The life of a businesswoman on the eve of her store launch is…..well, chaotic. For the last few days, Rhea Chakraborty, her brother Showik and their team have been at their newly launched store in Bandra till at least 4 am, setting up everything.
The collection, even for someone who wasn’t briefed but has the slightest idea of what the siblings have gone through in the last few years, is an amalgamation of their lived experience.
Picture the text from three t-shirt samples at their store:
– Cancelled, with a bunny with wearing headphones on the backside.
– Unherd
– Anti-everything
Take the first one, for example; ‘Cancelled’ signifies literally what most celebrities and even non-famous folk have experienced in recent times. With faceless morons increasing by the day on the internet, cancel culture grew. And to say that Rhea was cancelled, well, was an understatement; she was literally buried alive.
But what does that bunny with headphones mean?
“When you’re cancelled, become a bunny with headphones; just shut out all the noise around you. The opposite of love isn’t hate for me, it’s indifference. Everyone is getting cancelled today, even children! So through this collection, we try to express in a cool, non-aggressive manner that we’re indifferent,” Rhea told us during our conversation at the launch.
The launch saw her close circle drop by, including Karishma Tanna, Anusha Dandekar, Neha Dhupia, Angad Bedi, Fatima Sana Shaikh, Munawar Faruqui, Saqib Saleem, Shibani Dandekar, Ira Khan and her husband Nupur Shikhare, Lakshmi Manchu and others.
Called Chapter 2 Drip, the unisex streetwear label founded by Rhea and Showik opened its first retail store on Linking Road, Bandra. The launch marks a significant milestone in the brand’s journey, which began in August 2024 as a bold celebration of second chances, self-expression, and cultural reinvention.
This launch follows the successful closure of a seed funding round led by Ashni Biyani and Kishore Biyani, who have come on board as mentors. The round was raised at a valuation of Rs. 12.5 crore, with Rs. 1 crore invested for 8% equity. The store also has Chapter 2 Brew, the brand’s in-house coffee concept.
How this venture does in the future only time will tell, but for the time being, the one thing that can be said is that the theme line of her brand certainly fits: Chapter 2: Write Your Own Sequel. I guess that’s something all of us who’ve got second chances can think about.
