Past, Present, Future: Inside the World of Outbreak Lab
A portal into the future of fashion. We sit down with the co-founders of Outbreak Lab to discuss nature-driven algorithms, and their mission to bring ancient techniques into tomorrow’s world.
Before We Begin —
In case you’re reading Duchump for the first time, or you’ve been MIA, you can catch up on my latest work — the last three posts are just below:
There’s a lot happening behind-the-scenes right now, so there is a reason behind the slowdown of posts recently. Expect a few new interviews this month, along with some longer posts focusing one a single subject, brand, etc.
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Introduction —
When Duchump hit Paris Fashion Week, I wasn’t really expecting much as this is still a relatively small newsletter, and I’m by no means an accomplished writer — or a writer, really. Yeah, definitely not the case as I ended up meeting with many brands I’ve grown to love and respect like Gathering (miss ya buddy), the Kaptain Sunshine team, William Frederick, and several others. However, there was one brand I wasn’t able to meet, and missing that appointment has stuck with me since. That brand is Outbreak Lab.
From what I’ve seen online, their work is insanely nice. Divyam, one of three members behind the brand, has created the collection to wear for your dystopian needs. Their footwear, and we’ll touch on this below, almost feels like ancient relics unearthed far, far into the future, and turned into wearable pieces. Like their Anarok model — it was inspired by “organic morphology and structural patterns found in natural rock formations.” What is morphology? Brother, I wish I could tell you, but regardless, it’s impressive. As for their garments, well, let’s just say I’ve yet to see a brand release such functional, technical pieces made entirely from natural fabrics.
For their FW25/26 collection, they were inspired by the earliest English word for “future” — tōweards. By the looks of it, Outbreak is either a time-travelling trio that’s showing us what they’re wearing in their timeline, or they’ve somehow encapsulated exactly what the future holds in fashion as they’ve quickly grown into a league of their own. Whether it’s using astroid scans sourced from NASA to design their buttons, or working with materials like iron oxide, walnut shells, and pomegranate peels — it’s hard not to feel excited by what they’re doing. We’re looking at the the future of craftsmanship in fashion.
We had the pleasure of sitting down with Divyam and Saysha to discuss the story behind the brand, their creative process, and their approach to research and development.
Interview —
by Christian Maradiaga and Edward Luekehoelter
E: Thank you so much for meeting with us. Your work is fantastic. I want to start out by asking you how Outbreak Lab came to be? What was the impetus for starting up the label?
It was started by myself and two of my friends from high school. After finishing high school, we started this with the intention to explore how products should be made in the future. Over the last years, we were mostly figuring out the manufacturing side because my family has a deep rooted base in this. We develop fabrics, we manufacture garments, we have dying units. I've sort of been around this all my life.
I also come from an engineering background, so by profession I'm an environmental scientist. I wanted to bring my know-how into the development of textiles and practices. As I was doing that, I found myself looking back in time for answers as, even scientifically, I found out how we were doing the right things in the past, but then we just stopped because of the costs and industrialization. I'm trying to bring those things back.
Like, how we grew from those things to these technologically advanced things — I'm trying to grow from these things back to those things.
E: That’s interesting. I’m currently enrolled in an environmental science-adjacent degree right now. I'm happy to hear that's the kind of approach you’re taking. How would you outline that “right way” of making clothes that you're trying to evolve back to?
There are two aspects to this. One can be the water footprint of something that we're making, and the second can be how long can that thing be used and can it be put back into the ground. Those are the two things we mostly look at because in India we see everything first-hand.
Before starting this business, I was working with a lot of textile dyeing units to help them treat their waste, and I saw what actually goes on on the ground. India, Vietnam, China — these are the textile manufacturing hubs of the world. I saw what's happening, and I set out on this journey to look for answers and better techniques.
E: Okay, that's sick. Chris was talking about how futuristic your clothes are. I think that's a really interesting approach to take.
