Dhivya Balasubramanian is a Seattle-based fashion designer who recently launched her first DHIVYA BALA formalwear collection, Draped in History — Six Meters in Silhouettes. She was born and raised in South India and has been in Seattle since 2014. Balasubramanian is a maximalist who loves fashion and interior design. When off the clock, she loves to go antiquing and vintage shopping (collecting vintage tea cups) and to cook.
Seattle Refined: What do fashion and style mean to you in terms of art?
Balasubramanian: The clothes we wear — and the way we wear them — are the art of self-expression. There’s a real creativity to assembling a look that’s both visually interesting and flattering to your body. For me personally, fashion and style are also how I keep my culture alive: when I incorporate Indian fabrics, colors, and design sensibility into what I wear and what I create, I carry a piece of where I come from with me every day.
As a designer, I see fashion the way I see any serious art form — it has both a technical and a creative dimension. The construction, pattern-making, and draping require a precise understanding of how to build something three-dimensional from a two-dimensional paper pattern. And then there’s the purely artistic side: bringing together colors, fabrics, and silhouettes in a way that looks extraordinary on a real body. The two are inseparable for me.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
How long have you been designing? What kind of fashion do you design?
I’ve been a dressmaker since 2013. I create custom garments that are classic in design and construction but deeply personal in character — everything from a simple tunic to a full gown. My design language is a blend of east and west: I use Indian textiles, particularly pre-loved saris, and transform them into contemporary silhouettes. The result is clothing that carries both cultural traditions at once, which feels like an honest expression of who I am and the dual world I inhabit.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
Tell us about your business.
I run a made-to-order, made-to-measure design studio in Queen Anne, Seattle. Every garment I create is custom — designed in conversation with the client, cut to their exact measurements, finished by hand in my atelier. No two pieces are ever alike.
Sustainability is woven into every stage of my process — not as a marketing point, but as a founding value. I work extensively with pre-loved Indian saris, giving these beautiful textiles a second life as gowns and cocktail dresses. New fabric is sourced in small batches, either directly from India or from local retailers here in the US, and I work almost exclusively with natural materials: silks, cottons, rayons. Every scrap left over from the creation process is saved and repurposed — into packaging, patchwork bags, cushion covers, or even a bustier.
But the heart of the studio is the experience of having something made just for you. Clients don’t just commission a garment — they’re part of creating it. Many of them come back again and again, and those relationships are honestly one of my favorite things about this work.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
Can you tell us about your artistic process and how the different stages work?
It almost always begins with the fabric. It may be a pre-loved sari from my collection, brought to me by a client, or sometimes the fabrics I have purchased on a sourcing trip to India, and the textile itself becomes the brief. The weight of the silk, the pattern, the colors, the details in the trim: all of it tells me what the garment wants to become.
From there, I move into conversation with the client. We talk about their body, their occasion, and their style preferences. I drape and sketch, working out how the fabric’s natural properties — its drape, its luster, its structure — can be shaped into a silhouette that works for them specifically. Then comes the technical work: pattern-making using French couture methods, client fittings with a muslin sample, and finally cutting and sewing the garment with couture finishings that make it feel as exquisite on the inside as it looks on the outside. The final fitting is always my favorite moment — when the client can’t stop looking at themselves in the mirror, I know I have given them everything that was on their wishlist and more!
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
Tell us about where the inspiration for your styling and designs comes from.
My aesthetic is east meets west, modern meets traditional — and that tension is where I feel most creatively alive. Most of the time, the fabric or the sari is where it starts. The style of the weave, the fabric content, the patterns, and colors — these become both the inspiration and the guide for what can be created from it.
I’m also deeply inspired by fashion history. My current collection, Draped in History, is a direct expression of that: eight iconic Western silhouettes — from a Regency-era jacket to YSL’s Le Smoking Suit from the ’60s — each reimagined in a pre-loved Indian sari. It’s a conversation between cultures and across centuries, written in silk.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
What fashion icons have inspired you?
I’m deeply inspired by Indian designers who have built an unmistakable design language rooted in heritage and craft — Sabyasachi, Rahul Mishra, and Payal Khandwala are some of my favorites. They’ve shown the world how to put cultural identity and traditional artisanship front and center.
On the Western side, I’m drawn to designers who balance femininity with a strong point of view: Stacey Bendet of Alice and Olivia, Zimmermann, Erdem, Gucci, and Chanel. What they share is a commitment to craft and to a very specific, recognizable aesthetic — which is ultimately what I’m working toward with my own label.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
What experiences in your life have affected your designing and business?
Growing up in Kerala, South India shaped everything about the kind of designer I became and the business I wanted to build. One of my favorite things as a kid was going with my mother to the tailor’s shop — a bundle of fabrics under our arms, flipping through pattern books, collaborating with the tailor on a design. We had everyday pieces made this way: dresses, skirts, tunics, and later sari blouses and lehengas for special occasions. When collection day arrived, there was real excitement in seeing your idea come to life — and real anxiety, because sometimes the fit or the construction was a complete disaster.
Those experiences gave me both a love for the made-to-order process and a very clear vision for how it could be done better. When I completed fashion school in San Francisco and my internship at Marchesa in New York, I chose not to join the corporate fashion world or launch a label producing set volumes of identical pieces. I wanted to create a studio where clients could be genuinely part of the creation process — choosing their fabrics, designing their silhouette, and walking out with something made for their exact measurements by someone with the technical skill to get it right. The delight of that process, without the disaster, where the anticipation always ends in joy!
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
If we want to see more of your work, where should we look?
My website, www.dhivyabala.com, has the full collection and studio information. And Instagram — @dhivyabala.designstudio — is where you’ll find the behind-the-scenes: what’s on the table in the studio right now, client projects taking shape, and the occasional sneak peek from sourcing trips.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
What is next for you? Anything you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?
My debut collection, Draped in History — Six Meters in Silhouettes, launches this spring, and I am excited to showcase it this April at the launch event. It’s eight looks, each built from a pre-loved Indian sari reimagined as an iconic Western silhouette — from a Grecian gown to a Dior cocktail dress to YSL’s Le Smoking Suit. It’s the most personal work I’ve made, and I can’t wait to share it.
Beyond the collection, the heart of what I do is always the same: bringing dream garments to life for the women who trust me with their vision.
Image: Courtesy of{ }Dhivya Balasubramanian)
Lastly, how do you take your coffee? (We ask everyone!)
South Indian filter coffee!
About ‘Artist of the Week’: This city is packed with artists we love to feature weekly on Seattle Refined! If you have a local artist in mind that you would like to see featured, let us know at hello@seattlerefined.com. And if you’re wondering just what constitutes art, that’s the beauty of it; it’s up to you! See all of our past Artists of the Week in our dedicated section.