NOIDA — At the Grammy Awards photocall in February 2023, American rapper Cardi B caused quite a stir. The Bronx native and provocative idol of the U.S. music scene, wore a voluminous electric blue gown, mimicking air currents bouncing off her buxom, scalpel-modeled figure.
Fashion magazines hailed Cardi B’s appearance: Harper’s Bazaar called it “true art”; Vogue paid tribute to the “happening” caused by this sculptural outfit. The dress was designed by Gaurav Gupta, one of India’s hottest fashion designers.
Last year, many American stars wore Gupta on the red carpet. The designer also created three outfits for Beyonce’s colossal “Renaissance” tour, during which Queen B wore a neon green dress imitating a traditional Indian sari. These are just some of the signs that Indian fashion designers are all the rage, and are seriously starting to win over customers outside the subcontinent.
“For our Western customers, this kind of style is totally new,” Gupta told Les Echos Week-End in his studio in Noida, a large industrial city southeast of New Delhi. The designer takes us on a tour of his headquarters. An imposing six-story building teeming with craftsmen — almost 600 in all.
“We bring in new techniques. We innovate. We’re constantly questioning the status quo,” the 44-year-old fashion designer says. And his style ? “Future-primitive” and “sculptural” he says.
All his ideas are put down on paper before being materialized in this vast studio with its immaculate white walls. On the fourth floor, designers, black felt-tip pens in hand, draw patterns and embroideries. Photos and fabric samples are pinned to the wall, forming the moodboard for the upcoming collection. On the lower floors, nimble fingers use sewing machines assemble various parts of the dresses.
Further down, dozens of “karigars” (craftsmen specialized in embroidery, most of them Muslim men) sit cross-legged around wooden frames on which fabrics and gauze are stretched. Armed with their “aari” needles, a kind of crochet hook, they embroider sequins, pearls and threads one by one onto the stretched fabrics. A work of extrordinary precision.
Some of the dresses designed by Gupta require 3,000 hours of work. That’s 125 days for one worker, including nights. “In India, we have inherited a huge culture of craftsmanship. This gives us an advantage over other designers,” Gupta says. This savoir-faire is reserved for a very privileged clientele: his haute couture dresses sell for a minimum of 9,000 euros ($9,800) each.
Family business
A graduate of Delhi’s National Institute of Fashion Technology and of London’s Central Saint Martins school, Gupta, the son of steel industrialists, was not predestined for this career path. “My father wanted me to join the family business, as my other brothers and cousins did. But I chose a different path. I’m the ugly duckling in the family,” he says.
The Gupta touch is unmistakable.
Family still has a strong presence. Saurabh, his younger brother, runs the company’s business side. In fact, Gupta more readily uses the word “we” than “I.” With serious glasses, skinny jeans and white sneakers, Saurabh’s polished style contrasts sharply with Gaurav’s exuberance: he has a half-shaved head, wears a black leather jacket with wide lapels and large square-toed boots that look as heavy as anvils.
The designer stands out for his extensive use of “zardozi,” an embroidery technique in which metal pieces are sewn onto silk, satin or velvet, giving the pieces relief and splendor. The “Gupta touch” is unmistakable: dresses in electric colors supported by fine hoops that give them an airy, almost spatial character; a signature emphasis on overly voluminous shoulders; and tributes to the Indian sari, where fabric wraps around the waist, spirals around the bust and is finally thrown over the shoulder.
The sari, revisited
Gupta prides himself on having turned the style of rich Indian women upside down, in particular with his emblematic sari dress, which he has adapted for several seasons. “This piece has become a wardrobe staple. Yet Indian women never wore dresses before,” he says.
This mix of genres, straddling traditional Indian dress and modern couture, is one of the strengths of his brand. It is a real balancing act, considering how attached Indian women are to traditional outfits — particularly to the sari, a piece that is still favored for important events, weddings, receptions and parties.
“Gaurav Gupta’s work with draping can be seen as a radical reworking of the sari. He has taken its essence, namely its spiral form, and reinterpreted it through a more sculptural construction,” says Phyllida Jay, author of Inspired by India: How India Transformed Global Design.
