Aprajita Toor Is Turning Morning Coffee Into Gender-Neutral Footwear

You may have heard about some of the most curiously unique concepts, but the truly remarkable thing about BREW is that it takes a concept most sensible people would confine to a teapot or a coffee cup and persuades it, with extraordinary conviction, to inhabit footwear and bags instead.

One imagines that the aroma of roasted beans, the ordinary pleasure of boiling tea leaves, and the reassuringly tactile heft of a favourite mug were all experiences that would have been reticent to lend themselves to a tangible project, but BREW thinks otherwise. It does just that; it takes them and reproduces them as velvety suedes, supple leathers, and deliciously tangible finishes in shades of mocha, espresso, and cream.

BREW-ing The Aprajita Story

Aprajita Toor founded her eponymous designer brand in 2012 and set off with a simple yet ambitious pursuit: to create the perfect Indian sandal. With BREW, unveiled recently, the brand extends this philosophy further—in territories most sane designers would be loath to charter—translating the reassuring ritual and warmth of tea and coffee into a tactile collection of footwear and bags that champions craftsmanship, understated luxury and the beauty of everyday moments.

It is an idea that could so easily have dissolved into vain gimmickry, yet Toor takes it on the chin with a restraint that lends the collection less of a feel of borrowed fashion from café culture and more of everydayness quietly finding a new form. The idea began, she says, “When I decided to explore more unisex silhouettes, I was intrigued by a simple question: What is something almost everyone loves, regardless of age or gender?” She found tea and coffee—man's oldest accomplices in the civilised business of carrying on—fitting the bill perfectly. They were universal and daily, yet singularly personal. “They're rituals we return to every day, often without thinking, yet they offer comfort, familiarity and pause. The act of brewing is universal yet deeply individual, much like the relationship people have with the things they wear.”

That thought became the collection's foundation. BREW leans into gender-neutral silhouettes rendered in a palette of quiet, neutral hues—pieces conceived, in Toor's words, “to become dependable companions in your wardrobe rather than momentary statements.” The ambition, she confessed, was for the collection “to feel like your favourite cup, something you instinctively reach for, again and again.”

Translating that idea from feeling to form meant resisting the obvious. Rather than illustrating coffee or tea literally, Toor and her team spent months undertaking the rather Herculean task of translating the sensory experience of coffee into footwear and bags. As she puts it, it was a genuine coffee-tasting journey that involved building mood boards “not around what coffee looked like, but around how it made us feel.” The inky blackness of an espresso, the softness of oat milk, the gooeyness of caramel: these sensations, gradually, became colour, texture and proportion. As such, Toor and team were onto what could be seen as making phenomenology incarnate. “Every brew carries a story, from its source to the hands that craft it,” she remarks. “That quiet journey felt remarkably similar to ours.”

The resulting palette—mocha, espresso, caramel, oat, cream—sits alongside a deliberate tension in form: sculptural silhouettes softened by fluid detailing. It is a contrast Toor says was entirely intentional, and one that reflects how she sees contemporary dressing today. “I think contemporary dressing is less about fitting into one identity and more about moving fluidly between many. Strength and softness aren't opposites, they coexist.” The pieces, she explains, needed to hold two ideas at once—“sculptural enough to make a statement, yet effortless enough to disappear into your everyday wardrobe”—while materials and detailing supplied the ease. “It's a reflection of how people live today: strong yet sensitive, ambitious yet grounded. The best design doesn't demand attention; it quietly adapts to the person wearing it.”

Threaded through the collection is a case for slowness—not as an aesthetic, but as a discipline. Toor has never chased trends, she says, “because trends are designed to be temporary. Classics, on the other hand, become part of your life.” BREW revisits timeless silhouettes: brogues, ballet flats, her own interpretation of the classic Peshawari sandal, and signature toe-loop heels and T-straps. “Slowing down isn't only about lifestyle,” she notes, “it's also about buying with intention. Fashion has the ability to encourage that, to create fewer pieces, but better ones, that remain relevant long after the season has passed.”

On Luxury, Craft And Design

For Toor, luxury has always been deeply subjective. “When I started in 2012, access was limited, discovery was slower, and craftsmanship often spoke for itself,” she recalls. What has changed since, she argues, is the sheer volume of noise and chatter around it. “Today, we're living in an era of endless consumption where everything is immediate—food, fashion, content, even attention. Every brand claims to be,” she says, in a moment of great insight, “handcrafted, sustainable or artisanal, making authenticity harder to recognise.”

Much of Toor's work has been built alongside vernacular artisans in smaller towns across India, and when asked what will remain irreplaceable about human craftsmanship as technology advances, her answer is as unhesitating as it is pertinent in the age of Artificial Intelligence: intuition and memory. “Every handcrafted piece reflects years, sometimes generations, of accumulated skill, instinct and lived experience,” she says. “Machines can deliver precision and scale,” she’s kind enough to acknowledge, “but they cannot replicate intuition, imperfection or the quiet humanity embedded in something made by hand. Craft shaped by hand isn't simply a technique; it's storytelling in its most tangible form.”

Asked where India's next great luxury story might emerge—not just in fashion, but across architecture, hospitality and product design—Toor points inward rather than outward. “I think India's next luxury movement will come from a deeper appreciation of our own design vocabulary rather than trying to emulate someone else's,” she says. Across disciplines, she senses the same instinct taking hold: “We're beginning to value slower craftsmanship, regional materials and stories rooted in place. The future isn't about recreating the past; it's about interpreting heritage through a contemporary lens. That's where Indian luxury feels most authentic, and most exciting.”