Not too long ago, love was a feeling too vast for words. However, cut to today’s time, love, depending on the relationship dynamics you’re in, is boxed into breakcrumbing, fizzling, submarining, situationships and an endless trail of terms. What was meant to be free-flowing now stays overexposed to expectations, guarded strongly by “boundaries” and prone to trust-deficit. But, deep-down we all crave that kind of love that makes our hearts flutter. One that lets us surrender, tear down our inner-walls and embrace it unconditionally.
Capturing this intensity and vulnerability of the first affection, designer couple Harkaran Boparai & Sukhleen Kaur, have launched their new couture accessory brand HB World. It’s marked by their debut collection ‘Young Love’ featuring 21 distinct pieces including sculpted leather wallets, slim card holders, leather handbags, hand-hemmed silk scarves, stoles and twillies, statement accessories, and hand-tufted carpets.
Standing in front of ‘Young Love’s’ moodboard in their Vasant Vihar studio, we were mesmerised by little totems of love punctuated on the board in a collage. From a monochrome dancing couple to cinematic romance, heart-shaped cappuccinos, and pink rose bouquets, each picture evoked a montage of sweet memories. The moodboard also featured products from the ‘Young Love’ collection. A card holder like ‘Trifold Billionaire Card Holder’ revealed a pressed Ecuadorian rose motif within in a quiet homage to love’s enduring imprint. ‘The Bond Girl’ scarf took inspiration from an imagined romantic encounter between a hard machismo and a bond girl who meet on a 1980 summer flight to Paris. Their meet-up was sealed onto a mulberry silk scarf where rococo scrolls meet jet-age pinstripes.
However, it was the The Ageless Mini bag which captivated us for its imagined backstory. “Inspired by the old custom where long departures from your loved ones were symbolised with a collection of stamps and coins, this one is the showstopper of the ‘Young Love’ collection. Showcasing a beautiful brass cut-to mm coin embroidery on one side, this is a petite bag and an eye attraction for everyone,” says Boparai giving us a walk-through of the new collection on display.
Inspiration in intimacy
In an increasingly fractured world, ‘Young Love’ rekindles hope. It lets one live through the euphoria of being touched by love for the first time! “The collection is inspired by the moment when two strangers meet eyes and everything else fades away. This fleeting connection, suspended in time, becomes the emotional anchor for the collection,” tells Boparai with a bright smile, adding that he and Kaur have been motivated by stillness, quietness, love and romance. “From the old settings of the 1980s, the peace and yet the fervour of those times, all of it inspires us. We both believe in making HB World into a dogma for those who want love and those who want to change the world.”
Co-founder Kaur passionately tells us about the pieces steeped in softness and wonder by their look and feel. “The sculpted nappa leather used in the making represents strength and commitment, while mulberry silk carries the shimmer of early tenderness. The colour palette moves from soft blush to inky twilight, echoing the deepening of emotion through the course of a day. Every stitch, fold, and seam begins with the same guiding question: Are we serving love?”
Exclusivity in Purity
The collection was brought to life in two years as both Boparai and Kaur wanted to source only the “purest” materials followed by a haute couture approach. “The wallets and bags are made from full-grain nappa leather that allow both structure and softness. Slim card holders are crafted from premium sheepskin. All silk scarves and stoles are made from 100% mulberry satin silk, chosen for its lustre and drape. The carpets are woven from 100% hand-tufted wool, prized for its plush resilience and tactile warmth,” Boparai tells us as we gazed at the carpets on display bearing immaculate tensile strength.
Beyond the tactility and strength, we were also allured by the plush colours in ‘Young Love’ . They mirror the emotional spectrum of early intimacy. “The palette moves from soft blush tones to deep twilight shades, representing the progression of affection from its gentle beginnings to a steadier, richer connection. The warm, nude tones evoke vulnerability and openness, while the darker hues, such as lip-red and black, suggest intensity, mystery, and permanence,” Kaur tells us on the symbolic colour transitions.
Next on the cards
Harkaran Boparai Studio (HBS) is a Delhi-based global architecture brand started in 2017. With HB World, the brand name has expanded to a couture line not as a shift in direction but an expansion of Boparai’s design philosophy. “As the Founder of HBS, my architectural journey has always been shaped by emotion, memory, and permanence. With HB World, that same ethos is carried forward into a more intimate scale. Alongside my co-founder, Sukhleen Kaur, I imagined a space where the emotion of love could be rendered through crafted objects.”
Telling us what’s next in HB World, Kaur shares that the focus is on quality rather than quantity. The brand will soon drop its Fall-Winter 2025 collection, followed by a standalone flagship of the brand. “The next collection is going to be an even more daring one and challenge the notions around how we see love as humans,” Kaur adds with a glimmer in her eyes.