Our identity is Indian and global.
“Our identity is Indian and global: there are always little hints hidden in our outfits that only Indian customers will be able to understand and appreciate. But these garments are also compatible with Western customers’ expectations,” Gupta says, pointing to a mother-of-pearl-colored sari dress on a mannequin in his office: “I could see Kendall Jenner in this. But an Indian woman could totally wear it, too.”
“France has Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel. Italy has Valentino and Dolce & Gabbana. India lacked a house of this stature,” says Hema Bose, the creative consultant who put Gupta in touch with the rapper Megan Thee Stallion, as well as Cardi B and Beyonce, “The aim is to make Gaurav Gupta an international brand.” Getting his dresses on red carpets is one way to make that happen.
Gupta has already been invited twice to Haute Couture Week, including a July 2023 show at Paris’s Palais de Tokyo.
“It’s an important signal. Not just anyone can take to the runway during Haute Couture Week,” says Benedicte Epinay, President of the Colbert Committee, the French luxury goods trade association. In fact, only 32 houses were invited last July.
“Gaurav Gupta stands out for his singular style and creative modernity. In particular, there’s a very fine work on torsions,” says Pascal Morand, Executive President of the Haute Couture and Fashion Federation (FHCM).
The Gupta brothers pride themselves on their independence from big business. This, they say, allows them to experiment more freely. According to several sources, however, the duo is looking to partner with a major group to expand internationally and open boutiques in several capital cities.
When we met with him, Gupta was preparing for Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week, held from January 22 to 25, where he presented his third haute couture collection, at the American Cathedral in Paris.
Two Indians in Paris
But Gupta wasn’t the only Indian designer on the banks of the Seine. Rahul Mishra was also invited to the capital to present his spring-summer 2024-2025 collection, “Homage to Insects,” in a former factory in the 9th arrondissement.
“Succeeding in Paris is a challenge. It’s like taking part in the Olympic Games,” the 44-year-old couturier told Les Echos Week-End in his studio, also in Noida, where he was also preparing for his Paris show.
“This city makes us better designers. When I look at my progression, it wouldn’t have happened without Paris. There’s a contagious creative concentration in this city,” says Mishra, who was the first Indian designer to be invited to Haute Couture Week in 2020.
Mishra, too, had to fight his way into fashion. But in a different way. The designer grew up in Malhausi, a small village between Agra, the city of the Taj Mahal, and Lucknow, the capital of the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. “My father wanted me to become a doctor. When I told him about my artistic desires, he didn’t like it,” recalls the tall, bespectacled man with a broad smile from a very modest family,
At the end of his third year at university, where he was studying math and physics, Mishra left home without his father’s permission, and went to Delhi, borrowing money from his aunt. He eventually enrolled at the prestigious National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
Having a style that draws on India’s immense cultural heritage is a real advantage.
That is where he met his wife, Divya, with whom he founded his brand in 2013. In 10 years, the couple has conquered the Indian luxury market. In 2023, he dressed American actress Zendaya for the opening of Mumbai’s Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, the brand new museum built by Mukesh Ambani, one of the country’s biggest fortunes. The American singer Selena Gomez also wore one of his outfits, a pink flower-shaped dress the center of which was embroidered by one of Mishra’s workers.
“By doing haute couture, I contribute to people’s lives, I create jobs. That’s the most important thing,” says the designer, who in September was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Emmanuel Lenain, then French ambassador to India (now posted in Brazil).
The art of Indian embroidery is highly sought-after. This includes the major foreign luxury brands, who subcontract some of their pieces to Indian karigars. A 2020 New York Times investigation, however, revealed the deplorable conditions of hundreds of embroiderers employed by European luxury brands in India. Mishra, for his part, has called a more ethical approach to fashion.
“A lot of embroidery is done in terrible conditions, with embroiderers working and sleeping in the same place. I want to do my bit,” he says, explaining that he employs hundreds of workers who remain in their villages with their families.
