At just 26 years old, Kartik Kumra is becoming a quiet force in the menswear industry. Raised in New Delhi, he launched his own brand five years ago from his college dorm room at the University of Pennsylvania before a succession of milestones: opening a shop in New York’s Lower East Side; getting his tie worn by mayor-to-be Zohran Mamdani at his swearing-in; and, most recently, nabbing the guest designer spot at next year’s Pitti Uomo trade fair.
Behind the scenes, however, something bigger was unfolding. The designer has been building his own factory in his native India, where he will bring production, design, and operations under one roof. While it will certainly help him scale his growing business, it will also help him streamline his processes—dyeing, embroidery, and the other local handcraft techniques he employs. He says it will help get him “closer to the cloth, closer to the hand, closer to the decisions that define what a garment becomes.”
Over the summer in Paris, Kumra showed his expansive spring collection—nominally inspired by the Golconda Ashram in Pondicherry, India, designed by modernist George Nakashima—and two things immediately stood out. First, the expansion of his womenswear, and secondly, his broader offering of tailoring. The latter was, in part, a response to the factory, which employs in-house tailors, and the former was a reaction to customer demand. The collection, overall, stayed firmly in his established visual world: relaxed silhouettes, many based on traditional Southeast Asian garments, crafted from natural textiles and finished off with folkloric details like block-print dyeing or hand embroideries that ranged from subdued to ornate.
A salmon-colored chore coat with a contrast collar features a refined vine motif blooming across its torso, a tobacco suede blouson-style jacket has a peek of glittering embellishment at the inside of the collar, and a light, zip-front jacket is rendered in a faded, tapestry-like print overlaid with embroidery. For women, a collarless leather jacket is decorated with a floral motif up the torso and down the sleeve (and just a hint of sparkle), while a sporty funnel-neck block-printed velvet jacket is paired with a lean, floor-grazing skirt.
Almost every piece has some sort of decorative flourish, some adornment, some thoughtful detail. But by grounding it in an earthy, autumnal palette of umber, moss, and terracotta—plus relaxed shapes that mix workwear and streetwear—the pieces never feel precious or overwrought. In this way, Kumra delivers something both familiar and unique, youthful and refined. It’s in this tension that his work really sings.
