PAUSEJAN - FEB 2026 | VOL 1 ISSUE 1 INDIA Subscriber copySUBSTANCESPEEDover Dia Mirza
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12PAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 July-August EDITOR’S LETTER FUTURE HEIRLOOMS CRAFTED LIVING Pieces that transcend trends and become part of a family's story. Artsy homeware & decor that adds a splash of whimsy to everyday living. AGAINST THE DEFAULT What happens when consumption becomes a question rather than a reflex? At Maple, Khushi Goyal is building a life and a space around the answer. By Roshni Jain SUBSTANCE OVER SPEED Across a 25-year career, she has moved beyond visibility to build a life shaped by clarity, conviction, and the discipline to choose meaning over momentum. INTO THE WILD Sculpted by the wind and grounded in its surroundings, the silhouettes appear instinctively at one with the environment. Photographed by Inez Van Lamsweerde & vinoodh Matadin BLOOM A sartorial take on summer florals. Photographed by Raghav Bhatia. Linen dress, RANNA GILL. Ornate, multi-tiered earrings AMAMA. Rings, ANATINA AND LOVE LETTER. Raffia heeled sandals, AQUAZZURA 20 30 38 48 58 68 72 THE RESALE PARADOX From vintage finds to pre-loved luxury, resale is booming. But does giving fashion a second life actually change how much we consume? By Roshni Jain 42 CONTENTS
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PAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 202622 I think I was raised to think twice before making a choice. And I have my dad to thank for that. From as far back as I can remember, I watched him pass on things we no longer needed to people who would actually use them. He separated domestic waste so food scraps could be given to cows, kept things safely because “it might be useful someday,” and almost always found a second purpose for something before deciding it had reached the end of its use. None of this was ever called sustainability or conscious living. It was simply how we lived. And perhaps that is why it stayed with me. At the same time, I grew up loving fashion deeply. Clothes, styling and the simple joy of dressing have always been a big part of who I am. But as much as I loved fashion, I couldn't ignore the habits I had grown up with. I found myself caught between two things I genuinely cared about, the excitement of fashion and the instinct to be mindful of what I consumed and what I left behind. Over time, I found myself trying to reconcile the two. I wanted to hold on to the joy and self- expression that fashion gave me, without losing the sense of responsibility I had grown up with. I began to wonder if there was a way to enjoy fash- ion with a little more intention. And that is when my interest in slow fashion began. Following that curiosity & interest has taken me into conversations, places and perspectives I may not have encountered otherwise. It taught me that conscious living doesn't have to look the same for everyone. Sometimes it's buying less, repairing what you already own, choosing something pre- loved or simply resisting the add to cart button for five more minutes. One such conversation that stayed with me was with my dear friend Khushi , who shares this curiosity about conscious living and runs a vegan café in Pune. Speaking to her reminded me that our choices can look completely different while still coming from the same place, wanting to live a little more thoughtfully. That is what I hope this issue explores, not perfect living, but more intentional living. The small choices, the questions we ask ourselves, and the things we choose to keep..As you turn the pages, I hope you find something that makes you pause, question, or simply look at something familiar a little differently. WORTH KEEPING EDITOR’S LETTER
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Once confined to thrift stores, vintage collectors and niche communities, resale has become one of fashion's most visible movements. Pre-loved clothing, vintage pieces and second-hand luxury now sit comfortably alongside new collections, with digital platforms making a previously owned designer bag or vintage dress just a few clicks away. The appeal is obvious: exclusivity, affordability, the thrill of discovery—and the reassuring feeling that buying something that already exists must be the more conscious choice. And sometimes, it is. Giving an existing garment a second or third life can extend its use and reduce the need for something new. But resale also presents an uncomfortable contradiction. If buying second- hand makes us feel less guilty about buying more, are we really consuming more consciously? The resale experience has become increasingly seamless. Scrolling through pre-owned pieces can offer the same excitement and instant gratification as conventional shopping, only now the purchase comes with a more sustainable story. A vintage dress replacing the purchase of a new one is one thing. Buying five pre-loved dresses be- cause they feel like "better" choices is another. Perhaps this is where the real question lies. The product may have had a previous owner, but the impulse to consume can still be entirely new. There is also something fascinating about the rise of luxury resale. A pre-owned handbag or piece of jewellery can carry traces of another life— patina, wear, history—and