He, too, is on a mission to conquer the global luxury market. In 2022, the couturier launched Afew, a ready-to-wear brand he is marketing through a joint venture with Reliance, Mukesh Ambani’s 400,000-employee conglomerate. The team is due to open several stores abroad, including in Paris.
“With a partner like this, money is no longer an issue,” Mishra says. “It allows us to accelerate the brand’s development.”
A booming luxury market
To satisfy their ambitions, the two designers can capitalize on the significant growth of the Indian luxury market. The figures are staggering: traditional jewelry excluded, the market is valued at billion, and is expected to grow by 20% a year over the next few years, according to Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The segment is driven by the growing number of dollar millionaires. In 2021, Credit Suisse counted 800,000. By 2026, India will have 1.6 million. The same number of potential customers.
Indian designers also have cards to play abroad. “The Indian diaspora is almost a given,” says Abheek Singhi, partner at BCG India. Especially in North America and the UK.
“There is a certain degree of adjustment required to address the global fashion market, which is rather homogeneous,” says author Phyllida Jay. “But on the other hand, with major international brands becoming increasingly similar, having a style that draws on India’s immense cultural heritage is a real advantage.”
Until now, few Indian designers have ventured beyond their borders, focusing on the huge domestic market, and particularly wedding wear, which is a colossal business in its own right.
Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga all have their embroidery done in India.
Trying your luck abroad is a risky bet, and some have already hit a brick wall. The first Indian designer to make a name for himself in the global luxury market, Manish Arora, sometimes called the “Indian John Galliano,” went bankrupt in 2020. After opening a Paris boutique in the late 2000s, sales of his brand in Europe and India failed to keep pace, forcing the flamboyant designer out of business.
In Delhi, people want to believe that the stars are once again aligned. “The Indian fashion industry is relatively young. It was born in the 1980s with pioneers such as Ritu Kumar, Rohit Khosla and Tarun Tahiliani,” Jay says. “It’s only in the past 20 years that we’ve witnessed the transformation of this nascent industry into a truly organized ecosystem. Those who wanted to make their house an international brand lacked the support, which came to fruition only three years ago with investments from Reliance or Aditya Birla.”
Major Indian conglomerates have begun to invest in luxury goods. In addition, to the joint venture launched with Mishra, Reliance has forged several partnerships to distribute European luxury brands in India and has built the Jio World Plaza in Mumbai, the first shopping mall dedicated exclusively to luxury brands.
Standing out from Western brands
For Indians designers, the main challenge is to showcase their cultural heritage without scaring off Western customers with outfits that could be rejected as too “Indian.” This challenge is made all the greater by the fact that Indian know-how is already used by major European fashion houses.
“Dior, Chanel and Balenciaga all have their embroidery done in India, which means we no longer have a monopoly on our craft. So we can’t base our originality on that,” Mishra says.
His workshop gives an idea of his current inspirations. On the walls hang various Mondrian reproductions, including Red Tree (1909) and Silver Tree (1911) and, at the very bottom of the panel, a detail from one of the paintings in the Compositions in Red, Yellow, Blue and Black series. Mishra intends to draw inspiration from the Dutch painter to create a “new journey,” following in the footsteps of Yves Saint Laurent, who paid tribute to Mondrian in 1965 with his famous cocktail dresses.
For his Paris show, Mishra retained the painter’s geometric character. One dress, for example, gives the illusion of a simple twisted mesh, on which thousands of pearls have been embroidered to create a gradation of black, silver and gold.
“For this collection, we’re trying to create clothes as if we were creating jewelry. The details have to be as close as possible to jewels,” Mishra says. Also on display in the studio is the catalog for the Musée d’Orsay’s 2016 exhibition devoted to Henri “Le Douanier” Rousseau. “I love his simplicity and naïveté. Some of his plants and animals are Indian, which attracts me,” Mishra says.
Is the success of these Indian designers synonymous with the end of “quiet luxury”? “Mankind has been developing a taste for details for thousands of years. I can’t believe that several millennia of evolution can be forgotten so quickly. The world is hungry for original looks,” Mishra says. We can count on Indian designers to brighten up wardrobes around the world.
