Lounge
What H&M x Anamika Khanna collection says about Indian design
Summary
The fun, chic H&M x Anamika Khanna collaboration shows a relaxed design vocabulary from India
News of a fashion collaboration has become as exciting as a bridge-to-luxury brand sale on an e-commerce site. Yet the stakes were raised anew when H&M recently announced the name for its annual designer collaboration: Anamika Khanna, one of the few Indian women designers who run an independent couture brand in the country.
Close to 40 garments for women and men and 12 accessories, including jewellery and bags, make the capsule H&M x Anamika Khanna collection.
The ingredients are obvious: the Kolkata designer’s eclecticism, love for bright colours and flair for fusing glamour and craftsmanship mixed with contemporary tailoring to suit the demands of fast-fashion shoppers who are constantly looking for something new for office, a party or dailywear that also promises comfort. The collection offers all this without the baggage of heavy embroidery, which is synonymous with most Indian couture designers. Perhaps that’s good, because it not just helps bring the price down—the collection starts from ₹1,499 and goes up to ₹39,999 (quite steep as an offering from fast-fashion but accessible if you consider that Khanna’s couture garments are usually worth lakhs)—but also showcases a relaxed design vocabulary for India.
At the same time, it doesn’t compromise on colour and craft, unlike the 2021 H&M x Sabyasachi collection—the first Indian designer collaboration—that was largely restricted to chintz overkill and often-repeated silhouettes.
Khanna has used a little chikankari on an oversized jacket that you can wear from an office meeting to a party; kantha on a long shirt that’s perfect for a Sunday brunch; an elephant-eye print on a shirt-like jacket and lungi skirt that would work at an evening party; and hand-embroidered patchwork on a coat that will make heads turn. It’s definitely not for those who love neutral colours.
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“The collection is derived from my roots, which is India. I didn’t want to move from there. That’s my principle in design from the day I started, to take Indian shapes, silhouettes, crafts, heritage, textiles, and make it more relevant to the contemporary world. That’s what the collection is: It looks like it’s coming out of India, yet it is very global," Khanna says, pointing out a garment that’s a hybrid between a shirt and a coat and comes with a corset detail.
“You can wear it with a pair of jeans, or with a sari as a blouse," she continues. “Nobody should be able to say, this is only for India. Or this is only for this occasion. It should be able to fit any part of the world and any part of the day."
The collection is size-friendly compared to last year’s H&M x Mugler collection, which, while it included the French brand’s bodysuits and corsetry in sizes XS to XL, wasn’t too flattering for all body sizes.
There aren’t many female-led independent couture houses who are making noise on a global scale (Khanna’s streetwear, accessible AK-OK brand tied up with Reliance Brands Ltd for a 60:40 joint venture three years ago). So, this collection, which will be available online and in stores of the Swedish fashion retailer in Malaysia, UK, Singapore and South Africa from 5 September, will show the world the work of this master of contrasts, who’s been quietly but seamlessly mixing feminine and masculine codes in India since 1998.
That’s a risk as well. The Anamika Khanna brand isn’t as popular internationally as previous H&M collaborators like Karl Lagerfeld, Alexander Wang, Balmain, Madonna, and even Sabyasachi who The New York Times, referred to as “India’s most famous fashion designer", in June 2022.
But Ann-Sofie Johansson, the creative adviser at H&M who worked with Khanna for over a year to bring the collection to life, doesn’t agree. “This is exactly what we wanted. This is our 20th year of H&M’s designer collaboration and ninth year (of the brand) in India, and we couldn’t have asked for a better collaborator," she says. “Anamika was the first female Indian designer to take part in the Paris Fashion Week. Her style is an interesting mix of the Indian tradition of bridalwear with modern touches, such as sportswear. Our collaborators have always been designers we admire for their different work. And India right now is shining when it comes to global fashion."
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