When Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as the mayor of New York City earlier this month, taking his oath on a family copy of the Quran, he wore a brown tie made from eri silk from Kartik Research. Mamdani had been a fan of the brand for a while, and so when the DM came in from stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson to inquire about a tie, it made sense, and a fashion moment was born.
“I’m a fan of Zohran’s politics,” Kartik Kumra told the scrum of press backstage before his show this afternoon in Paris. “In India especially, kids I went to school with have really gone right as a result of this super-online generational thing that’s happening. So it’s cool to see that in New York, the pendulum has gone the other way. It’s a symbol of hope in that regard.”
Kumra is something of a symbol of hope himself. At just 25, he has already made history as the first Indian designer to present on the Paris schedule, and his shows have become must-sees. During this one, which took place in a bright and airy set of blue-carpeted rooms in the 16th, the recent tariffs that the US has imposed on India was the topic of conversation. For the approximately 300 Indian artisans that Kartik Research works with, who have no access to the end consumer, those changes carry a potential death sentence. “It felt important to double down on the ability of craft that we have access to,” he said. “Our brand without access to the makers that we have is just regular clothes. That’s what makes it unique, so I really wanted to emphasize that.”
This was plain to see in the clothes, which sparkled with even more embroidery and embellishment than usual. Tailored trousers were decorated with gold sequined petals that spread across the crotch or were covered with patchwork paisley, alongside silk jackets and tactile cotton shirting that showed off all manner of artisanship. At the same time there was a considered push to wearability: “We’re not a wedding brand, so we’re always wary of that, but at the same time we’re pushing it in terms of technique that maybe we haven’t done before,” he said.
Raag, a handwoven textile brand started in the 1970s in Ahmedabad, also provided inspiration. Kumra is a member of India’s craft council, and had tapped his network there to learn about Raag and swing some rare access to their archive. He found its contents “exquisite in a way that now feels almost unfashionable,” but took the magnetism of the spirit and brought it into this season.
It yielded a collection with too many crafty highlights to choose from: a leather-collared beige barn jacket, over whose surface crawled vines of floral embroidery that glittered pink in the light, and a fully hand-embroidered kantha tuxedo jacket in a light stone gray. The palette moved confidently through iridescent mango silk, earthy cottons, burgundy suede and indigo corduroy, styled by Kumra’s longtime collaborator Julie Ragolia.
What the resulting applause this afternoon confirmed was Kumra’s ability to take the flamboyance and detail of Indian craft and make it relevant. Though the techniques he uses are in some cases hundreds of years old, he is able to transform them into clothes that are right for the moment, and reposition India as a center for refreshing global fashion. That his designs happen to resonate with progressive politicians in New York and fashion editors in Paris is no doubt part of a much larger story that is yet to be written.
