VMPL
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], August 10: At an age when most people are filling out college applications, Arjun Phoolka and Saachi Pasari are filling purchase orders. Phoolka, 17, runs Ollo, an eyewear label built around a price band he felt the market had abandoned. Pasari, 18, runs Hangover, a party-wear label whose limited drops have sold out within days of release. Both are students at DSB International School, Mumbai. Neither business is a class project.
Their categories don't overlap, and their paths into business look nothing alike. What they share is a refusal to treat their age as a waiting room.
Saachi Pasari: Creating a High Fashion Label That Reflects Her Vision
Pasari was 18 when she started Hangover, and the origin story is almost literal: she sketched dresses she couldn't find anywhere, then realised the only way to actually wear them was to make them herself.
Hangover runs on limited monthly drops - small batches of hand-embroidered, embellished occasion wear - rather than scale. Pasari doesn't chase trend cycles; she designs from what she likes, on the theory that people should want a piece because they love it, not because it's trending that month. "I don't think I ever saw age as a reason to wait. I knew this was what I wanted to do, so I just started."
The doubt hasn't disappeared, she says - she's just stopped engaging with it directly, and lets the clothes make the argument instead. She's ambitious about where Hangover goes - a global luxury label, eventually - but says the one thing she won't trade for scale is attention to detail.
"I want someone to wear Hangover and feel confident, have fun, make memories in it. If they reach for it whenever there's a special occasion -- that's the biggest compliment."
Arjun Phoolka: Closing the Gap in Indian Eyewear
By 14, Phoolka was already helping run verticals at his father's company - an apprenticeship no classroom could have replicated. ollo wasn't his first venture. Earlier attempts failed, and he says the failures taught him more than any early win could have.
His generation, he argues, doesn't buy eyewear the way the last one did - one expensive pair, kept for years. They rotate frames the way they rotate sneakers, which meant the market needed real quality products between ₹2,000 and ₹8,000, a band he found conspicuously empty. ollo's frames made of acetate, metal alloy, titanium - are intentionally built to sit in that gap.
Getting manufacturers to take him seriously took longer than building the product. Distributors quoted inflated minimum orders; vendors doubted him in the room. He answered with specifics - lens standards, on-time payments, small orders executed cleanly before asking for bigger ones.
"You don't argue your way out of that - you work your way out. After two or three cycles, age stops being the focus. No inflated MRP with a permanent discount on top. If ollo is remembered for making durability affordable - if someone's first proper pair is still the one they reach for a decade later - I'll take that."
Two Founders, One Shift
Phoolka and Pasari didn't build these companies together, and eyewear has nothing to do with party dresses. What connects them is a school, an age bracket, and a shared instinct that credibility is earned through execution, not granted by age. Both describe the same arc: skepticism first, then a product, then a customer -- and then the skepticism quietly leaving the room.
About Hangover: Hangover is a luxury party-wear label founded by Saachi Pasari, releasing limited monthly drops of hand-embroidered occasion wear. Its debut collection sold out shortly after launch.
About OLLO: ollo is an eyewear label founded by Arjun Phoolka, offering acetate, metal-alloy, and titanium frames between roughly ₹2,000 and ₹8,000, built around durability and transparent pricing.
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