Many times, our collaborators are massive, legendary properties like Batman or The Shining or Hello Kitty that we work on for years, cultural icons that everyone and their mother is familiar with. But other times, it gives us just as much joy — if not more — to introduce our community to something entirely different, a brand new and unique look at the world through the lens of a creator they have likely never seen or heard from before.

Right now, we’re doing the latter.

On one fateful day back in April, it all went down in the DMs. A message caught the eye of Bobby Hundreds and sparked a conversation that led us all the way here, to an entire capsule within our Spring 2021 collection. The person on the other end of that message was Prakhar Chauhan, a 24-year-old designer based out of New Delhi.

When Prakhar decided to reach out to Bobby, it was 3 AM in his neck of the woods and he had just finished our co-founder’s book, This Is Not a T-Shirt. Filled with inspiration and a desire for even more insight and direction, he went right to the source.

What happened next was serendipitous, the kind of instant payoff Prakhar couldn’t have seen coming, even in his wildest dreams. Not only did he get the critique he sought but it was positive and netted him a follow-back. Then, two days later, after Bobby had shown Prakhar’s work to the rest of our team, our new friend in New Delhi got a follow-up message from Los Angeles with a request to work together.

This week, The Hundreds is releasing a few very special pieces in collaboration with prxkhxr, Chauhan’s brand. The textiles-focused label works with beautiful, one-of-a-kind prints that bring a modern flair to timeless art. According to Prakhar, the artwork he creates for these prints is “all developed in-house from scratch – ranging from themes like favourite animals of mine to the works of Satyajit Ray.”

We caught up with Prakhar ahead of the capsule’s release to learn a little bit more about him, his brand, and the streetwear scene in India.

Can you tell us a little bit about your brand and how it came to be?
I started my brand, unofficially, when I was in my last semester of design school, National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, studying textile design. 

For one of our classes, we were asked to make a print-based apparel collection and put up an exhibition. I found myself gravitating towards a shirt as my blank canvas, which continues to be my favourite product category. One of my batch mates (thanks Namita!) really liked a shirt and asked to buy it, which gave me the right push to start considering this as something I can do full time. I’ve been doing it ever since! 

I officially registered the brand once I graduated in late 2019. Not wanting to waste any time, I chose my IG username at that time, ‘prxkhxr’ as my brand name.

What kind of brands or artists inspire you, and how do you incorporate your influences into your work?
As a 90s kid, growing up in a globalizing India, I was highly influenced by the American culture, their shows, and movies. I spent most of my free time on weekends watching Pimp My Ride, NBA, Hip-hop Hustle, which is what I believe started my obsession with sneakers. I am heavily inspired by music – hip-hop to be particular. I grew up listening to Lil Wayne, Eminem, and Timbaland on my cheap Nokia. Once I got into design school, I was introduced to a whole new world of art and design, and really liked everything by Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, and Dries Van Noten. To this day, I haven’t been able to perfect a method of deriving original works that combine all of these influences, so that’s something I am working on.

Is a collaboration like this one with The Hundreds something you’ve done before or was this uncharted territory for you? What are some of the challenges when designing something for a different audience than the one you’re normally engaging with?
This was the first time I was collaborating with a brand as big as The Hundreds, so it was a little daunting at first. However, when everything went so smoothly, I felt right at ease. Having worked on different projects in design school with independent-minded creatives from various fields, I felt ready to design something based on the audience The Hundreds targets. I would say that the only thing which made things tougher was probably the time difference and having to work online-only. I really like to feel things in hand instead of digitally, so that was a minor hiccup in the otherwise great experience.

Why was it so important to you for these pieces to be gender-neutral?
In this day and age, when everyone is celebrated for being who they are, I feel it’s very important for designers to inculcate this into our practices. It’s not only a direct way of showing our support but also makes the person who’s buying the clothes feel more liberated since they’re not being asked to fit themselves into a particular box.

How has streetwear grown in India in recent years?
The local streetwear scene in India seems to be on a rise. Although a lot of people and enthusiasts were aware of streetwear, with Indian celebrities embracing it, in recent times, it has reached more people and made them curious. As a result, a lot of local brands, including mine, have popped up, catering to their particular niche audiences. I hope this collaboration will open a new road to bridging the gap between India and the global streetwear scene.

What was 2020 like in New Delhi?
I still remember the day when news broke about the first COVID case here in Delhi. I was sitting with a couple of my friends, just talking and chilling. None of us had any idea of how drastically it would affect our lives. I count myself lucky to have been able to use all this time to work on my brand, from making a new website to working on new packaging for my products. The best thing to happen during the whole lockdown was that I got the time to read a lot of books, one being, This Is Not a T-shirt. That’s when I decided to reach out to Bobby and everything just fell into place. So even though 2020 sucked, I had my fair share of personal wins.

What were some of the challenges you faced personally and as a brand?
Being the only employee of the brand, the most challenging thing is that sometimes it all gets too much to handle at once. Juggling between designing, sourcing materials, handling shipments and customers, learning how to make a website and handling PR, gets too hectic sometimes. There’s too much to do and too little time! But all said and done, this whole experience has been really enriching for me as an individual – meeting new people and learning new things that I wasn’t aware of before. 

What are you focusing on this year?
This year my goal is to travel as much as I can and meet new people.

What’s next for the brand?
My next step for the brand is to set up a proper studio space near the place where my production currently happens. I want to gradually build a group of talented people to help me run the brand. I feel like there are a lot of things that I can improve, so I’ve been constantly working on those and I hope to resolve them soon. Apart from that, I want to explore further possibilities of collaborating with like-minded brands and people as well, because that’s what the world thrives on!