By: Marley Peters

Walk into almost any children’s clothing store, and the pattern is easy to spot. One side features dinosaurs, rockets, robots, and astronauts. The other side is filled with glitter, hearts, and phrases about being cute.

The divide has become so familiar that most shoppers barely notice it. But for Jaya Iyer, it raised a deeper question about how children learn to see themselves.

Retail did not always look this way. Historians note that children’s clothing was far less gender coded before the late twentieth century. In fact, pink was once marketed for boys and blue for girls in the early 1900s. The modern divide intensified in the 1980s and 1990s as retailers began segmenting products more aggressively to increase sales, encouraging families to buy separate wardrobes for boys and girls rather than handing items down.

That marketing shift reshaped how children’s clothing communicates identity.

Iyer saw the effects firsthand when her daughter was a toddler. At two and a half years old, her daughter announced that she wanted to become an astronaut. When Iyer went shopping for clothing that reflected that dream, she discovered something strange. The boys’ section featured fighter jets, rockets, and space exploration. The girls’ section did not.

“It may seem like a small thing,” she says, “but clothing sends a message about what is normal or expected.”

Rather than accept that gap, Iyer decided to create something different.

She founded Svaha USA, a fashion brand centered on science, technology, engineering, art, and math themes. The company designs clothing that celebrates curiosity while challenging the gender stereotypes that have shaped the retail industry for decades.

Iyer’s path to entrepreneurship did not begin in fashion startups or venture capital. She earned a Ph.D. in fashion merchandising with a focus on consumer behavior, taught fashion buying as an assistant professor, and later worked as an apparel buyer. Those experiences gave her a detailed understanding of how clothing is developed, marketed, and consumed.

“Academia taught me how to analyze behavior and think about the consumer intentionally,” she says. “Now I apply those ideas in real time through product, sourcing, and the stories our clothing tells.”

Founded in 2015, Svaha began with children’s clothing and has since expanded into apparel for women, men, and babies. Many designs feature recognizable scientific imagery such as planets, molecules, binary code, and mathematical symbols.

The mission behind the brand is simple. Challenge gender stereotypes in apparel and make intellectual interests visible in everyday fashion.

Longevity in Mind

That same sense of purpose also shapes how Iyer approaches sustainability.

Fashion is one of the most resource-intensive consumer industries in the world. The sector produces roughly 100 billion garments each year, and millions of tons of clothing end up in landfills annually. For a founder trained in consumer behavior and apparel production, those numbers are difficult to ignore.

At Svaha, sustainability begins with the basics of how clothing is made. The brand uses organic cotton and works with suppliers that manage dyes and wastewater responsibly, an important consideration in an industry where textile dyeing is a major source of industrial water pollution. Excess fabric is not simply discarded. Leftover materials are repurposed into new garments or smaller production runs whenever possible.

Even small details reflect that philosophy. Svaha’s garment tags double as bookmarks, a practical feature that aligns with the brand’s emphasis on learning and curiosity while reducing disposable packaging.

What happens after a garment is purchased is just as interesting.

Over time, customers created their own resale ecosystem around the brand. Through online community groups, fans buy, sell, and trade Svaha pieces with one another, extending the life of garments long after their first owner.

Parents often pass along children’s sizes as kids grow. Enthusiasts search for discontinued prints. Some longtime supporters treat certain designs almost like collectibles.

The result is a customer-driven circular marketplace that keeps clothing in use far longer than the typical fast fashion cycle.

That kind of longevity matters in an industry built on constant turnover. Circular fashion models that encourage resale, reuse, and long-term wear are gaining attention as consumers begin to question the environmental cost of disposable clothing.

Iyer believes the next era of fashion will depend on credibility.

“Consumers are asking real questions about sourcing, materials, and waste,” she says. “Brands that can explain their practices clearly will earn trust.”

Designing Clothes That Fit Everyone

Fashion has a strange habit of pretending most people fit into the same three sizes.

Walk through enough stores and the pattern becomes obvious. Racks labeled small, medium, and large. Maybe an extra-large if you are lucky. For millions of consumers whose bodies fall outside that narrow range, the industry’s message is clear: this collection was not designed with you in mind.

Jaya Iyer never found that approach convincing.

From the beginning, Svaha was built on a different assumption. Real people do not come in three standardized measurements, and clothing should not either. The brand offers sizes ranging from XS to 5X, but the philosophy goes beyond numbers on a label.

Construction matters just as much. Many Svaha garments are tagless, a feature customers with sensory sensitivities say reduces irritation. Dresses and skirts include deep pockets, something surprisingly rare in women’s clothing despite decades of complaints about their absence. Fabrics are chosen for comfort and durability rather than short trend cycles.

The most useful design insights often come from the people wearing the clothing.

Customers regularly share feedback about fit, comfort, and functionality. Some mention sensory needs. Others talk about how clothing interacts with medical devices. Instead of designing in isolation, those conversations often shape future product decisions.

For Iyer, those exchanges reinforce a simple idea.

“When someone wears our clothing, I want them to feel seen before they think about fashion,” she says. “I want them to feel confident in their interests.”

Looking ahead, Iyer sees Svaha continuing to expand while staying anchored to the mission that started it. The company plans to grow its product lines and reach more families internationally while maintaining its focus on ethical production, thoughtful design, and representation.

As the brand grows, her leadership role is evolving as well. Rather than making every decision herself, she is focused on building a team that understands the company’s purpose and can carry it forward.

For Iyer, success isn’t defined only by sales. She believes that “clothing is one of the first ways children learn who they’re allowed to be. If we change what’s hanging on the rack, we can change the message they grow up with.”