these imperfections can make it feel more valuable rather than less. In that sense, resale challenges fashion's obsession with newness. But when pre-loved itself becomes a desirable aesthetic, could conscious consumption simply become another thing we learn to shop for? Resale can absolutely be part of a slower fashion system. But pre-owned does not automatically mean conscious. What matters is whether the purchase replaces a new one, whether the piece will actually be worn, and whether we intend to keep it long enough for its second life to mean something. Perhaps slow fashion isn't about finding a more acceptable way to shop. It's about questioning the need to shop at all. From vintage finds to pre-loved luxury, resale is booming. But does giving fashion a second life actually change how much we consume? By ROSHNI JAIN The resale paradoxPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 40
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What happens when consumption becomes a question rather than a reflex? At Maple, KHUSHI GOYAL is building a life and a space around the answer. By ROSHNI JAIN co-founder of Pune-based café Maple, that thought has become less of a philosophy and more of a way of life. What began with an interest in psychology, economics, French, liberal arts and eventually sustainability has evolved into a life shaped by a simple question: Do I really need this? The answer has changed the way she eats, dresses, shops, works and even inhabits her home. Her relationship with sustainability began during a year spent living in a tiny French town while teaching English. Away from the pace of a larger city, she encountered a simpler way of living and began seeing consumption differently. Conversations with her French host family and friends introduced her to veganism, while her own curiosity pushed her further into understanding climate change, animal agriculture and the systems behind everyday consumption. What started as curiosity became education. She went on to complete a diploma in sustainable management of natural resources and conservation, researched veganism from environmental, ethical and health perspectives, and volunteered with organisations working in the space. The more she learnt, the harder it became to see sustainability as a passing movement. “You can't isolate sustainability”, she says. Fashion, food, animal welfare, feminism, labour and consumption all exist within the same larger picture. Once she began looking at them that way, Against the Default There is something quietly radical about choosing not to follow the default. For thePAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 46
sustainability stopped being something she could simply support in theory. It became something she had to practice in the choices she made every day. Fashion was one of the first places where that thinking became tangible. “It's been I think more than 5 years since I've boycotted Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Mango, all the fast fashion brands,” she says. “I buy only from ethical and sustainable fashion brands.” When she does buy something, the questions go beyond whether she likes the piece. She looks at the material, the making and the people behind it and whether the brand is transparent about its practices. But perhaps more important than how she buys is how long she keeps what she already owns. Some of her clothes have been with her for nearly a decade. They are hand-washed, carefully dried and maintained. An old outfit was recently re-dyed rather than discarded. And when something no longer fits, it is passed on rather than thrown away. There is a kind of patience in this approach that feels almost unfamiliar in fashion today. She is still, by her own admission, fashion-conscious. She simply doesn't see fashion and conscious consumption as opposing ideas. That same thinking quietly extends beyond her wardrobe. She opts for second-hand electronics whenever possible. Even the laptop used at Maple has had a previous life. At home, the same consideration appears in the materials around her sandstone, wood, metal, glass, jute and bamboo. “It's been I think more than 5 years since I've boycotted Zara, H&M, Forever 21, Mango, all the fast fashion brands.” Khushi Goyal in an outfit re-dyed than discardedPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 47
Conventional paint has been replaced with lime coating, and unnecessary objects are rarely bought simply to fill a space.Even seemingly insignificant habits make their way into the equation. Unnecessary emails are deleted because digital storage, too, occupies resources. Plastic is avoided where possible. An electric car has been on her mind for years, although the infrastructure wasn't quite there when her family last bought one. It is not a checklist so much as a way of thinking.And eventually, that way of thinking found a home of its own. Maple began with two people’s passions coming together, her co-founder Anirudh’s love for culinary and her commitment to sustainability. The result is a plant-based café in Pune that tries to carry that philosophy beyond what is served on the table. The name itself arrived almost accidentally— she dreamt of seeing the word Maple written on a board and woke up knowing what the café should be called. Its parent company, Isekai Hospitality, takes its name from the Japanese word for another or parallel world, reflecting the intention for Maple to feel like a small departure from the everyday. That sense of difference is built into the details. There are no meat, eggs or dairy products onPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 48
