When we meet Anamika Khanna at her Alipore residence in Kolkata, the designer is still high from the debut of her pret brand AK-OK at London Fashion Week. AK-OK had held eight celebrated shows in India over the past four years, and the debut in London last year marked a pivotal moment in the brand’s international journey.
The choice of London was fitting for the label that was born from Khanna’s instinct to play and experiment with tradition. “London was a natural choice for us as it is a melting pot of cultural differences, and much more accepting of all kinds of nuances of fashion and very forgiving to experimental design,” Khanna says. “Our brand bridges the gap between how dressing in India has always been perceived and the reality, that it is very modern.”
Bold, graphic prints inspired by Indian mythology and astrology, chikankari embroidery on a coat paired with slouchy trousers, silver elements, referencing Indian jewellery, reworked with jeans, skirts and boots—the collection challenged the notion that Indian fashion is “too formal” or “too ethnic”, by providing silhouettes that flowed effortlessly, revealing innovative ways to wear jackets, tops and jewellery in a contemporary setting.
“For so many years, eastern culture has been perceived as costume, not wearable in everyday life,” Khanna says. “But whenever I use jewellery, people want to wear it with jeans. It’s about looking at these elements in a modern way, whether they belong today,” adds the designer who has lately been designing and manufacturing metallic silver jewellery paired with her collection. This is designed not just as traditional jewellery but also as neckties and suspenders—the silhouettes always contemporary and modern, and able to fit anywhere in the world and yet originating from an Indian reference.
Whether for pret or her eponymous label, Khanna’s aesthetic has fundamentally remained the same—sharp tailoring softened by fluid drapes and comfortable forms.
Referred to as the ‘Queen of Drapes’, Khanna has been celebrated for her innovative approach to the draped silhouette, particularly her reinvention of traditional Indian garments like the saree and lehenga, often incorporating sharp tailoring, jackets, and capes into her draped ensembles. Her dhoti-style saris (dhoti pants) are one of her most famous innovations, reinterpreting the traditional nine-yard sari into a modern, pre-stitched, and effortlessly stylish draped pant.
And yet, it was a career that began quietly, with no training, and just a single sewing machine. A chance entry into the Damania fashion awards in 1995 gave her attention she never expected. The self-taught designer won the award and a few multi-brand outlets wanted to stock her designs.
At that time, Khanna was studying science and aspired to take up professional dancing. “Since I had no training in design, I had no idea. It was one experiment at a time, one mistake at a time, literally five garments at a time,” says the creative director and founder of Anamika Khanna, and the contemporary brand AK-OK. The rest, as they say, is history.
In 2007, Khanna became the first Indian designer to showcase at Paris Fashion Week. “I may have gone too early for my time,” she says. “There was no exposure, no social media, not even phones. But that experience shaped me.”
Today, her work retails through five flagship stores and over 20 multi-brand outlets, with a presence across India, the UK, the US, and the UAE, as well as online platforms, including Ensemble, Evoluzione, Ogaan, Aza, Elahe, and Aashni & Co.
Meanwhile, she saw a gap in the pret segment and along with her twins Viraj and Vishesh conceived the idea of AK-OK in 2020. The brand, created as an extension of the high-end luxury label Anamika Khanna to cater to aspirational customers, and which offers an edgy take on luxury apparel, was officially launched as a 40:60 joint venture with Reliance Brands Limited (RBL) in 2021.
AK-OK has a retail presence through flagship stores in Hyderabad and Delhi, and through other stores in cities, including Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and Ludhiana. It is also available overseas, in London and Los Angeles. What began as a core clothing brand has now also diversified into lifestyle accessories such as jewellery and bags.
In December 2025, she was also named Designer of the Year by Diet Sabya, the anonymous Instagram account known for its uncompromising critique of originality in Indian fashion.
AK-OK is also the brand that brought Khanna’s sons into the business. After a transient ischemic attack, a health crisis, in 2018, they stepped in more actively, and her husband, Vijay Singh Khanna, joined the business full-time. “Ever since he stepped in, we’ve seen structured growth,” says Viraj, who has studied business administration at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and joined in 2019.
