Indian Future Vintage with Kartik Kumra of Karu Research
Renting out Indian palaces and shutting down Paris showrooms
Welcome to the first edition of the Designed to Last newsletter.
A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to interview my friend Kartik Kumra of the menswear brand Karu Research. The label started in early 2021 while Kartik was still in school, and is now stocked in over 40 retailers worldwide. Karu’s ethos focuses on preserving traditional Indian manufacturing techniques and supporting local artisans.
Whereabouts are you right now?
I'm back home in Delhi, this is my base. We’ve finally got some employees and we’re building out the studio.
That’s incredible. You were doing everything on your own before?
It wasn’t fun, but I was in college and I didn't know how to train people while managing the brand. Managing people is just a whole other thing. My employees have started now, but it'll take a while before they really get it, you know?
I guess that’s why I thought I'll just do it myself. The brand kept growing organically and then it was like, “okay, at this point I really need people”.
Your brand has a lot of influence from Indian heritage, but it seems like your target market is mostly based in the US and in Europe. Do you find it hard to balance that?
It's an educational process for everyone - I remember I was still trying to figure it out when I sent you the jacket in February 2021. Now I think the people I work with sort of understand what we're making and what the standards are that have to be met.
It took a really long time because we're working with people that traditionally work in the bridal sector. They'll usually make one-off pieces that are 10 grand, so that's the sort of embroidery that they’re used to; We're trying to simplify that into a shirt, so it was an educational process both on the production side and on the retailer side. Not every piece is the same, so that’s what makes it cool.
Do you feel like customers in the mass market appreciate the artisanal nature of the product?
I think we do a pretty good job with our art direction to make people value it. People are generally pretty aware of what's going into it. We're trying to show that there's an element of preciousness attached to it, so you have to treat it differently.
I was watching the Spring/Summer ‘24 campaign video and I noticed a big focus on the art direction recently. Everything seems really cohesive and you were really able to convey a lot of emotion. What goes into shooting a campaign like that?
We bootstrap everything, so it’s not a big production. I got an intern locally that followed me on Instagram and was a couple of hours away from the village where we shot it. We rented out this 18th century palace in a place called Dungarpur in Rajasthan. We also flew out three models, a photographer, and a videographer.
I produce everything, so I'll organize food, drinks, coffee and style & creative direct it. The photographer and videographer also have to take an element of initiative too just because of how bootstrapped it is. We rented the palace for one day and then we rented a few rooms in a hotel. Everyone split rooms and it was pretty quick. We managed to do both the lookbook and the video in one day.
It was a 5 a.m. start and then we ended at 7p.m. It was really stressful because the palace had six stories. Anytime the intern didn't understand what I was trying to say or if the model came up with the wrong pair of shoes or something, I would have to go down like three flights of stairs and then come back up.
It's a really rewarding experience because of the result and we're working with super talented people, but on the day it's stressful for sure.
I've also noticed you've started working on more themes for your collections, like the idea of Indian masculinity. Could you speak a bit more about that?
At the start it was literally just like shirt, pant jacket, you know? It was like how can I just get through this because the demand was scaling a lot faster than I could figure out the supply. I was still in Philly, in college.
Mr. Porter, SSENSE and Selfridges started calling and I didn’t know if I'd get this opportunity again, so I kind of had to just figure out how to do this. We really just tried to simplify it as much as possible. I think the first season was like 20 pieces and maybe six patterns.
I graduated college in December, so I've been full time since then. I've been able to put more thought and time into pattern making, research, mood boarding and going through photography archives. I think you see the result in the final collection and the look books.
There were always themes, but with the way we work there's an element of consistency and sometimes you just have to find a narrative around that. If you go in with a very specific idea, then it's not a super collaborative creative process with the artisans. Going with a general theme like Indian masculinity is pretty broad, so we could just focus on a couple characters.
I found a bunch of images of this guy called Yashwant Rao Holkar II. He was the Maharaja of Indore and he was known as this super extravagant dude. He was India's last emperor of the region and was considered a ladies man. He had a really interesting style because he had the Indian influence from the royal garb he had to wear, alongside like velvet robes that he would get when he was in Paris.