the menu. Glass replaces plastic bottles, locally made glassware replaces mass-produced alternatives and rice-husk straws replace plastic and conventional paper straws. Cork, wood and recycled materials appear throughout the space, while bamboo tissues and eco-friendly cleaning products take care of some of the less visible choices. Even pest control is approached preventively, using less harmful alternatives. The point is not that every individual object is revolutionary. It is that every object was considered. “Before making every decision, this was like a filter for us”, she says. The choices can seem small on their own but together, they begin to tell a different story. When she calculated the impact of replacing dairy milk with oat and almond milk at Maple, she found that the café had saved more than 3.5 lakh litres of water in its first four months. For her, translating sustainability into numbers makes the idea easier to grasp. A statistic about environmental impact can feel distant; knowing what a series of everyday decisions adds up to. For all the research behind her choices, she has little interest in telling people what they should do. The community she hopes to build through Maple is thoughtful rather than prescriptive. She does not expect everyone who walks through the doors to become vegan or suddenly overhaul their lifestyle. Instead, she hopes the space makes people pause. Maple already hosts writing sessions and live music and plans to host other creative communities in future. Sustainability sits quietly within that atmosphere rather than dominating it.For her, that matters. Change, she believes, is far more meaningful when it comes from within. For anyone wondering where to begin, her advice is disarmingly simple, don't begin with the hardest thing. If giving up fast fashion feels impossible, begin somewhere else. If becoming vegan feels overwhelming, give up the food you won't miss. Let one change become a habit before taking on another. “Whatever is the easiest, just start with that.” There is no grand gesture in that philosophy. No demand for perfection. Just a reminder that every decision carries some weight. In a world that has made consumption almost automatic, perhaps the most meaningful act is simply to interrupt the instinct to consume. Pause. Question it. And then decide.PAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 49
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For over two decades, Dia Mirza has occupied a rare position in Indian public life—visible, consistent, and remarkably untouched by the volatility that defines celebrity today. From her early emergence as a beauty pageant winner at 18 to a film career that has quietly spanned over 40 projects, Mirza has built a body of work that resists easy categorisation. Actor, producer, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador, and increasingly, investor in sustainability-led businesses, she has expanded her presence through accumulation of intent, clarity, and conviction. On set, that same clarity translates into something disarmingly straightforward. There is no theatricality to her presence, no performative distance. She arrives, settles in, offers her perspective when needed, and moves through each look with an efficiency that borders on instinct. The energy is calm, collaborative, and unexpectedly warm. At one point, the production quietly removes all plastic bottles from the premises—a small but telling detail, not announced, not insisted upon, simply understood as part of how she operates. Nothing about it feels like a statement. It is just the baseline. That distinction—between performance and practice becomes the most compelling way to un- Fderstand where she stands today. There is a moment early in our conversation when Mirza gently disrupts its expected rhythm. Instead of turning inward, she begins by acknowledging the ecosystem she is stepping into, thanking PAUSE for sustaining a long-standing engagement with sustainability in India. It is a brief aside, but a revealing one. Even within a profile centred on her, she instinctively redirects attention outward, toward the systems that enable the conversation itself. It is also, perhaps, the most accurate entry point into understanding her. “I realised very early in my career that storytelling has power,” she says. “And so does action. Acting gave me a voice; it gave me visibility. But with every passing year, I felt more strongly that it also gave me a responsibility.” That sense of responsibility did not arrive fully formed. It sharpened over time. “I began to seek meaning over success,” she continues. It is a line that could easily collapse under its own weight in another context. Here, it does not. It lands with the ease of something already lived through. What distinguishes Mirza’s current phase is not that she speaks about sustainability, but that she has begun to build within it. Over the last few years, her work has expanded with a quiet inevitability, from acting to producing, fromPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 57
