Kartik Research presented its second collection on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar on Thursday afternoon, a Spring/Summer 2027 lineup that deepens designer Kartik Kumra’s investigation into Indian textile traditions interpreted through a contemporary menswear lens. The show was held at a Left Bank atelier, its raw plaster walls providing a neutral backdrop for clothing that derives its power from surface and structure.
Kumra’s approach resists the tendency to treat traditional craft as ornament. The embroidery on a bomber jacket — geometric patterns sourced from a 19th-century tribal textile archive — was not appliquéd onto a Western silhouette but integrated into the garment’s construction, each panel assembled before the jacket was cut. The difference is subtle in photographs but legible on the body: the garment moves with the wearer rather than against him.
The show also marked the debut of Kartik Research’s partnership with Jaipur Rugs, which produced a series of hand-knotted floor pieces that served as the runway surface. The collaboration positions Kumra within a broader ecosystem of Indian artisanship, reinforcing his thesis that craft is not a nostalgic gesture but a viable model for contemporary luxury production.
The collection centered on handwoven fabrics sourced from cooperatives across Rajasthan and Gujarat. Kumra works directly with master weavers, commissioning yardages that cannot be replicated by mill production — irregular slub cottons, naturally dyed indigo silks, and a khadi wool whose visible hand-spun texture gives each garment the quality of an artifact. The silhouettes were deceptively simple: a long vest worn open over a narrow trouser, a kurta reimagined as a shirt jacket, a dhoti pant gathered at the hip with a leather drawstring.
