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Indian designers are rewriting the rules of denim. Here’s how
KGL

Indian designers are rewriting the rules of denim. Here’s how

Shedding fashion's old clichés of color and bling, India's designers are turning denim into a canvas for kantha, zardozi and a bold new design language.

Words by Anwesh Banerjee

For his recent New York Fashion Week show, couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s 'Bengal, Byzantine, Broadway' collection fused Midwestern Americana with Bengal's centuries-old craft traditions. Naturally, that included denim. The show opened with an all-denim look: a billowing trench coat over a washed denim shirt and straight-fit pants, worn by supermodel Christy Turlington. Turning away from his bridal roots, Mukherjee sent out denim waistcoats with minimal kantha embroidery, shirts, shackets and skirt-dresses with mandarin collars. Unlike other Indian designers, he refreshingly treated denim not as a tabula rasa to be embellished, but as a wardrobe staple whose simplicity invited experimentation with layering and personal style.

Founded by 26-year-old Ritwik Khanna, this award-winning design and research house approaches denim through the lens of sustainability and circular fashion. The zero-waste label reconstructs post-consumer denim into bespoke garments at its New Delhi studio, giving the fashion supply chain's surplus a fresh lease of life. Each piece celebrates the natural patina and history embodied in denim's longevity. Think double-breasted blazers, indigo-dipped polos and pants embellished with kantha patches, appliqué, zardozi and cross-embroidery, among other techniques.

Denim has been a regular fixture in the gender-agnostic design lexicon of Kanika Goyal Label (KGL) since its launch in 2014. Its creations range from pleated, ripped jeans with beaded flares and straight-cut styles in upcycled denim to deconstructed button-downs. Drawing on '70s psychedelia, Goyal consistently infuses everyday staples with a dash of whimsy: think aquamarine creatures and dense, vibrantly coloured foliage as embellishment motifs. Even trench coats are crafted from a mix of organza and denim, while the midi dresses, with evocative names like Noctis Arch and Oriel, are a must-have for every cool girl.

Former New Yorker Payal Singhal, best known for her bohemian occasion wear, is no stranger to denim. It is, in fact, the centrepiece of her newly launched luxury pret line, PS. The line borrows from the designer’s own taste in denim, featuring an assortment of clean barrel pants in navy, denim skirts embellished with mirrorwork and chain fringes, and a sari-skirt with a denim base and a car-wash fringe pallu, a testament to her ability to infuse South Asian occasionwear with bohemian joie de vivre.

Since launching his eponymous label in 2013, denim has been a cornerstone of the Dhruv Kapoor universe. True to his street-style origins, Kapoor's garments, which regularly walk the runways of Milan, focus on structure, volume and fluid drape, rendering malleable denim almost architectural. Expect paisley and floral embroidered pants in balloon and slim-fit silhouettes, sleek denim hoodie shirts, button-down shackets with exaggerated collars, and waist-cinched blazers, handcrafted floral threadwork, appliqué and a measured sprinkling of sequins.

An experimental diffusion line of his eponymous couture label, Rahul Mishra's AFEW has an exciting South Asian take on denim. A regular on the Paris couture calendar now, Mishra showcases the fabric's capacity to support both voluminous silhouettes and moulded, structured forms. Indigo bases are elevated with intricate hand embroidery, sequins and nature-inspired motifs, resulting in flared trousers with batik-printed panels, peplum tops with floral appliqué, knee-length kurtas with threadwork, midi dresses with exaggerated sleeves and corseted blazers with embroidered lapels.

For decades, Indian fashion has long been boxed in by the same few clichés: a riot of color, a surfeit of bling, and little room for anything else. But a new wave of designers has been challenging this narrative; with their sharp, daring, design-led point of view. And nowhere is this clearer than in Indians brands’ use of denim.
Once synonymous with everyday utility and blue collar workwear, denim has become one of contemporary fashion's most enduring sites of experimentation, shedding its blue-jean origins for sculptural forms: architectural outerwear, fluid separates, unconventional tailoring and head-to-toe ensembles.
For Indian designers, this has opened up a compelling dialogue with the country's rich craft traditions. This meeting of material and craft is yielding distinctly individual perspectives.

Sabyasachi

Sabyasachi

For his recent New York Fashion Week show, couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s 'Bengal, Byzantine, Broadway' collection fused Midwestern Americana with Bengal's centuries-old craft traditions. Naturally, that included denim. The show opened with an all-denim look: a billowing trench coat over a washed denim shirt and straight-fit pants, worn by supermodel Christy Turlington. Turning away from his bridal roots, Mukherjee sent out denim waistcoats with minimal kantha embroidery, shirts, shackets and skirt-dresses with mandarin collars. Unlike other Indian designers, he refreshingly treated denim not as a tabula rasa to be embellished, but as a wardrobe staple whose simplicity invited experimentation with layering and personal style.

Rkive City

Rkive City

Founded by 26-year-old Ritwik Khanna, this award-winning design and research house approaches denim through the lens of sustainability and circular fashion. The zero-waste label reconstructs post-consumer denim into bespoke garments at its New Delhi studio, giving the fashion supply chain's surplus a fresh lease of life. Each piece celebrates the natural patina and history embodied in denim's longevity. Think double-breasted blazers, indigo-dipped polos and pants embellished with kantha patches, appliqué, zardozi and cross-embroidery, among other techniques.

Kanika Goyal Label

KGL

Denim has been a regular fixture in the gender-agnostic design lexicon of Kanika Goyal Label (KGL) since its launch in 2014. Its creations range from pleated, ripped jeans with beaded flares and straight-cut styles in upcycled denim to deconstructed button-downs. Drawing on '70s psychedelia, Goyal consistently infuses everyday staples with a dash of whimsy: think aquamarine creatures and dense, vibrantly coloured foliage as embellishment motifs. Even trench coats are crafted from a mix of organza and denim, while the midi dresses, with evocative names like Noctis Arch and Oriel, are a must-have for every cool girl.

Payal Singhal

Payal Singhal

Former New Yorker Payal Singhal, best known for her bohemian occasion wear, is no stranger to denim. It is, in fact, the centrepiece of her newly launched luxury pret line, PS. The line borrows from the designer’s own taste in denim, featuring an assortment of clean barrel pants in navy, denim skirts embellished with mirrorwork and chain fringes, and a sari-skirt with a denim base and a car-wash fringe pallu, a testament to her ability to infuse South Asian occasionwear with bohemian joie de vivre.

Dhruv Kapoor

Dhruv Kapoor

Since launching his eponymous label in 2013, denim has been a cornerstone of the Dhruv Kapoor universe. True to his street-style origins, Kapoor's garments, which regularly walk the runways of Milan, focus on structure, volume and fluid drape, rendering malleable denim almost architectural. Expect paisley and floral embroidered pants in balloon and slim-fit silhouettes, sleek denim hoodie shirts, button-down shackets with exaggerated collars, and waist-cinched blazers, handcrafted floral threadwork, appliqué and a measured sprinkling of sequins.

AFEW by Rahul Mishra

AFEW by Rahul Mishra

An experimental diffusion line of his eponymous couture label, Rahul Mishra's AFEW has an exciting South Asian take on denim. A regular on the Paris couture calendar now, Mishra showcases the fabric's capacity to support both voluminous silhouettes and moulded, structured forms. Indigo bases are elevated with intricate hand embroidery, sequins and nature-inspired motifs, resulting in flared trousers with batik-printed panels, peplum tops with floral appliqué, knee-length kurtas with threadwork, midi dresses with exaggerated sleeves and corseted blazers with embroidered lapels.

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