Anamika Khanna takes AK|OK’s C’est OK to Paris Fashion Week
Anamika Khanna’s pret label AK|OK just showcased its Spring-Summer 2027 collection, C’est OK, at the recently concluded Paris Fashion Week. For the collection, she reworked shirts, jackets, trousers, skirts, and dresses in terms of proportion, construction, and styling. Versatility sits at the heart of this collection, with layered, lived-in dressing allowing each garment to move naturally between moods, moments, and identities.
The collection draws from the textures and nuances of modern India, bringing chikankari, also known as shadow work, alongside hand painting, print, metal thread embroidery, and layered embroidery to the global spotlight. These elements are distorted, displaced, and placed one over another, thereby embedding traditional craft into a contemporary wardrobe with ease and nonchalance.
There is also a fascination with what is incomplete, interrupted, layered, faded or only partially seen. Familiar fragments of nature and everyday life appear throughout in form of a bird, a flowerpot, or a suggestion of the forest. Hand painting dissolves into print, embroidery overlaps embroidery, and familiar garments are reconstructed into new forms.
The collection unfolds within the setting of a modern Indian home, where objects, textures and details bring contemporary Indian sensibilities into the space, with the familiar and new sitting effortlessly alongside one another. Anamika Khanna takes us through the collection in this chat.
How was the reaction at Paris Fashion Week ? Which were the design elements that got praises?
I think the collection has been perceived really well. People understood that it came from an emotional space, and every single piece that we did, people wanted to understand it better, and that’s what we wanted. We wanted people to connect to the clothes, and that’s what happened.
Tell us more about the collection.
For me, the collection is about taking familiar pieces and looking at them a little differently. Shirts, jackets, trousers, skirts, and dresses are shifted through proportion, construction and styling, so they get a new attitude while still feeling easy and wearable. There are very delicate elements of India in the collection, but I didn’t want them to feel separate or ceremonial. Chikankari, hand painting, print, metal-thread embroidery, and layered embroidery are all used in a way that feels natural and part of everyday dressing. Hand painting dissolves into print, embroidery overlaps embroidery, and familiar garments are reconstructed into new forms. The idea is really to create a wardrobe around versatility and ease, where you can mix, layer and live in the pieces in your own way.
What inspired the edit?
I think it came from looking at things that are familiar and trying to see them differently. I was looking at everyday pieces and everyday things around us, but interrupting them in some way, through proportion, construction, layering or the way they are styled.
A lot of the inspiration came from fragments of nature and everyday life. A bird, a flower pot, a suggestion of a forest. Things that you recognise, but perhaps only see partially or remember in fragments. I liked that feeling of something being incomplete or interrupted.
How did you envision and incorporate the summer elements in your collection?
For me, summer is really about ease. I wanted the clothes to feel light and easy to live in, and for the wardrobe to have a lot of versatility. The pieces can be worn in different ways, mixed, layered and styled depending on how you want to wear them. Even the craft is approached in that way. Chikankari, hand painting, and embroidery are brought into familiar pieces without making them feel too precious or like occasion wear. It’s really about making them feel natural to wear.
What are your personal summer wardrobe must-haves?
I don’t think I’m trying to blend anything. For me, it’s a natural process. I’m an Indian. That’s my DNA. That’s my philosophy.That’s where I come from. I’m also very modern. I travel the world. I don’t need to try to blend anything. It’s just a process that comes naturally.