C: I mean, the biggest example is your footwear, which is very sculptural. It looks like it's both a relic from the past and a futuristic object. I'd love to know what the creative process behind your footwear is like, especially for the two that are currently available on your website.
While researching nature's algorithms, we came across two computational algorithms. We are currently working with this computational designer, Kedar Benjamin, and we used those algorithms to replicate what nature did. Those products are an exaggeration of what nature produced. Overall when you look at it, they don't exactly fit in with the brand. We have separated them into a different collective called the future fossil gallery that will launch soon, and what we do at the future fossil gallery is explore our developments through someone else's lenses, because we don't want those inventions to be limited to ourselves.
We'll give others a chance to give their take on our developments.
C: Just reading the product description — the shoe “draws inspiration from reptilian feet and employs a biometric reaction diffusion algorithm.” I have never read anything like that and it just excites me as fashion’s felt a bit stale recently, but I think what you're doing is a breath of fresh air.
E: I agree. It's great seeing this innovation so quickly from a brand. On the note of innovation, I was reading about this “arka fibre” on your website and I'm really curious — could you tell us more about it?
I think it's one of the most interesting things we've stumbled across. We met this generational cotton farmer named Shankar, and he lives about 3 hours away from Chennai which is a metropolitan city in the south of India. One day, he was sitting on his farm and saw some birds taking these arka fibres — a waste product of cotton farming — and lining their nest with it to stay warm. He decided that, since this is a resource that's growing everywhere — why don't we make use of this? Historically, arka fibre was used to insulate jackets, but weaving fibre of it is seen as being nearly impossible as it’s very slippery. Since he’s a third generation cotton farmer, and scientist, his family figured out a way to weave it. Now, they developed a 100% arka fabric for us that we presented at our Paris showroom in January.
There was only 12 metres of that fabric in the whole world, and it was all there at our showroom.
E: As far as a case study of waste reduction in fashion, that's as good as it gets.
The thing about this fibre is that turning it into fabric is very expensive. I don't know if you guys know how much fabrics cost, but to give you an estimate, this fabric costs about $50 to $100 per yard. That's how expensive it is. But, being in India, if I can scale this fabric and receive orders for this, I can get the cost down significantly. It can’t be converted into fabric anywhere else in the world.
India is the only place to produce arka fabric due to economical limitations.
E: That's so fascinating.
“I found myself looking back in time for answers as, even scientifically, I found out how we were doing the right things in the past. Then we just stopped because of the costs and industrialization. I'm trying to bring those things back.”
C: With this growing international attention, have you noticed any significant changes in India’s fashion landscape?
I think the problem with the industry here is that we've grown up around this — things the West perceives as innovative, or beautiful. We’re just so desensitized to it.
My mother wears fabrics that are more interesting than any of ours, because she loves good fabrics. She's been making fabrics since I was a little kid, and the suits that she wears, the tunics that she wears are, in general, better. When she looks at our stuff, she tells me “this is shit.” Some people like Kartik identified this early on — a lot of people were doing what he was doing, but the way he did it was so good that he stood out. It's the same with Bode.
It’s just now that we’re really realizing how important these things can be internationally.
E: Where does your inspiration come from for your tailoring and coats? There's a high shouldered trench coat on your Instagram that’s so specific and beautiful.
We look at our work as a proposal for the future. We may use textiles that come from the past, but we keep it very clear that this is being built for tomorrow. The trench coat that you see — the fabric is a yak’s wool used to make tents in the Tibetan plateau. It's a waterproof, hand-felted, hand-woven yak’s wool. We wanted to turn that into a very functional garment. The high shoulders and the neck cover are there because I have a cold allergy. When I go in the cold, I get hives all over my neck if I don't cover it up. It’s made for functionality which, in turn, aligns with the overall design ethos of the brand.
C: I meant to ask this earlier, but how long has Outbreak Lab been active for?
We were active for two years, but we had two more partners in the business who were handling the design and production side. However, we restarted with just Saysha, Arnav, and myself in January with our FW25 collection after breaking ties with them last August.
