Meghna Goyal: Building a travel fashion brand that helps remove plastic waste with every order

(Jun 2, 2026) Entrepreneur Meghna Goyal is the founder of Summer Away, a travel-focused fashion label she runs between New York and Mumbai. A New York University graduate and former brand strategist, she has embedded sustainability into the brand’s DNA. Summer Away has been plastic-neutral from the outset and, through its partnership with ReCircle, has helped recover more than 3,130 kilograms of low-grade single-use plastic from landfills and oceans, while recovering an additional kilogram for every order placed. 

Meghna Goyal always loved curating things — be it outfits, travel plans, or small details in everyday life. Growing up in Mumbai in a family connected to fashion, creativity and design were always around her.

But the turning point in her life came when she moved to New York for higher education, which exposed her to completely different cultures, ideas, and perspectives that continue to shape how she thinks creatively today. It led Meghna to express herself through Summer Away — her fashion label, which reflects her evolution in vision and storytelling in a far more conscious manner.

“I’m a summer girl through and through. It’s my perpetual state of mind and, by extension, of our clothes as well, which is where the brand’s name comes from,” smiles Meghna, in a chat with The Global Indian. Inspired by her own love for travel and effortless fashion, Meghna — who divides her time between New York and Mumbai — built Summer Away with a mission to offer timeless, trans-seasonal garments that seamlessly work across destinations and occasions.

Summer Away

She says Summer Away came from a personal need. Before every trip, Meghna found herself shopping because she felt dissatisfied with what she already owned.

“At the time, I struggled to find travel-ready pieces that were effortless, easy, and wearable beyond one vacation,” says Meghna, of the launch of the Summer Somewhere label in 2019, which was rebranded as Summer Away in January 2025. At the same time, she has always been conscious about waste and consumption in her personal life.

I thoughtfully wanted to build a fashion brand. The biggest early lesson was realising that sustainability has to fit naturally into people’s lives.

Meghna Goyal

Sustainability

Summer Away is extremely passionate about sustainable growth. Meghna says the brand has been plastic-neutral from the very beginning.

“We are rooted deeply in sustainability, championing responsible practices — from collaborating with local artisans in Mumbai to using eco-friendly fabrics and following a no-leftover production policy.”

For her, sustainability means working with natural fabrics, producing thoughtfully, and creating clothes people genuinely want to wear repeatedly rather than discard after one season.

“Sustainability should be built into how a business operates rather than treated like a marketing category,” feels the entrepreneur, who is well aware of the seriousness of climate change.

ReCircle

Meghna has also partnered with ReCircle, a company that works in the plastic waste management sector, to recover 2,500 kilograms of low-grade single-use plastic from landfills and oceans this year alone.

For every order placed, we recover another kilogram of plastic, with 1 kg being equal to 40 one-litre water bottles. We have already recovered 3,130 kgs of plastic.

Meghna Goyal

Customer education

The entrepreneur also places a strong focus on customer education around circularity and has adopted systems like recycling post-production waste and working with biodegradable materials.

“The label has its resale programme on its website. The initiative is called Preloved, where customers see a Resell button in their order history, which enables them to list their garments for resale in just 60 seconds.”

Slow fashion

Meghna is a firm believer in slow fashion, and all her pieces are made from 100 per cent natural fibres that have a low impact on the planet, utilising blends of linen, GOTS-certified organic cotton, viscose, and Tencel Lyocell.

She only uses azo-free dyes (low-impact dyes) that do not contain carcinogenic compounds and digital printing technology with GOTS-certified inks.

“This process consumes 70 per cent less water, uses less ink, reduces the impact on air pollution by 60 per cent, and also has less risk of chemical run-off into the environment.”

Business family

Born in Mumbai, Meghna’s family runs Salt Lake Shirts Pvt. Ltd., which has been in the garment export business for about 40 years. She pursued a degree in Mass Media from Jai Hind College, Mumbai.

During her school and college years, Meghna was drawn to visual storytelling and style, though she didn’t yet know that it would eventually become her career. “I wasn’t someone who spent all day studying, but I did consistently well academically,” says Meghna, who was always interested in creative subjects, aesthetics, branding, and understanding people.

In New York

She later moved to New York for her master’s degree at New York University. “The city shaped my aesthetic in a big way. Being surrounded by fashion, art, design, restaurants, and constantly observing how people dressed and lived sharpened my eye creatively,” says the entrepreneur.

Professionally, it taught her the importance of storytelling when building a brand. “Product matters, but the story, emotion, and world around it are what make people truly connect with it.”

Brand strategist in New York

She also worked as a brand strategist in New York, where her role involved building brand positioning and communication strategies, which gave her a strong understanding of consumer behaviour and storytelling.

It exposed her to many different industries, people, and ways of thinking. “It helped me realise where my real passion lay, which was ultimately in building something creative of my own.”

That experience shaped how she approached Summer Away from the beginning. “I’ve always believed fashion brands are about much more than just clothing. They’re about creating a feeling, a lifestyle, and a point of view people connect with emotionally.”

Working between Mumbai and New York

Meghna works between New York and Mumbai. “All our production happens in Mumbai, and I spend time there throughout the year working closely with our teams and factories.”

She says supporting Indian manufacturing and craftsmanship has always been important to the brand. “We wanted Summer Away to feel globally relevant while still being rooted in India.”

Focused work

Because she works so closely with India, Meghna tries to overlap with office hours to avoid having the team work too late in India. “My meetings usually start around 6:30 AM and are done by 10 AM. I like keeping the rest of the day for quieter, focused work — creative reviews, strategy, and decision-making without interruptions,” says Meghna, who usually works out in the afternoons and tries to wind down by 4 PM. “Structure is really important to me, especially when working across time zones.”

Colour choices

She naturally gravitates towards softer, grounding tones like ivory, brown, muted blues, and black. “Red or yellow adds a little pop of colour,” says Meghna, whose favourite fabrics are linen, cotton, and viscose because “they breathe well and work naturally for travel and warm weather.”

Brand India

The entrepreneur feels India is in a very exciting place right now, as far as the clothing industry is concerned. “For a long time, Indian fashion was recognised mainly for craftsmanship, but today there’s much stronger branding, storytelling, and design coming out of the country as well,” says Meghna, pointing out that consumers are also far more aware and experimental than before.

Retail stores

Now expanding into footwear as well, Summer Away continues to evolve with trend-forward yet practical collections that are both affordable and elevated.

Meghna wants her brand to become a global destination for travel fashion. “We’re expanding further into accessories, and I’d eventually love to open retail stores in both New York and Mumbai,” says Meghna, whose brand has found fans in several tastemakers and celebrities who resonate with its aesthetic and ethos.

Travel and photography

Travel and photography are Meghna’s biggest interests outside fashion. “I love observing and documenting small details while travelling — people, colours, textures, and places, which often end up inspiring the brand.”

• Follow Meghna Goyal on Instagram and LinkedIn

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