Chennai-based brand Mookuthi reimagines the nose pin as a contemporary symbol of memory and heritage

Certain ornaments carry more than just decorative value. For Chennai-based designer Sarath Selvanathan, the nose pin is one such piece. His brand, Mookuthi, which will showcase its jewellery at a pop-up in Visakhapatnam’s Aarna Boutique, has made the ornament the centrepiece of a contemporary design practice that is both intimate and rooted in memory.

Selvanathan’s route to design was far from predictable. Trained as a mechanical engineer, he began his career in the automobile industry before turning to jewellery in 2013. “I found myself at one of those points in life where you wander,” he recalls. What began as curiosity soon turned into a sustained exploration, leading to the launch of Mookuthi on February 16, 2018.

His background of engineering, he notes, was not wasted. It shaped his approach to precision, organisation and problem-solving, qualities that he found unexpectedly favourable to jewellery design. Yet the larger shift from a conventional career to an artistic one required him to leave behind structure and lean into intuition.

The decision to focus on nose pins gave Mookuthi its singular identity. For Selvanathan, the ornament’s impact is disproportionate to its size. “It is the smallest ornament that makes the most difference to the wearer,” he observes. This recognition allowed him to use the nose pin as a canvas for playful re-interpretation of memory and heritage. His Kolam collection, inspired by the floor drawings of South India, is among the most popular, evoking a sense of belonging that is both visual and emotional.

The name Mookuthi itself seemed almost inevitable to him. Despite experimenting with alternatives, he chose the Tamil word for nose pin because it embodied language, identity and cultural resonance. That resonance has also shaped the way his patrons connect with the brand. He points out that much of Mookuthi’s growth has been driven by community-led discovery and word-of-mouth appreciation and not fleeting trends.

In recent years, the nose pin has begun to shift from being a traditional marker to an everyday accessory. Selvanathan believes this change stems from an increasing comfort in personal expression. “They are moving from being traditional cultural symbols to being deeply personal,” he remarks. This, he notes, has allowed nose pins to move beyond gendered boundaries and to slowly enter mainstream fashion outside India.

Despite frequent questions about whether Mookuthi will branch into other jewellery forms, Selvanathan is firm. His work remains committed to the nose pin, distilling heritage into forms and textures that feel universal. “Time will tell,” he says, when asked about the brand’s future. For now, the focus remains steady: a small ornament that holds memory, identity and contemporary relevance in one.

Date : September 12-14Time : 8pm to 10pm Venue: Aarna BoutiqueBalaji R Square, Harbour Park RoadPandurangapuram, Visakhapatnam