree at the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, that opened doors to work at storied fashion houses under legendary designers including Jean Paul Gaultier , Karl Lagerfeld, and Repetto. She also gained a hand.