Ritika Kulshreshtha, a 25-year-old designer from Delhi, recently sent a customised gymnastics costume to gymnast Dipa Karmakar for the ongoing 2024 Asian Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Tashkent. “It was a very last-minute thing,” she says, explaining the visa problems Karmakar and many other gymnasts faced until the last moment. This often results in costume deliveries being made at the eleventh hour.
“There have been times when I have delivered costumes at the airport, too,” she adds. While most designers either join couture houses or start their own brands, few pursue something as specific as costumes for gymnasts. So, what made her choose this path? Back when Kulshreshtha was in the second standard, she signed herself up for gymnastics at school.
Her flexibility proved beneficial, and she was sent to the Yamuna Sports Complex, where she enrolled in an hour-long class, three days a week. In 2010, the year of the Commonwealth Games (CWG), she moved to the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex. There, she enhanced her skills with better gymnastics equipment and met international gymnasts who were there for the CWG camp.
This is where her networking started, which later helped her establish her gymnastics costume business. Kulshreshtha’s first competition was at a national event in Patiala in 2011. She was part of the Delhi gymnastics team and earned a bronze medal.
“For the event, my relatives in the US ordered my leotard as at that time there were no good .