During Covid he started experimenting with making collages and uploading them on his Instagram handle. After dabbling with painting and fibreglass sculptures, he has now moved to textile art using embroidery. After a master’s in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2025, he is back in Kolkata to continue contributing to his mother’s business.
Vishesh, on the other hand, studied social science and communication design at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles and also has a master’s in fashion design from Central Saint Martins in London.
“When your kids are growing up and you’re working, it’s not easy. I also took myself for granted and I have changed that. I prioritise a lot of other things that I never did. It was a warning signal that I have taken to heart. I work out. And with the boys, life has become far more fun. And with them joining work, it’s a different perspective, they take on a lot of my stresses. They’re my pillars of support. It’s the greatest thing ever,” says Khanna.
The Khanna enterprise is deeply collaborative. Viraj, a textile and visual artist, acts as de facto CEO, overseeing strategy, finance, HR, and collaborations. Vishesh leads menswear and design innovation. Khanna’s husband manages the embroidery department—integral to nearly 70 percent of her work—and has built systems that have helped the business double in recent years. “He may not show up for the shows, but I think he’s one of the reasons why the business has been growing a lot,” says Viraj.
In the last five years, the brand has expanded its retail presence, increased international visibility and diversified product lines. The label has scaled beyond niche couture owing to collaborations and partnerships. As per official filings, the parent company’s revenue (excluding AK-OK) rose with a CAGR of around 25 percent over the period from FY19 to FY24 and the net profit saw a CAGR of ~43 percent.
“It’s like a cooperative movement,” Viraj says. “There’s no ego, no conflict. We know whose opinion matters where.”
The fact that her sons are artistic keeps the environment creatively charged, leaving room for discussion and feedback. “I am blessed they have the taste, technique and knowhow. Plus, we are in a space where we get each other, so feedback is taken in the right spirit.”
It helps that she continues to be based out of Kolkata. Though Khanna didn’t “choose” Kolkata, since she grew up here, staying has been intentional. “It removes pressure,” Viraj says. “You can focus on work instead of constantly showing up socially.”
“And once we come home, we are not even in the city anymore. It is a sanctuary,” adds Khanna, referring to their home in the posh neighbourhood of Alipore.
Designed in collaboration with Sri Lankan architect Channa Daswatte, Khanna’s home is an extension of her design philosophy: Clean architectural lines softened by handcrafted details. It is also full of art and textiles. Carved wooden panels from Chennai line the staircase; an antique stupa anchors one corner, while artwork is scattered throughout—a Paresh Maity bell sculpture, a fibreglass Ganesha by Jayesh Sachdev, her son Viraj’s sculpture of a yellow cow draped in blue from his first 2021 show, ‘What My Mother Didn’t Teach Me’, paintings by Dhruvi Acharya, Shivy Galtere and several emerging artists, as well as other work from her son Viraj’s collection.
A sprawling backyard garden has a manicured lawn and an overgrown, almost forest-like space with tall palms lining the boundary wall. Khanna herself is elegant and understated, dressed in a flowing white ensemble—a hand-embroidered kurta paired with ripped pants. Her bright red nails and signature stacked chunky bangles punctuate the look. But beneath the calm, one can sense that her mind is clearly elsewhere—working through timelines for upcoming shows, urgent tasks for her son Vishesh and last-minute production details.
A quick change into a denim outfit and it’s like a switch has been turned as she heads out to her factory in Topsia, about 10 kilometres away. Spread across four storeys, the space is her “karmabhoomi”. Here, she is in “worker mode”: Sleeves rolled up, juggling client calls, providing design feedback, issuing instructions.
Awards line the shelf behind her desk—the Pride of Bengal award (organised by the ICC Young Leaders Forum that honours individuals from Bengal who have made significant national and global impact) among them—but mannequins dressed in her designs, sketches and fabric swatches dominate the workspace. “Nothing leaves the factory unchecked,” Viraj says. “She sees every garment. She’s a bit of a perfectionist in that sense.”
Each floor of the factory is divided by function—menswear, kurtas, lehengas—with design, stitching, embroidery and finishing teams working in tandem. About 15 percent of her output is menswear, a category Vishesh helped build after studying pattern-making and bespoke tailoring from a Savile Row-trained master tailor in Ireland.
