Founded by Kartik Kumra in 2021, Kartik Research is an artisanal fashion brand based in New Delhi, India. Humanity, sensibility, and tactility lie at the heart of the brand. It’s a celebration of ancient handmade crafts native to the country: shirting and quilts are made on handlooms and natural dye practices are employed, exploiting the vast vegetation the country also boasts. With every new season the brand researches a different subculture, bringing attention to the things that make us unique and paying homage to human shifts and forces. 

The FW24 collection was a deeper exploration of what founder Kumra sees as the two sides of India. One one hand, the romantic fantastical India that he leans into for inspiration and shoots, exploring and uncovering ancient unrenovated homes and palaces from before the British colonization. A sort of Indo-nostalgia as he quaintly coins it, it’s a means of escape and imagination. The contrasting face of the country, he says, is the one emerging from the influx of globalization, changing social mindsets and a politically driven desire to imitate the West. The increasingly polarized versions are represented through clothing, reflecting the fractured dialogue of the ancient and the modern. An emotional inversion when looking back, but a hopeful optimism of what the future holds for India, he wants the conversations to become fruitful, inspiring and generative.

The lookbook for this collection was set at an ancient sandstone mine in Jodhpur, a city Kumra believes is stuck in a different era. Outside the city there are a bunch of mines, over the years, the carving away of the sandstone mountains has created unreal faces, an interesting visual for the friction the brand is trying to express.

The AW24 collection features pieces from the upcoming collaboration with iconic British clothing brand, Baracuta. Kumra takes the classic Baracuta G9 Harrington jacket, using quilted fabrics and has developed Baracuta’s signature checked lining on handloom. There are trompe l’oeil embroidered garlands made from wool. Kumra worked with artisans from Karnataka who specialize in Kasuti embroidery to create line art inspired by geometric tiles on specific tailoring pieces as well as developing a hand-block printed woolen fabric. Every piece has some sort of hand processing and has been made in collaboration with some of India’s best artisans.

Discover more at kartikresearch.com