Fashion
Sitting down with Masaba Gupta feels like catching up with a friend who has somehow managed to build multiple fashion and beauty empires between coffee dates. The designer, celebrity, and Netflix star moves through conversations with a focused energy, always circling back to the people who wear her clothes and live their lives in her designs.
When asked what inspired her to launch a fine jewellery line, her answer was refreshingly human. For her, it wasn’t a single “aha” moment. She thinks about the life stages of the women who follow her brand. She sees them as companions on a shared journey.
“They’ve evolved with me,” Masaba notes. They started with her iconic quirky kitchen prints, moved into home decor, and embraced imitation jewellery. Fine jewellery felt like the natural, next step in that story. She watches the women around her, the ones earning their own money and living their lives out loud, and simply listens. “I see that, oh, she needs something new now,” she says. “That’s how the decision really makes itself.” She sees a shift where jewellery is no longer a special occasion item. It’s for every day, for layering, for expressing yourself even with a simple white shirt.
This connection to her audience is now viewed through the powerful lens of motherhood. Becoming a parent, she finds, has rewired her with a new kind of courage.
“Motherhood sort of makes you braver,” she shares. Tackling something as daunting as having a baby makes everything else seem possible. “It makes you feel a bit superhuman.” This feeling has a direct impact on her work. “I no longer have the patience for bullshit,” she states with a frank laugh. That newfound clarity has turned her into a more focused, and by her own admission, a “harder boss.” Time is no longer an endless resource. She guards the emotional bandwidth she wants for her daughter, which means work hours are for pure, undiluted focus. “It’s all about everyone just pull up your socks and do your stuff,” she says.
This philosophy of direct, honest empowerment is what she recently took to the Ladies Who Lead summit in Dubai. She describes a room where women could have “real, honest conversations about real problems.” For Masaba, that shared space is everything. “Women feel empowered to speak their truth when they hear other women speak their truth,” she says. “We’re all going through the same set of problems, just at different stages.”
It’s a wisdom she wishes she could gift her 20-year-old self. Her advice would be straightforward. “Be a lot more vocal about what you really want.”
She remembers her younger self as shy, worried her ideas wouldn’t sound intelligent enough. “I feel sorry for not being as outspoken as I am today back then,” she confesses. She believes that putting all your cards on the table, even if a dream feels silly, is what the universe responds to. That early hesitation, she feels, led to unnecessary hurdles. “You have to be very, very clear,” she emphasizes, “especially in relationships.”
As for what’s next, the path is bustling. She has major goals for her beauty brand, LoveChild, aiming to make it a problem-solving line for Indian skin tones and a voice for the underrepresented. But a new, more personal goal is taking shape.
After 16 years of relentless creation, Masaba feels a pull to be more conscious. “I want to absorb everything I’ve built,” she explains. The timeline of her life has become a blur of back-to-back launches. She doesn’t want to slow down, she clarifies with a smile, knowing it’s not in her nature. But she is determined to move forward with more intention, making sure every new step carries deep meaning for her and the brands she is building. It’s the final evolution of her story, learning to build not just for the woman she designs for, but for the woman she is steadily becoming.
Images: Supplied & Feature Image: Supplied
