A Perfect Fit: Introducing Raja Rani, The DJ Duo Draping The Scene With Indian Kimonos

Meet Beatrice and Naveen, the visionaries behind Raja Rani (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

This is a tale of two co-protagonists cut from the same cloth. It’s an evolving chronicle bound by the tropes of destined serendipity and knotted passions, playing out across the pages that they share hand in hand, thread after thread.

As fairly new debutants in the music scene, Raja Rani is the union of DJ duo, Beatrice Nannini and Naveen Murugan, who orchestrate soundtracks that traverse an expanse of territories. Nomadic in nature, their sets roam from earthy tribal house to dusky melodic techno, to hidden gems across the atlas of world music. They can be both profoundly spiritual and friskily electrifying, and it's a nebulous disposition that’s won them gig opportunities from Therapy Room, Ciel Social and Manifest.

Name a more iconic kimono-making DJ duo (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

But the story of Raja Rani transcends the ambit of music. Aside from a mutual proclivity for electronic music, the partners are chieftains of a fashion business that’s formed a bridge between cultures. Indian contemporary kimonos make up the signature products of Raja Rani’s style repertoire. These eco-friendly outerwear are entirely made in India and adopt traditional prints from Madras, and are undeniably festival-friendly with their vibrant hues, striking patterns and flowy silhouettes. Beyond their online store, customers have been able to snap up these outfits at pop-up stores and markets, as well as Raja Rani’s self-organised events – Dancing Dempsey and Sunday Sandhai – that combine their love for music, fashion and forging a community. Whether you choose to hear them or wear them, there’s no denying the widespread tapestry of Raja Rani’s influence.

How did these two characters find each other and build a collective identity that’s adorning the scene? I speak to Beatrice and Naveen to determine how it all fits in their intertwined narrative.

The origin story of Raja Rani is proof that good things can come out of the pandemic (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

You two come from different parts of the world but found a home in Singapore. How did you find each other and how long has Singapore been home?

We arrived here both at the same time (end of 2015, beginning of 2016) from different directions – India and Italy – and we were both driven by our jobs. We were living in the same city for almost five years, we knew the same people, and we were attending the same kind of music-related events, but we never crossed paths until 2020! We like to think that everything happened at the right time and when we were in the right mindset to meet each other, as if we couldn’t be ready to start our journey together in the past years.

Raja Rani stems from the two’s mutual backgrounds in fashion retail and tailoring (Credit: Colossal Photos)

It’s not every day you find a couple bonded by a shared interest for Indian kimonos and electronic music. How did you both stumble into this mutual passion?

During the Circuit Breaker, we simply met online and start talking about music! Beatrice wanted to learn how to be a DJ and Naveen gladly offered himself as a teacher, so that is how we started – Sunday afternoon music mixing class! And over these classes we became good friends; a friendship that genuinely started over a common passion for music. With time, our relationship evolved and we realised that another goal in life that we shared was to have our own business project, so we decided to start this journey with a kimono collection. The idea started because Naveen has a long history of tailoring in his family back in India and Beatrice has a background in fashion retail, so we decided to combine our strength and create Raja Rani. And why kimonos? Very simple. Because we both love wearing it, especially during music festivals and parties!

Ah, so Raja Rani was a pandemic baby!

Absolutely! We wouldn’t even exist as a couple without the stopover that the world had in these two years. Before the pandemic, we wouldn’t ever have enough time to dedicate our efforts and energy in a music project, or in a business, even if it was in our dreams in the back of our heads. We wouldn’t have had the time to even know each other or give time for our relationship to grow deep. Of course, like everyone else, we suffered for not being able to travel or meet our loved ones, with no possibility to visit our families back home or for social gatherings. And also the lack of music and clubs in the past two years. But we tried to make the most out of it, studying, learning and putting our minds to work.

“We realised that playing together was giving us more joy than playing alone.” (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

Do tell us more about the products themselves. Why combine Indian and Japanese cultures? How are they produced, and what are the styles and textures like?