Now, we’re almost done with our second collection.
C: What have been some of the challenges, or obstacles, that you’ve faced since inception?
It was definitely getting in the right doors, meeting people. Once I came to Paris, I realized “the whole world is here, everyone is here, everyone I see on Instagram is here”. If your work is good, then it speaks for itself. As of now, we're not really facing any problems.
C: Edward and I both noticed that, with Outbreak, it's received a lot more reception after Paris. Since your FW25 showroom, have things kind of changed for you and the brand? Have you had more buyers reach-out?
We got two stores in January.
One is in Denmark called Achtung. It's on an island two hours away from Copenhagen, and people go there specifically to shop. The other is 24th of August in Osaka.
C: Are there any specific markets that you’re prioritizing breaking into?
Japan is definitely one of those markets. The second would be the US and Canada, and Europe in general. Pretty much everywhere, honestly. We have about 25 buyers from all around the world already ready to book an appointment for next season –
E & C: Wow.
Next year you guys will see us in a lot of places.
C: I hope so. There’s a technical aspect to the brand that I feel would be highly appreciated in North America with brands like Post Archive Faction, Greg Laboratory getting great reception. However, you bring a twist to it where it's a technical look, but with natural fabrics and materials.
“We look at our work as a proposal for the future. We may use textiles that come from the past, but we keep it very clear that this is being built for tomorrow.”
E: When it comes to the design process themselves, do you guys tend to co-design/draft everything? Is it just you two [Divyam and Saysha] working the brand?
It's Saysha, Arnav and myself. We have been very good friends for as long as we remember. Saysha mainly handles the design and production because everything is being produced at her father's factory. Her dad is an exporter, and she sort of grew up on the shop floor. She learned how to draft patterns when she was literally 5 years old.
We all agree on things and have discussions, but she leads design. I lead presentations and the overall business side of things, and Arnav manages the back end, and handles presentations with me as well.
E: Growing up around that is such a great story.
C: Throughout the call, you’ve mentioned family ties with the brand. How is it working with family?
We are being treated exactly how you would treat a third-party buyer. We definitely have an advantage because we have access to my family's resources. I know the right people, but on the business side, it works exactly how any business would work.
It's no different.
C: What are the main objectives for the next five-or-so years? What do you want to achieve?
We will be launching a public atelier/invite only store in Delhi after our showroom at PFW this summer. Afterwards, the objectives would be to improve our presentation, improve our distribution, and to build on our research, which our work is driven by.
Sometimes we forget to document this on our socials. We're working, we're developing new ideas, and we forget to show that. So, we want to get better at that and give you a look into what we’re doing.
E: Being so appreciative of what you're doing that you forget to post on Instagram – that's a good problem to have.
Also, I want to add that we're also looking for an LVMH nomination by the end of this year. That's one of our big goals, and we're looking at more collaborations. We did attend Milan Design Week with Anda Ba by Armaan Bansal. We supplied fabrics for his furniture and we're looking to obtain more opportunities for furniture design because that is a line that we want to expand into. It will be a part of our future fossil gallery — furniture, shoes, etc. You're going to see a lot more shoes — especially handmade shoes — this season.
Basically, all of our designs come from a very futuristic angle as everything else is derived from the past. The shoulders, the cuts — I wanted to design in a way that people can interact with them as they're interacting in their daily lives.
If you've seen Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectures, he pulls a lot of his inspiration from nature and the surroundings that he's present in. How it interacts is the essence of his installations, and the pieces that he creates.
C: I read that you used NASA scans of an asteroid as inspiration for some of your pieces. Could you tell me more about that process and how it influenced your work?
Saysha had been pushing me to make buttons with rocks for the last two years. This ties back to our philosophy of using 3D printing as a way to explore concepts visually — in this case, by taking open-source asteroid scans from NASA, transforming them into buttons, and 3D printing them. This led us to making buttons with real rocks over the next two seasons. So, in a way, we're using the latest tech and we're heading back, and seeing that as progress.