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advocacy to advisory roles, and increasingly, into investment. It is not framed as a pivot, but as a continuation. “I reached a point where it didn’t feel like enough to just advocate,” she explains. “For the issues I care about… I needed to participate in building solutions.” Advocacy operates within visibility, building demands accountability. Through her investments in sustainability-led businesses and her involvement across multiple platforms, Mirza is attempting to participate in a larger reconfiguration of value—one that extends beyond messaging and into systems. “It’s one thing to want these things,” she says. “But then you have to really back it and support it with your hard-earned money. That’s when you truly see impact.” What she outlines is a three- part framework: personal action, conscious investment, and policy engagement. Each, on its own, is insufficient. Together, they begin to resemble infrastructure. “Visibility can only take you to an extent,” she adds. “Words can also take you to an extent.” What follows, inevitably, is act- “I reached a point where it didn’t feel like enough to just advocate, for the issues I care about, I needed to participate in building solutions.” Aion. What follows, inevitably, is action. What is perhaps most interesting is how this evolution has begun to reshape her work as an actor. When asked about the increasing moral complexity of the roles she has chosen in recent years, Mirza resists any suggestion of strategy. “I think I’ve become a better actor because I’m an activist,” she says. The connection is less surprising than it sounds. Her work in climate and gender equity has brought her into closer proximity with lived experience—stories that are unresolved, people who exist outside binaries, situations that resist simplification. That exposure, she suggests, has altered how she approaches character. “I’m drawn to stories that ask questions,” she says. “To characters that are navigating difficult moral landscapes.” There is no overt declaration of intent here. Instead, there is a sense that the internal and external have begun to mirror each other. The work, in other words, has started to reflect the world she inhabits. If there is single idea that quietly anchors Mirza’sPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 60
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ne else to follow, and then you begin to see more people doing it, that’s the real impact." “I don’t think it’s about being perfect, it’s about being aware, and then making better choices consistently.” For someone who moves through spaces of fashion, cinema and public influence, the question is not whether contradiction exists, but how consciously it is negotiated. “I’ve said no to things,” she admits. “And sometimes that’s not easy. But over time, it becomes clearer what aligns and what doesn’t. It’s about doing what you can, where you are,” she says. “And doing it honestly. We are a country where a large part of the population is still trying to meet basic needs,” she says. “So the idea of conscious consumption cannot be divorced from accessibility. What matters is that we begin to move in the right direction,” she continues. “Even if it is gradual.” If it began today, “I think I would arrive at the same place,” she says. “Because ultimately, it comes down to understanding yourself. And that takes time. It can’t be rushed.” It is a fitting conclusion. What we see now—the steadiness, the clarity, the refusal to perform urgency—is not inherent. It is earned. life today, it is this: she has chosen to slow down. “I realised that if I don’t slow down, I lose myself,” she says. The industry she inhabits is designed to reward momentum. Visibility feeds on repetition, and relevance is often measured by frequency. Against that backdrop, her decision to step away from urgency is neither accidental nor easy. “I don’t find resonance in the fast life,” she says. “For me, staying connected with nature is not a privilege, it’s a necessity.” Clarity, in her case, has translated into something far more difficult than ambition: refusal. “I realised that I was not chasing money anymore,” she says. “And it gave me the freedom to say no.” “When I started, I was taunted a lot,” she says. “The word ‘activist’ was used in a very derogatory way. If you just remain principled and consistent, people begin to understand what you’re doing. They start recognising it, respecting it, and eventually, they may even join in.” She offers a simple example: switching to a reusable metal bottle over a decade ago, “I’ve stopped over 15,000 plastic bottles from entering natural ecosystems,” she says. “When you start with a behavioural change and don’t expect anyo-L “I think I’ve become a better actor because I’m an activist”PAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 64
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Sculpted by the wind and grounded in its surroundings, the silhouettes appear instinctively at one with the environment. Photographed by INEZ VAN LAMSWEERDE AND VINOODH MATADIN Winter 2026 collection, CHLOE INTO THE WILDPAUSE INDIA, JULY-AUGUST 2026 66
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