I grew up around leather.

Not as an idea, but as a smell, a sound. The hum of machines running late, the whiff of oils and warm hide, hands that knew exactly what they were doing. My family has spent generations making and exporting leather goods, and there I stood, in the middle of that workshop, clutching a pair of heavy scissors, madly romanticizing what it took to make something with your own hands.

It became, for me, a place filled with the things and people I loved, the place where the maker in me began.

I eventually studied Footwear & Accessories Design in the UK, and later designed for Jimmy Choo, London – years that taught me precision, restraint, and what luxury actually means up close.  Somewhere in it all, it brought me back to where it all began – something very close to home.

IS-AY is, at its heart, this feeling. Of life and of love, carrying the magic of all the beautiful souls making it and the ones wearing it.

Thank you so so much for being here.

-Ishika Choudhary