We're also working on jewelry with rocks this season. I mean, they're going to be 3D printed, but yeah.
C: How do you find working in the fashion industry today? I feel like it's just kind of evolved so drastically over time with social media, and then very recently with things like the US tariffs debacle.
It took us some time to understand the business side of things, but I still feel that it's a great business to be in. Of course, some things do hinder the creative process. For example, the pressure to be active online, or to put out two collections a year.
Why can't I put out one collection? Why can't I put out five collections?
Those things do hinder your abilities. I was just thinking about this a few days ago — how making money off of something really limits how good you can be. Those are the things that bother me, but at the same time, we're living in the real world. We have to make money. We have to do everything we can to be successful, and for the next 6 months, that's one of the biggest things that we have to do. We're building a team for that.
C: How is Western fashion perceived in India? You mentioned how you’ve grown desensitized with what the Western world considers as innovative.
With international fashion, we have all the same mainstream brands, but the reason why it has less of an impact on our landscape is because we have a 52% tariff on American products. Imported fashion is growing — brands are starting to become available, but available only at a 1.5x markup. However, we have many incredible Indian designers who actually have no aspirations to go international. They only do it for the Indian market.
For young brands like ours trying to establish ourselves in the West, it’s challenging — but we’re supporting each other along the way. For example, this shirt that I'm wearing is from Rkive City. He creates clothes from up-cycled garments, has a beautiful store, and he's trying to show in Paris this season. There's no sense of competition — we're all just trying to make it out here, and if we support one another, it becomes easier for everyone.
C: Are you open to working with a company like SSENSE, who’s recently had their massive buys from small brands scrutinized? Or do you prefer working with smaller businesses?
This time in Paris, I realized that I cannot sell our clothes to any buyers that I don't form a personal connection with. With SSENSE, I know even if they buy a lot — for the first two seasons, they won’t be able to sell it. So, maybe not right now, but maybe after a few seasons we'll be open to that.
Having good buyers is very important for me from a business standpoint because I want to build more long-term partnerships.
I was just thinking about this a few days ago — how making money off of something really limits how good you can be.
C: Is there a dream project of yours with Outbreak? Whether it's, say, an article of clothing, a collection, collaboration, etc.
Saysha and I were researching fabrics, and we came across about 30 textiles that are naturally coloured. Over the next two to three years, we want to put out a collection which is completely undyed, but is colourful. That is something that we are passively working towards, but it's not the immediate goal. We would want to do a collection like this when we have a calendar show in Paris, or some other big event.
For now, we're developing it and setting it aside for later.
C: That's going to be a showstopper if you do that. We've mentioned how much of a deep dive you do into your research, into fabrics, into inspiration — NASA space rocks for example. What else is in your day-to-day routine?
It’s different for each of us. Ara and Say are primarily focused on Outbreak, while I split my time between Outbreak and my environmental science business. Honestly, a lot of my knowledge comes from that business — I’m able to bring ideas to Outbreak because I’m learning them there.
I mean, it's a bunch of boring corporate projects — we’re helping companies set up their factories in India, and we’re working in Germany with some government projects. Despite this, I feel like everything I'm doing in my life is aligned.
It’s two different things both working towards the same goal.
To learn more about Outbreak Lab, you can visit their Instagram and website. Also, huge ups to Haider from Gathering for putting me in touch with the Outbreak team.
Thanks for reading!
Your support is greatly appreciated as I continue working towards growing this newsletter and slowly turning it into something bigger. The end goal is to turn this into a publication, featuring interviews with individuals in fashion, covering collections and shows, etc. Maybe we can make it to fashion week again - who knows.
If you can, please like, subscribe, and share this publication.
Love ya.
- Chris
Thanks for this interview - now I am binging the rest of your Substack and looking forward to more
Just a tiny nitpick - I think you mean Post Archive Faction and not Fashion; also independent Indian fashion design - Turn Black might be of interest to you ?