What a difference a season makes.
Six months after making his runway debut on the official Paris show schedule, Kartik Kumra was back in town with another major endorsement under his belt, after one of his ties played a starring role in New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s inauguration.
“He’s been following the brand for a long time, before he became the celebrity that he is today,” the Indian designer said backstage. “So it was cool to make that happen when the opportunity came.”
Like most designers today, Kumra generally sidesteps politics, but he said it was hard to ignore the impact that U.S. trade tariffs are having on the dozens of craftspeople who work for his brand, which is popular with a soigné bohemian crowd.
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Since the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 50 percent levy on Indian exports last August, the designer has been fielding a lot of questions during his travels to meet suppliers.
“They’re looking at me for some some sort of policy inclination, and I’m like, ‘Dude, I’m just as clueless as you are,’” he said. “It’s a little scary, because 20 to 30 percent of their business is just wiped out overnight.”
It’s driven home the need to build a business that’s insulated from foreign whims. Kumra’s fall collection was inspired by Raag, a niche artisanal brand founded in India in the 1970s whose fans included artist Robert Rauschenberg.
He doubled down on craft with items like a raw linen tuxedo jacket with floral embroideries, or jeans with a lavishly embellished waistband.
Kumra is growing increasingly confident in his mix-and-matching, layering an olive green marbled paisley jacket with an indigo-dyed shirt and embroidered patchwork jeans, or a block-printed Harrington jacket with an oversize pistacchio linen suit.
And his lineup now encompasses both casual clothes — rugby stripe tunics, or a sweatshirt with white paisley embroidery — and full-on occasion wear, like the gorgeous embroidered coat that closed the show. Tuning out the political noise, it was soft power at its finest.