Meet our founders

We're a woman-of-color business founded by a mother-daughter duo

Sonya Suri

Chief Executive Officer

Trisha Suri

Chief Marketing Officer

The story of how we got started

Our story starts nearly 30 years ago...

August 1993
Co-Founder Sonya showcases Nalli Silks at the FIA booth in Fremont, California. It was hugely successful and she went on to open the first Nalli store in San Jose, California exactly like the famous Nalli in T Nagar Chennai, India.
August 2014
After 25 years of successfully running the US operations for Nalli, Sonya is invited to Lakmé Fashion Week in Mumbai and meets Masaba, Anita Dongre, Sabyasachi, Manish Malhotra and many more.
SEE THE ARTICLE
August 2018
Cofounder Trisha graduates with her Master's in Design from Carnegie Mellon University and comes onboard.

Trisha joins Sonya at Lakmé Fashion Week where they both decide to launch Urban Panache. Trisha goes on to launch an ecommerce site and designs the interior for the first boutique location for Urban Panache in Mountain View, California.

“We had discussed many different names for the business and leaned into Urban Panache. It was inspired by our love of brands like Free People, Urban Outfitters with a little flair. And mostly, we were inspired by the stunning runway looks at Lakmé and felt we wanted to see more Indianwear in an American setting.”

Trisha, Co-founder and CMO of Urban Panache

July 2019
Sonya hosts the first popup for Urban Panache and brings the beautiful and talented, Masaba Gupta, herself, to do a meet and greet. The event brings in a few thousand people from all over the US.
Read about the EVENT HERE

"Hosting Masaba on her first visit to the Bay Area was truly an honor. It also gave me the confidence to pursue a venture on my own. This was the turning point for launching my own startup”

Sonya, Co-founder of Urban Panache

March 2020
The world shuts down. Sonya and Trisha decide to shut down the retail location, focusing on ecommerce. However, there is still a huge demand to view collections in person.

During lockdown, everything was quiet because no one could come together. During this time, Trisha pursues a leadership role in tech, managing a product design team, launching a few software products, and going through her first series B & C investment rounds.

June 2023
After spending time apart, Sonya and Trisha begin to plan their next moves and rekindle a new strategy for Urban Panache.

The cofounders wanted to branch out and host emerging artists, creatives, and designers. This led to popups where they paired Jewelry designers with up and coming fashion designers. The success of these events made the two of them realize they wanted to expand these retail experiences to multiple markets in the US. And thus, they decided to go on tour.

Today
Today Urban Panache is reinventing the retail experience. Our goal is to bring people together around our love of culture and our heritage. We are actively building community, while inspiring all generations to pursue their creative dreams, and to interact and connect in real life.

If our mission resonates with you, let's be friends! 

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Trusted by World Class Brands

Our Mission

Showcase Emerging Brands

Urban Panache curates the shopping experience to allow people to talk with, meet, and support the brands and designers they love. This helps our brands provide exceptional service, and places value on quality, craft, and beautifully made products and garments.

Inspire Uniqueness

We are always here to support people in expressing themselves, which is why we offer custom options for garments. See something you liked online and not quite sure if it will look the same in person? Let our experts help.

Innovate Retail

We help bridge the gap between online shopping and IRL. Coming soon! The ability to shop the looks you love at our popups directly on our website.

Celebrate Diversity

We showcase woman-owned, POC & LGBTQ+ owned brands. We also welcome all walks of life from all ages to our shows.

Drive Local Community

Boost your local economy by attending our events. We would love to drive business to local emerging brands. Interested in selling with? Reach out! 

The numbers so far

3k+
people have shopped at our pop-ups
50+
well-known and emerging brands are showcased
$1m+
has been spent at our pop up events
95%
of our customers are women of color

Let's be friends! 

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Subscribe to our mailing list and give us a follow on Instagram to keep up to date on the latest popup shops and community gatherings in your area

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