Palaash Chaudhary and Utharaa Zacharias started Soft-geometry in 2019 with one mission in mind: to discover what it means to be a contemporary Indian design studio. “We’re trying to observe and honor the principles of Indian craft and object culture without reducing it to superficial applications of patterns and colors,” Zacharias explains.
Having both grown up in India, Chaudhary and Zacharias recall being raised on a commitment to beauty, reverence for handmaking, and an emphasis on expressiveness and making everything distinct. “We draw from these innate Indian-isms to create new geometries that are both contemporary and Indian,” she continues.
The Long-Haired sconce, shown in black
While the designers grew up on opposite sides of the country—Zacharias in Kochi, Chaudhary in Ghaziabad—they both found themselves studying product design at the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) in New Delhi. From there, they both headed overseas to earn their master’s degrees at Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in Georgia. Zacharias studied furniture design, while Chaudhary found his expertise in industrial design.
In 2019, two years after graduating, they founded Soft-geometry in Los Angeles. The studio name ties the pair’s ethos together—rather than a specific material or handmaking technique, softness as a concept defines Soft-geometry’s work more than anything else. “Anyone who has experienced hardship understands wanting softness,” Chaudhary says. “We wanted more softness for ourselves and for the world—values that were shaped by life in India.”
Take their Long-Haired sconces collection. Inspired by the domestic acts of slow and sacred Sunday afternoons—like the ritual of braiding hair—each sconce features a handblown glass orb crowned with cascading hemp-lime composite braids in various lengths. The sustainable, carbon-negative hemp is mixed, shaped, and dried slowly over weeks and then finished in hand-applied limewashes that preserve its natural texture, though at a more intimate scale.
The duo has also launched a sculptural series titled Vessel that is inspired by Zacharias’ native language, Malayalam, which is only spoken in the area where she grew up. Each piece is a bent-steel form based on a Malayalam letter where its tubes loop continuously. Adds Zacharias: “It expresses balance, softness, and the idea that language itself is a vessel that holds memory, identity, and culture.”
This article originally appeared in HD’s October 2025 issue.