Our goal is to combine traditional Indian fabrics in a contemporary and stylish manner. Kimonos have the ideal cut because we don’t have to follow sizes or fitting; we want to be able to dress up every body type and gender. Since the beginning, we try to experiment with different cuts, fabrics and finishes, so we are able to propose new products every time we launch a production.

Our last ‘discovery’ was the upcycled fabric from the Indian saree; this make us very happy because we are able to give life to fabrics that would have gone to waste, but we make beautiful and unique pieces with it! This way, every piece is one of a kind, so every client can feel the uniqueness!

Raja Rani’s kimonos are entirely made in India (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

We’re very careful on the wastage of fabric; we try to use them at their maximum, creating masks or small pieces like scrunchies or headbands. And above all with this project, we’re supporting the tailoring community in India by giving them job opportunities. Although we are contributing with small volumes of work, it’s their bread and butter. This is our humble contribution to the society and we are happy to help the underprivileged working community as much as we can.

Raja Rani, of course, is more than just a fashion brand but a music project. How would you describe your musical styles and tastes? Do they complement each other?

Our taste in music is definitely complementary. That’s the reason why we started playing B2B; our music enhances and complements each other. We started it as a game as an experiment one evening and we ended up playing for seven hours non-stop! After that day, we realised that playing together was giving us more joy than playing alone. It’s more fun and we are able to enjoy each other’s music! When we’re jamming at home, we try to surprise each other as much as we can, impressing each other with crazy or unknown tracks and see what is the response of the other.

Of course we have our own personal background and taste, but we’ve found a middle ground where we can play and above all, enjoy the process. Naveen is also dedicated to music production and he recently signed with an Italian record label which is releasing his independent tracks and remixes.

Dancing Dempsey has been a signature event series of Raja Rani, happening at The Frangipani Garden Bistro (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

The two of you have also hosted several lifestyle events, such as Dancing Dempsey and Sunday Sandhai. What can you tell us about the events that you promote?

In both cases, Sunday Sandhai and Dancing Dempsey, what happened is that we connected with kindhearted people for these events to come to life.

Sunday Sandhai has taken place in our favourite Indian restaurant. As we are regulars to the restaurant, we became friends with the CEO (a music enthusiast too) and came to know that he was promoting an event space above the restaurant. We literally fell in love with that space and thought that could be a perfect space to combine our projects together. It was the same for Dancing Dempsey! We loved their chain of restaurants and we became regular customers, and at the same time we connected with the owners who offered us to play music in Dempsey. Obviously, our kimonos follow us wherever we go, hence we had our kimono booth present at both our projects.

Another important goal in this journey is that we would like to give visibility to DJs that are like us, who just started (maybe they’re shy or there’s a lack of opportunity) or who want to share their music on a live stage. We want to continue to create happy and festive events, where people can express themselves, enjoy their weekends and most of all, share love and dance! We always take inspiration from people around us – from their personal history, their talent, their energy – and we know that everything we make is never about just the two of us, but how we can combine these people together, grow together, and create a positive environment. The result is pure new energy that we share together.

The tapestry of Raja Rani’s trajectory is spreading across the scene that they love so much (Credit: Courtesy of Raja Rani)

And to wrap up, how has reception been for the Raja Rani brand? What do you hope to achieve in the industry, both in fashion and music?

The feedback and the reception of Raja Rani is really good! We’re receiving many compliments from clients, which is the motivation that drives us to create new products and carry on this small but very meaningful project. It’s the same when we’re playing music. We’re so happy when someone comes to us to tells us that they enjoyed our set! We got the chance to meet people in the music scene who are now friends and this is the most precious asset. We’re extremely lucky to have friends who are always supporting, helping and pushing us to share our projects to new audiences and we will grow step by step, until our projects are able to spread their wings and bring us somewhere.

Follow Raja Rani on Instagram and Facebook to stay updated with their activities, and visit their website for more information on their products.