Khanna works indirectly with a 2,000-strong community of embroiderers from Diamond Harbour and Murshidabad, specialising in aari and zardozi. She feels the talent she has access to is unmatched. “There’s no substitute to the handcraft that the karigars do here,” she says.
She refuses to mechanise. “Everything is hand-done,” Viraj says. “Sometimes the cost of making an outfit is higher than the MRP, but she still puts it out just because she loves it, even though it doesn’t make commercial sense at all.”
Khanna was one of the pioneers to pair painstaking handwork such as zardozi, aari, gota, kantha, mirror work, chikankari, appliqué, and patchwork with modern draping, global tailoring and experimental proportions. Instead of using it as surface decoration, she uses embroidery asymmetrically across garments. This gives centuries-old craft a contemporary twist. By doing so she positions Indian craft as forward-thinking luxury, not ethnic fashion.
“Anamika is profoundly devoted to the art of fashion. Every visit to her atelier reveals something extraordinary whether it’s a textile experiment, a technique rooted in heritage, or a silhouette that feels entirely new. She is deeply researched, incredibly intuitive and quietly powerful. There is a chic discretion to how she works, no noise, no excess, just absolute commitment to craft,” says Hema Bose, founder of Maison Bose, a platform that helps designers with their brand positioning, global expansion, and image elevation. Bose has worked with Khanna on several projects— from dressing up pop icon Shakira to actor and playwright Colman Domingo, especially at The Running Man premiere, a look that went viral.
“There’s love for what we do. That’s why they come to us,” says Khanna. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t work.” But from actor Sonam Kapoor to talk show host Oprah Winfrey, the trust is evident.
“Anamika has never just designed clothes. She’s designed emotion, strength and a quiet rebellion. To be dressed by her is to feel understood without explanation,” says Kapoor. Khanna and Kapoor’s relationship has grown beyond fashion, rooted in trust, warmth, and a shared belief in individuality. “Being her muse has never been about wearing garments; it’s been about sharing a vision, one where softness is powerful, individuality is luxury and women are celebrated exactly as they are,” she adds.
Khanna herself loves working with Kapoor. “I love working with Sonam because it’s interactive. You can have a conversation about an outfit and come up with a great idea, because she knows her mind and we have done this for years,” says Khanna.
One of the most visible moments of Khanna’s work travelling the world came through Shakira’s look during performances of her song ‘Ojos Así’ across North America and Latin America. “The flaming red outfit—timeless, powerful, and unapologetically bold—felt entirely in sync with Shakira’s energy,” says Bose of Maison Bose.
In May 2025, when Isha Ambani, the chairperson of Reliance Retail, decided to shine a spotlight on India’s textiles and its culture by walking the Met Gala, it was again Khanna who was chosen to design her outfit. Following the theme ‘Tailored for you’, what emerged was a black, white and gold ensemble featuring a geometric corset, tailored pants and a sweeping cape, blending Indian heritage with Black dandy style and African textiles, that took over 20,000 hours to embroider with pearls, semi-precious stones and zardozi work.
More recently, EU Chief Ursula von der Leyen wore a euro blue silk satin bandhgala by Anamika Khanna—adorned with resham hand embroidery, handmade lace cut-outs and subtle 3D work—when she arrived at Hyderabad House in New Delhi, ahead of a landmark India-EU trade deal in January.
Khanna sees the future as expansive. AK-OK is venturing into bags, jewellery, home, sleepwear and menswear. “We are building a world, the world of Anamika Khanna, the world of AK-OK,” she says. “Not just clothes.”
There are other projects in the pipeline which will go live once Vishesh is back from pursuing his master’s.
Meanwhile, even as Khanna prepares for yet another show, yet another collection, yet another experiment, as she rues the quiet fading of karigars and handwork, she goes back a moment in time to her AK-OK London debut—a collection that was an exploration of nostalgia and memory.
Beyond fashion, she says, the collection posed a question about pace and value.
“I just wanted to bring back the feeling of being present for one minute,” Khanna says. “To emotionally not be in a rush, and to value things that may disappear as we digitise everything. The beauty of what we have always had is unmatched, and I want it to remain.”
First Published: Mar 11, 2026, 16:03
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