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Designer Dhruv Kapoor wants to make spirituality part of pop culture
Pooja Singh Designer Dhruv Kapoor has two big launches this year—his new Gen Z brand K 2.0 and his first flagship store in Delhi Dhruv Kapoor in his office
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Designer Dhruv Kapoor's office in Gurugram looks like a laboratory. Everything is off-white, from the bare walls and flooring to the furniture and cutlery. No fabric samples, files, cuttings, mannequins—the things that usually take up space in a fashion house—are in sight. There's colour though, most of the staff, including Kapoor, are dressed in shades of green. He's the designer behind the independent eponymous ready-to-wear brand that in a span of 11 years has created a global name for itself, sitting comfortably between streetwear, casualwear and high fashion.
Designer Dhruv Kapoor's office in Gurugram looks like a laboratory. Everything is off-white, from the bare walls and flooring to the furniture and cutlery. No fabric samples, files, cuttings, mannequins—the things that usually take up space in a fashion house—are in sight. There's colour though, most of the staff, including Kapoor, are dressed in shades of green. He's the designer behind the independent eponymous ready-to-wear brand that in a span of 11 years has created a global name for itself, sitting comfortably between streetwear, casualwear and high fashion.
As I enter his cabin on one of the four floors of the 40,000 sq. ft building, which includes the factory, I ask if it's a coincidence that most people are dressed in green? 'It's Wednesday, a day ruled by (planet) mercury and green is the colour associated with it (according to Vastu Shastra, the Hindu principles of architecture and design)," he says, while binaural beats in the beta frequency play in the background—supposed to improve concentration. 'Green is associated with creativity, communication. I believe in Vastu, yoga… spirituality in general… that has rubbed off on my team." Thursday is yellow, Friday, blue.
That belief system extends to every aspect of his life—the off-white shades of the office, wearing colours to align with one's chakras, depicting the steps of pranayama breathing on the inside of shirts, incorporating yoga practices like jal neti into his life for over two decades. Even his first flagship store, to be launched in October in south Delhi's Dhan Mill Compound, has been designed to Vastu principles. 'Fashion is 80% intangible, 20% tangible," says Kapoor, 36, explaining why he incorporates elements related to Vedic traditions into everything he does. An exclusive first look at Dhruv Kapoor's new Gen-Z focused brand K 2.0
Kapoor is currently working on two major projects: his new, Gen Z-focused brand, K 2.0 (written in Devanagari script), which is to be launched in July, and his debut womenswear collection for Milan Fashion Week in September. He's the only ready-to-wear Indian designer who has been a regular at the Milan Fashion Week's menswear edition, which sees participation of ready-to-wear brands from across the world, since 2022.
'Whether it's a big red coat or a white shirt, it's going to make you feel a certain way—confident, pretty or aggressive. And that power—to provide people the shells they want to be in—is incredible to me. If I can't touch your core with what I do, then I'm not doing it right. I want to make spirituality part of pop culture," he says.
Over a decade ago, when Kapoor, fresh from his internship at fashion brand Etro in Milan, had first presented his capsule collection at the Lakme fashion week in Mumbai, the ready-to-wear market was finding its feet. While the likes of Bodice, AM/PM and Arjun Saluja were offering clothing for the working professional at a premium price, there weren't many brands experimenting in the space of streetwear-meets-high fashion. The Delhi-based Kanika Goyal Label, known worldwide for merging minimalism with avant-garde aesthetics, was just getting started. From Kapoor's first Milan show in 2022
'Dhruv is of the moment right now," says Tina Tahiliani, the driving force behind the multi-designer house Ensemble, which stocks hundreds of ready-to-wear brands, including Kapoor. 'He has a unique voice that's struck a chord, his Milan outings have helped too, plus the way he's modified ready-to-wear clothes."
His popularity is also telling of the general rise in interest in India-made ready-to-wear clothes. As Tahiliani says, 'In the past two decades, there's been an immense growth in the homegrown ready-to-wear space, also because more brands are experimenting. Customers realise that instead of spending dollars on expensive clothes made by foreign brands, they can instead buy quality garments from designers here who are experimenting with embroideries, designs and techniques like shibori and brocade." Also read: Lovebirds: The cut masters of Indian fashion
Kapoor was clear about the statement he wanted to make with his clothes soon after completing his master's degree at Milan design school, Istituto Marangoni: create tailored yet voluminous clothes that broke the rules of gender while reimagining everyday India. At his last outing at Milan Fashion Week in January, for instance, models walked the ramp wearing woollen shackets covered with jasmine-like embroidery and skirts draped like saris and dhoti-style pants. Each piece was tailored yet fluid and edgy—depending on how it was styled, it could be worn by any gender. Looks from Kapoor's previous collections
The same holds true for most of his creations. The brand's signature laced-up oversized shirts—their popularity is evident from the knock-offs available in Delhi's Karol Bagh and Mumbai's Colaba Causeway markets—have a mix of conflicting colours and prints.