It had this really interesting fusion and I found a bunch of these images which then inspired some of the embroideries and silhouettes in the collection. It's really about going through archives more than anything else, and then trying to find a narrative while keeping the artisanal core intact.
You were saying that you were still in school when the brand really started blowing up, do you remember the first big wholesale order that came in? Did you have to scramble all of a sudden to get production running?
It was crazy. I'd never even met a buyer until the fourth season, which is what we're delivering now. I was just dealing with a wholesale showroom.
We delivered twenty pieces for SS22, which was the first collection. We had Mr. Porter, Selfridges, 10 Corso Como, and SSENSE; I think we ended up with eight accounts total, but honestly it could have been way more. I just had to be like, okay, this is what I can handle.
I took a gap semester from college because I underestimated how difficult the logistical challenge was. Yeah, it was definitely like … what's happening right now?
You just did your first Paris showroom recently right?
This was technically the third Paris showroom, but this is only the second time I was there. We had a party for the first time in Paris too. When you're sitting in India, it's super hard for industry people to keep you on the radar. If you have some sort of event, like what we did with Colbo in Paris, it helps.
I saw you guys had Pierce Abernathy doing the food too.
Yeah. Pierce is awesome. He's a good friend. He was doing the food, and it was me and the brand Adish that did the event together. It was surprising because loads of people showed up and the cops had to shut it down. The block really filled up.
It felt like there was a change in the brand where it went from people just discovering it, to people being like “Oh, there's a Karu thing happening, let's go to that”. That felt really cool.
I wanted to touch on the craft aspect of the brand as well, since that’s such a core tenet of the brand. Are there any pieces from that brand that have a lot of meaning for you?
There’s a pair of shorts from the first season. It was a COVID showroom and my agent put these up on his IG story. That’s when all the DMs from the buyers came in like “hey what's this?”. It's the same fabric as what you have on your jacket.
This is my personal pair that I've worn for two and a half years. These were samples from a while back. With the way Kantha work has a lot of layers, the colors change and it looks better the more you wear it. It's like a really important one to me just because it's the one that started the real momentum shift. It took the brand to the next level.
Are there any new techniques that you’re especially excited about in the upcoming season?
We're doing shoes … these haven't been posted yet.
This is going to be the first foray into footwear for you guys?
Yeah, we showed these in Paris and I think people like them.
Those are beautiful. It's almost a little reminiscent of a slipper.
It's a leather slipper, but all the details are hand embroidered. The hand embroidery on leather took a really long time to figure out.
A lot of brands tend to stay away from footwear because it's a harder and more expensive process from what I understand.
The minimums are a lot higher too. We did another shoe before, but I think with this one we’ll hit the minimum zone.
Are there any fabrics that you’d like to showcase?
All the wovens in the collection have no electricity in the fabric production process because it's all on handlooms. It's a very like pre industrial way of making clothes. We developed this wool silk fabric. The indigo part is naturally dyed in a very light indigo, and the gold part is the silk. It’s very muted. The weave on it is unbelievable.
It's done in the hills by an NGO that specializes in natural dyes. It's a woman owned and woman led cooperative, which is very rare for weaving. It's usually just the men in the village that will do it. The fabrics they produce are just incredible. Once you feel it and once you see it in person … the texture is just unbelievable.
In terms of like your own physical space, is that ever something that you’d consider? Are there any cities that you have in mind?
I was in New York last month doing the Colbo popup and I was ready to sign on a place, but I didn’t consider all the logistical challenges that go into something like that. Business registration, tax exemption, etc. There’s a lot of regulations being set up in India, so we’ll see when I have time to do it.
Would that be in the LES/Chinatown area then?
Yeah, really close to Colbo. I'm just friends with those guys, so it's just a good support to have. That area just has a really good energy right now.
Karu’s website is karuresearch.com and his Instagram is @karureseach.
Amazing write up, really interesting story!