It's all relative

DOCG, DESIGNER AND CREATIVE DIRECTOR

I was the first kid in the family to be like, “I’m doing what I want.” I remember telling my parents at 15 that I wanted to drop out of school to study design. Our family is Sri Lankan, and I think most people who have immigrant parents deal with this – you’re expected to be a doctor or lawyer, and I fully understand why they want that. I did complete high school (I spent all my time in art class), but I think my parents just didn’t expect me to go down a creative path. They were like, “All right, do whatever you want – just don’t influence your sister.” And then Hansika ended up doing design!

I started freelancing when I was 16, doing design, graphics, logos and art. By the time I finished high school, I was well ahead of people my age and had older mentors in creative spaces. I had already built a nice little platform and career, so when Hansika started doing creative stuff, I wanted her to have a space where she could flourish and skip the bullshit. That’s one of the main reasons we started our fashion label docGIRL – so she could execute her ideas.

We’re very collaborative. I’m a firm believer that there’s no bad idea – it’s just about how you execute it.