MILAN — Indian brand Kartik Research, which played a starring role in New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s swearing-in ceremony last January, when he wore one of its ties — is the second guest designer to be announced by Pitti Uomo for its upcoming edition.
The menswear trade fair will run from Jan. 12 to 15.
Founded in New Delhi in 2021 by designer Kartik Kumra and hinged on South Asian references and an artisanal approach, the menswear brand was among the semifinalists of the 2023 and 2026 LVMH Prize for Young Designers.
The brand will unveil its fall 2027 collection with a special event on Jan. 13. The exact format and the location of the presentation were not revealed.
“I’m very grateful to the Pitti Immagine team for this opportunity. When you look at the creatives who have passed through the guest designer program over the years, it’s a pretty special list to find yourself on, and certainly not something I take for granted,” Kumra said.
“For us, it feels like an opportunity to keep building in the same way we always have, while allowing the world around us to push the work somewhere new. This season, I’ve become interested in the old relationship between Indian textiles and Florence, and the way Indian cloth traveled through Florentine merchants, eventually becoming part of the visual language and aspiration we now associate with the city. There’s something nice about returning to that exchange, this time in the other direction,” he added.
“Kartik Research’s approach is instinctive and sees craftsmanship as a living language and a source of fresh perspectives, far removed from any nostalgic celebration of the past,” said Francesca Tacconi, special events manager at Pitti Immagine.
“Strikingly contemporary silhouettes define a vision shaped by the interplay between time-honored knowledge and a modern sensibility. Here, craft emerges as a genuine form of cultural capital. Indian techniques and textiles enter the global conversation, moving beyond the lens of exoticism to assert their intellectual and creative authority,” she said.
The announcement follows news that Dunhill will also be a guest designer at the upcoming edition of the fair. The full roster of events is expected to be unveiled in early November as Pitti Uomo organizers travel globally to meet local press and buyers. A press conference in Milan is scheduled for Nov. 10.
Kumra hatched the idea for his company after the COVID-19 pandemic-related restrictions prompted him to return home from the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a degree in economics. Having bought and resold sneakers as a high schooler, he built upon that interest in fashion by using YouTube tutorials to teach himself how to sew during the shutdown.
Traveling back to India he scouted craftspeople to develop a pipeline for the different aspects of his collections across the country. He has since accrued celebrity fans, such as Steph Curry, Lewis Hamilton, actors Damson Idris and Paul Mescal, as well as Mamdani.
Kartik Research debuted on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar in January 2024 with the fall collection and has stayed on that city’s schedule ever since, with the exception of last June, when plans for a show were canceled after one of its employees, who managed the flagship in Delhi, died in Kerala, India.
The brand operates an additional flagship in New York and is sold by retailers including Mr Porter, Selfridges, Dover Street Market, Harrods and Lane Crawford, among others.
As a guest designer of Pitti Uomo, Kartik Research follows in the footsteps of Simone Rocha, DSM Kei Ninomiya, Hed Mayner, Homme Plissé Issey Miyake, Niccolò Pasqualetti, MM6 Maison Margiela, Setchu, Marine Serre, Martine Rose and Grace Wales Bonner, among many others.