Design Matinee · Est. 2018, Meerut
The house behind the outfit
Founded by Ojasvi Agarwal in a rented room in 2018. Twenty-two people today, every stage under one roof on Abu Lane.
Founder
Ojasvi Agarwal
Founder and head designer. Meerut, since 2018.
Ojasvi Agarwal completed her fashion design studies at Vidya College of Engineering in March 2018, having already worked behind the scenes on a handful of fashion shows — enough to learn the part of the craft nobody in the audience ever sees. The garment that looks effortless on the runway is the one that was fitted most carefully off it.
Her first commission arrived within months: a bride’s trousseau, stitched in a rented room. Seven years on she leads a team of twenty-two on Abu Lane, and still sees every outfit through herself — measurements, fittings, final finish.
“A woman shouldn’t have to adjust herself to fit an outfit. The outfit should be made to fit her.” Ojasvi Agarwal, Founder
Ideology
Ready-made clothing asks a woman to compromise — to hold the dupatta a certain way, to accept that the waist is close enough. Ojasvi’s answer has never changed: cut the garment to the woman, not the woman to the garment. Everything else at Design Matinee follows from that one decision.
Mission
To make made-to-measure ordinary rather than exceptional. A woman in Meerut should be able to have an outfit cut to her own measurements and finished by hand — at a price and a pace that make it a reasonable choice, not a luxury one. Five to six days for a suit or saree. Every stage under one roof.
Vision
To be known less for a signature look than for a standard: that every woman who wears Design Matinee can tell it was made for her, because it was. Built on craftspeople who stay, hand techniques kept alive rather than replaced, and clients who come back — eventually with their daughters.
The full seven-year story — the rented room, her mother, the flat that became a boutique, and the move to Abu Lane — is in Our Journey.
The House
A designer boutique in Meerut
Design Matinee is built on one idea — that an outfit should be made for the woman wearing it, and not the other way around.
Founded in 2018 by Ojasvi Agarwal, the house began in a rented room with a single bride's trousseau. Today it works from a store on Abu Lane with a team of twenty-two — designers, karigars and tailors who cut, embroider and finish every piece by hand, under one roof. Not one of them has left since the day they joined.
What we make
The work spans bridal and trousseau, festive and occasion wear, and made-to-order design, alongside a standing collection of more than four hundred pieces across lehengas, anarkalis, sarees, co-ord sets, indo-western and kaftans.
How it works
Whatever the occasion, the process does not change. Measurements are taken by hand. Fabric is chosen in person, or over video for clients who live too far to visit. A suit or a saree is ready in five to six days; heavier embroidery takes the time it takes, and no longer.
Our Craft
Made to fit
Ready-made ethnic wear asks a woman to compromise. Made-to-measure asks nothing of her.
To hold the dupatta a certain way so it sits right. To stand a certain way in photographs. To accept that the waist is close enough, the length is nearly right, the fall is almost what she pictured. Most women have stopped noticing they are doing it.
Where ethnic wear succeeds or fails
Fit is where ethnic wear quietly succeeds or fails. The difference between an outfit that merely looks expensive and one that looks like it was made for you sits in the fall of the fabric and the finish of a seam — details nobody points to, and everybody sees.
Every piece at Design Matinee is cut to one set of measurements and finished by hand in the studio. Not altered to fit. Made to fit.
Everything under one roof
Design, cutting, stitching, machine work, embroidery, detailing and finishing all happen in the studio on Abu Lane. Not sent out. Not subcontracted to a unit across town. The experts sit here, in the same rooms, working on the same outfit.
It is the reason a change can be made the same afternoon it is asked for, and the reason nobody at Design Matinee has to say they will check with someone else.
How long it takes
A suit or a saree, stitched to your measurements, is ready in five to six days.
A bridal piece with heavy machine work, hand embroidery and detailing takes fifteen to twenty-five days. That work is measured in the hours a person spends bent over it, and there is no shortening it without the difference showing in the finished piece. Anyone who promises you a heavily embroidered lehenga in a week is not doing the work.
What we can promise is that it will be quicker here than you have been told to expect — because the outfit never leaves the building, and never waits in somebody else's queue.
Our Journey
Seven years, in the order it happened
A rented room, then a flat, then a store on Abu Lane.
Ojasvi Agarwal completes her fashion design studies at Vidya College of Engineering. Within months a bride in Meerut asks her to make a trousseau, stitched in a rented room. Seven or eight more orders arrive inside a month, all by word of mouth.
One assistant for basic stitching and finishing. Six months later, the first master tailor — still with the studio today. Ojasvi handles the embroidery, the finishing and the market runs herself, with her mother Sonia Agarwal beside the business from its first year through to 2023.
Three more hires in stitching and machine work. Design Matinee moves into a three-bedroom flat in Ojasvi's own society, laid out as a boutique — the first space clients could walk into and browse a collection.
Referrals alone can no longer carry the business. With her husband backing the next stage, Ojasvi sets a harder goal than a bigger room — a street-facing store with real presence in the market.
Close to a year of looking. Gurgaon and Noida are both examined properly and both set aside. Meerut holds six years of clients, karigars and suppliers, and none of it would have moved.
Design Matinee opens its first true storefront at 173-A, Abu Lane, after seven years of rented and residential rooms. For the first time, clients can find it without being sent. Twenty-two people now work there — every one of them still here from the day they joined.
Same studio, same process, more of it.
Come and be measured
Book a private styling consultation — at the studio on Abu Lane, or over video if you live too far to visit.
173-A, Abu Lane, Near Flavour Restaurant, Meerut, UP 250001
Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00 AM – 8:30 PM · Closed Mondays