*(I have just included a snippet of Aishwarya's interview because the full version was too large upload)

Aishwarya Kumar is a designer from Delhi. While she grew up in Kerala and was used to speaking Malayalam, she moved to New Delhi when she married her husband, Kabir Singh. She moved to the United States in 2021 with her husband and three children. This was not her first time in the United States, however. 

Aishwarya's connection to the United States began long before she settled here. She earned her undergraduate degree from Pepperdine University, giving her an early foothold in American life that would later ease her return. Decades later, in 2021, she made the more permanent move to the United States alongside her husband and their three children, bringing with her not just her family but her business and her creative vision.

Now based in New York, Aishwarya has built her professional life around fashion, specifically, the traditional Indian art of block printing, a centuries-old craft technique she has carried with her from the subcontinent. Her work sits at the intersection of her heritage and contemporary design, translating a deeply regional Indian tradition for a global and particularly New York audience. The move has not been without its complications, however. Navigating the U.S. visa system has presented significant challenges for her immigration status, introducing legal and logistical hurdles that many immigrant entrepreneurs face when trying to establish or transfer a creative enterprise across borders.

– Mira Goodman

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant