Win a Wall Hanging by Rouka

About the Prize:

To mark the opening of their new store in Kochi, Kerala, ROUKA is giving away a wall hanging from their limited-edition 2019 collection – part of a series created from repurposed textile remnants salvaged from the brand’s saree production. This artwork – an appliqué wall hanging measuring 182 x 107 cm, reimagines discarded fabric into a vivid red banana tree motif. The bold red palette and striking scale will make a confident colour statement in your home.

Worth £300.

About Rouka:

ROUKA was born in 2013, gently, in my grandfather’s old house embraced by its two huge mango trees — a 1960s bungalow with four bedrooms and a garage that looked out onto the road. For a Malayalee who had travelled far and wide, it was everything I needed to feel anchored again. I remember asking him to leave it just the way it was. The red oxide floors were polished back to life, and the laterite walls, worn by time, were softened with layer upon layer of white.

That red and white- became the colours of ROUKA. They became my refuge, my language, my beginning. And so, when the new store began to take shape, this was my first certainty: it had to be red and white. It had to feel like home.

But slowly, something else began to unfold. I found myself tying everything back to this space. It became a kind of compass. Each journey, each moment—whether wandering through a busy market , watching the old world ceilings  inside Durbar Hall, or standing in prayer before the crimson drapes of a Syrian Christian church—would quietly whisper its way into the design. It became instinctive. Organic. A stream that refused to stop flowing.

The store now holds these fragments — an eclectic, emotional layering of memories. A reclaimed Art Deco cash desk. Vintage wooden chairs, softened by time but quirked up with embroidered typography. Bold lines of graphic art beside red velvet curtains. Concrete flower that coexist with jasmine garlands, held by the fragile hands of a statue of Rukmini, still and serene. Whimsy sits beside reverence. Play meets philosophy.

This space, like everything I create, feels deeply vernacular but entirely personal. It sees culture not as a museum, but as something living — something that breathes through carved wood and red oxide, through brass hooks and the lilt of embroidered thread. It’s a conversation between past and present, stitched gently together by hand.

People often ask if our store is in Fort Kochi — because it feels like it should be. But it’s here, in the heart of Ernakulam, a stone’s throw from the Durbar Hall Art Gallery, one of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale’s treasured spaces. That juxtaposition feels just right. ROUKA has always lived in the space between — a nostalgic new, a modern old. One foot in memory, one in the now.

Over time, we’ve questioned what sustainability means. And we’ve come to feel that it lives in the idea of timelessness. In a rhythm that resists urgency. Like our clothes, the pieces that fill this space are meant to endure. To belong. Furniture crafted from reclaimed wood, objects chosen not to impress, but to remain.

ROUKA means corridor. And I’ve always seen us as just that—a space that connects. I hope this store becomes a place of quiet nurture, of exchange and dialogue. A space where other voices, other brands, other dreams find room to grow. Where people don’t just buy clothes, but carry home pieces of our philosophy.

Much of the art on the walls, like the mango tree and the jackfruit trees, were born within our studio, and one day, I hope that everything here—every stitch, every object—can echo that spirit. That you can take it home and make it yours. 

I keep saying that Kerala modern has a classical side—and a quirky one. One that adds a wink, a curve, a flicker of delight. That’s what I hope this store brings too. A place of joy. A space that lingers in the heart. Now, and for years to come.

Further Information:

Website

Instagram

Image Credits:

All images courtesy of Rouka.