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Anamika Khanna On Reshaping How Indian Women Dress, and Why Sonam Kapoor Is Her Constant Muse
From Rashmika Mandanna to Oprah Winfrey, Ananya Panday to Deepika Padukone, designer Anamika Khanna is working with her twin sons, still dressing global icons, and watching Indian fashion claim its place on the world stage — all while staying true to her instinct.
At 8 a.m. on a Saturday, designer Anamika Khanna sips her coffee with oat milk, and doesn’t run to work like she once used to. Thirty years into her career, there’s a quiet confidence from having survived, shaped and helped define modern Indian fashion.
The designer launched her eponymous label in 1995 and began retailing at Ensemble. She has spent three decades questioning silhouettes, reworking heritage and resisting the pressure to become predictable.
Today, Khanna remains busy with runway shows and collections, but the context has changed dramatically. When she became the first Indian designer to show at Paris Fashion Week back in 2007, there was no social media, no instant communication, and little understanding of Indian fashion on a global stage. Indian designers were routinely questioned — on quality, wearability, relevance, often dismissed as being “too Indian”.
One of her earliest, defining risks came when she reimagined the sari for a show — cutting it, pairing it with trousers, and sending it down the runway at a time when such acts were considered sacrilegious. Backstage, she panicked. “If the press thrashed you back then, you were finished,” she says. Instead, it reshaped how Indian women dressed.
All in the Family
Today, Indian craft walks global runways. Kolhapuri chappals are reinterpreted in luxury houses. International brands want to enter India. “It’s not the same world anymore,” Khanna says. “Now I have the bandwidth to say ‘I’m putting myself out there’, and if somebody criticises something I do, I can take it. It’s not going to finish my career.”
Her twin sons now also work closely with her across both her couture label Anamika Khanna, and her prêt label, AK|OK. Asked what it’s like to work with them, Khanna pauses, then laughs. “It’s traumatic,” she says. “And yet, the most beautiful thing ever.”
Sons Vishesh and Viraj have become integral to both the creative and operational sides of the business. Vishesh questions everything — whether an idea feels relevant, young enough, or already dated. Viraj, meanwhile, shares his mother’s artistic instinct. Together, they’ve also taken charge of sourcing, social media, negotiations, and accounting, allowing Khanna to focus more fully on design.
“They’re bringing youth into the signature,” she says. “But they’re not trying to change what’s already working.”
Cultural Capital
Khanna’s clothes have long occupied a rare space — equally at home on a couture bride and on some of the most recognisable women in the world.
Her collaboration with Oprah Winfrey in 2018, facilitated through Elle magazine, remains one of her most cherished moments. Winfrey didn’t just wear the coat Khanna designed — she repeated it multiple times, publicly. So much so, Khanna sent her another one.
“She didn’t care if people had seen her wearing it before,” Khanna says. “She just loved it.” For a designer who values longevity over novelty, that act felt more validating than any red-carpet debut.
While she feels the distinction between styling Indian and international celebrities no longer exists, Khanna believes that unlike the West, Bollywood moves Indian fashion. At the recent Swadesh event last month, Deepika Padukone wore Khanna’s Patola weave ensemble — a deliberate decision to foreground India’s artisans.
And when it came to dressing Bollywood actors such as Janhvi Kapoor or Jacqueline Fernandes at the Cannes Film Festival last May, it’s all about collaboration. “They move with stylists,” Khanna says. She often brainstorms with stylists like Rhea Kapoor and with the actor themselves. “That’s how it becomes a very custom, special outfit,” she says, adding that the actor she wants to manifest working with is Rekha.
However, it is Sonam Kapoor who remains a constant muse. The actor’s first appearance on the ramp was for Khanna, marking the beginning of a relationship that has now spanned over two decades. “Every time I’m stuck, I call Sonam and say, ‘I don’t like what I’m doing — what should I do?’” Khanna says.
Recounting their long friendship, she says, “I knew her father, Anil Kapoor, for a while. When he introduced me to his family, they completely took over. Every time he sees me, he says, ‘You’re not my friend anymore — my family has stolen you.’”
A Foray in Films
Sonam Kapoor is also the reason Khanna found herself working in films. From Delhi-6 (2009) to Aisha (2010), Mausam (2011) and Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (2015), Khanna has approached costume design rather selectively. For Delhi-6, she recalls sourcing the fabric from Delhi’s street market, Janpath: “All of it may not be ‘fashion’, but it had to be real.”
That distinction is precisely why she’s in no hurry to return. Costume design, she acknowledges, demands a different kind of commitment. “I don’t know if films are my baby — it’s very different, and the time and effort [required is a lot],” she says. “I don’t think I would do another unless it’s one crazy fashion movie.” Then she pauses, almost as an afterthought. “Oh, I also did Fashion (2008). That was very interesting.”
Thirty Years Later
Khanna is showing no signs of slowing down. Just last year, she took bold steps with her shows — having a democratic, standing audience at Lakme Fashion Week and staging a collection at Hamleys for London Fashion Week.
Speaking of the former, she explains, “I’ve always thought that it’s not fair to decide who’s important and who’s not. I knew I would get thrashed for [doing away with the front row], I knew a lot of people would not come.”
But Khanna has always relied more on instinct than trends, maintaining her signature style even while constantly experimenting, as Ensemble’s Tina Tahiliani mentioned in an interview with The Voice of Fashion in 2022.
Sustainability, too, comes naturally from this commitment. “People still tell me they wear my first few pieces,” she says. “If someone can wear what I made 30 years ago, I’ve done my job.”
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Janhvi Kapoor — Cannes Film Festival 2025
Ananya Panday — Lakmé Fashion Week 2025, Mumbai
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Priyanka Chopra Jonas — Globetrotter Event, Hyderabad
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