'I used to hate prints, but at Etro my internship was in the womenswear department, and I worked with a lot of prints. I had to find a way to create prints that I liked," says Kapoor. 'Now, when we do conflicting floral prints and colours, we sift through several iterations of shades and print sizes to find the ones that we believe will work. Making things that you think are ugly into something beautiful is a different kind of challenge." Also read: Meet Ritu Beri, the 'selfish' designer
This design philosophy seems to have served him well. Kapoor, who started his brand with the help of his family (his father has a business, while mother was a homemaker at the time), now has 125 employees, including his mother, who takes care of operations. He started with nine workers. Revenue wise, they have grown annually by an average of 40%, Kapoor claims. Besides a strong presence in Indian multi-designer stores, the brand is available in the US, UAE, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, Europe and Australia, and through stores such as Harvey Nichols, Anthropologie, Zalando and Hypebeast.
There have been hiccups. When Kapoor started working towards establishing his brand, the multi-designer store Ogaan refused to take his clothes, asking him to make kurtas instead. 'I said no. Instead, I did longer shirts and they took them but initially, they didn't really work. So I refined them until they did," says Kapoor.
'Over the years, I have been told to do lehnga-choli if I want to be successful. But I didn't because I can't. One thing you need to be successful is to stick to what you know, and, more importantly, what you like. Why give people what they want? You should give people what they don't know they want yet."
Nothing reflects a brand's self-confidence and the story they want to narrate better than a logo—a concept many designers seem to have forgotten. Kapoor created his—the surname Kapoor in Hindi—soon after the covid-19 pandemic. 'I wanted to have a logo in my own language because I want to put India above everything. I want the world to never forget that this is the place where artisanship and craftsmanship are still celebrated and practised," he says.
The pandemic clarified his thinking about what his brand and its offerings should reflect, he says. 'Covid was a time of decluttering for a lot of people, including me, and it made me think hard about the brand's direction. Like, there was this frilly dress I had made earlier and I thought, 'What was I thinking!' I have wiped it off the internet; you can't find it anywhere," he laughs.
While talking about his branding strategy, he offers couturier Sabyasachi Mukherjee as an example. 'Each aspect of that brand, from the Bengal tiger logo, to the way images are shot, the Instagram caption, the clothes, the storytelling, it's a singular voice that comes across," says Kapoor, who looks to Miuccia Prada, who 'has the ability to make even the most ugliest things beautiful", as his inspiration.
While Kapoor has been participating in the official calendar of Milan Fashion Week for the past three years, why did it take him so long to present womenswear in the same city?
'Menswear has fewer brands compared to womenswear fashion week. You have to establish yourself enough times for the fashion council to consider you for womenswear and ensure that you will have a strong presence," he says.
The decision to launch a new sub-brand is also part of a strategy to reach more people. Some of the brand's agents in other countries suggested the need for clothes that carried the Dhruv Kapoor philosophy at a more accessible price. Kapoor, too, much like other design labels, both national and international, was keen on tapping India's younger shoppers. 'About 60% of India's population is of Gen Zers, so definitely there's immense opportunity, and there's interest in the brand among the youngsters," says Kapoor.
The K 2.0 brand will offer pared-down versions of the main line at a price range of ₹ 3,000-15,000; the main collection starts over ₹ 10,000. 'The main line is for the mature consumer, it's more embroidered, tailored, prints-heavy. The new brand has a more easy and casual vibe—the waists are elasticated, more prints, less embroidery. We have been able to cut the price by toning down embellishments, and keeping everything, from sourcing to manufacturing, within India, and it's been a discovery. Even as a design house, we weren't aware of the kind of fabrics that could be engineered here."
'The whole Dhruv Kapoor ecosystem needs to use fashion to challenge traditional beliefs and make spirituality cooler," he says of his aim, adding that the idea is to 'create a lifestyle brand that offers something for home, pets, everything". It's an answer that's common to many Indian designers, until he tosses a googly: 'I want to open spiritual centres in the middle of the city so people can enter and exit them whenever they want to shut the noise from their life. I think that's when the circle of what I have created will be complete." Also read: Designer Anamika Khanna is hitting refresh Topics You May Be Interested In
