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EXCLUSIVE: Kunal Anil Tanna on his signature designs, shacket trend, desi style tips, pastel love & more
Are you on the hunt for something that's supremely contemporary with a big touch of desi, pretty colours and everything men need to know to look his suave self.
1. From being a student at NIFT to having a label of your own, how has your personal style and flair for putting out impeccable designs evolved over the years?
Being a student at NIFT conceptualization was something we are very ingrained with, we were constantly encouraged and motivated to develop and use various aspects of life, learning and understanding be that of the material or environment to the kind of conceptualization. But what working and owning a label has taught me over the years, is the commercial aspect of fashion. And that has got me evolved in a stronger understanding of the entire business of fashion. Fashion is just not designing, so having that idea of what sells and what doesn’t, at the same time maintaining a very strong identity and aesthetics, is something I feel that over the years I have evolved with and I think I am still on the journey and there’s a long road ahead.
2. What made you pick pastels to put together your Kintsugi and festive edit collection? 
‘Kintusgi’ is a collection about the golden lining to one’s grey skylines, it's about using a lot of broken pieces in life and using melted gold. Using pastels was something I haven’t done and it was something I felt that the collection needed, and more importantly, the label needed. The label is very strongly associated with the colour blue and we needed a fresh take on this. Hence, we used pastels for this collection.
3. We see you’re going strong on the shacket trend. Have you made any unique moves while designing the same for your label?
Shacket I feel is a very versatile garment, you can wear it with anything and everything. Right from a casual outfit to contemporary or everything Indian. One of the things that we have tried to evolve with shacket was to create bundies that are shirts or shacket inspired, and that has really picked up very strongly with us, from a design aspect as well as commercially. Bundies with a shacket is a trend that I enjoy experimenting with.
4. Shackets 101 in your words:
a) Looks best paired with: Shackets are very versatile and can be worn with a t-shirt or shirt and jeans, but what I really enjoy is to team up a shacket with a cool tunic and aligarhi pants. I think that is the look we have tried to infuse, and really wish it picks forward.
b) Colours to reach out for this winter: Deeper tones, but I am obsessed with ivory and blue so these are the colors that always work.
c) Your favourite from the Kintsugi collection: This season we have tried experimenting with pastels. And, these are very well accepted with our collection ‘Kintsugi’.
5. The elementary collection is all about textures, prints, and colours. What would you call must-haves for men from this section?
Elementary is a collection that is very close to my heart because it talks about my journey from the beginning from where I started learning to design. The whole collection is my favorite but if I had to pick one it would have to be mesh jackets or mocked layered banda gala, or ivory knit Bundi are my personal favourites, but on the whole, the collection in itself is very close to my heart.
6. 2 vital things to take note of when going desi.
The most important thing in the desi style of dressing or the Indian style of dressing is to appreciate the Indian textiles. I think that is something one must always do. Indian textiles have too much of a variety and are vast to kind of to work with. I think Indian outfits look amazing with Indian textiles, so definitely one of my go-to things would be to use Indian textiles, second would be to kind of contemporize Indian silhouettes, the elegance that classic Indian silhouettes have beyond anything.
7. Style tip: 2 dapper ways to layer up in Bundi jackets.
I love wearing Bundi, one because it’s an Indian-inspired silhouette, you can team it up with a long kurta short kurta or just a shirt and it just works really well. It is something that looks fun and can be layered easily but I think two strong style tips will be to kind of go tone-on-tone with Bundis, or if you are using a texture or strong fabric with your Bundi then go easy with all that you’ve already layered up with. So I think these are the two strong style tips to sport a Bundi jacket and look dapper.
8. What does a signature Kunal Anil Tanna Design look like? From design techniques to colours picked, could you spill some beans?
Kunal Anil Tanna is a label that is on its road to evolution. I think we are growing and evolving every day, but something that over the years we have marked ourselves as a label is our signature textures. Season after season we really strive hard to develop new textures carrying forward the work that we have already done, so that is one of our strongest essences as the label. The second is the contemporary take on classic Indian silhouettes, so I think we are known for that. We have grown with different variations, a lot of mock layering, a lot of variations to classic silhouettes, which is something that has really worked well for us. Last but not least, undying love for the colour blue can be seen paired with the label, so these are the few aspects that are the essence of the label Kunal Anil Tanna.
9. Celebrity men you’ve loved working for and what did you design for them?
Over the years, I have had the pleasure of designing for a lot of male celebrities, and honestly, I never had a situation wherein I didn’t enjoy working with them. Whether it was working with Rajkumar Rao for several looks that we did for them back in time or recently working with Varun Dhawan or MS Dhoni and Arjun Kapoor, you know time after time I’ve had the privilege of working with all these cool dapper guys and it was fun designing for them. Not only because of their fantastic personalities but also their nature to have faith in me and wear what I have designed. So it has been an amazing experience working with them.
10. Any Spring/Summer 2022 men’s fashion trends you’re contemplating tapping into and infusing in your collection?
I believe spring summer’22 which is hopefully a breath of fresh air after two very mundane and dull years, I think SS’22 will be very strong and fresh, cause everyone is kind of exhausted with the whole situation and everyone is trying to break in new and fresh, so I think it's going to be more like Christian Dior’s new lookbook, wherein everyone wants to come back to having fun. Not only with silhouettes and colours but also like how I call it BLING it on, wherein you will strongly see a lot of metallics.
11. Any advice you’d love to give to aspiring designers?
I feel that I am an aspiring designer too, and giving advice makes me sound old but it’s been a while that I have been around and there have been several struggles that I have been through. The only thing that I would like to share from my struggle is to always keep faith in you and focus on your work, and keep going on consistently because no one hasn’t been through ups and downs, but it’s only your focus that will keep you going. Always remember it is always easy to find a shortcut and go with that but that definitely doesn’t go a long way, it’s the hard work that will keep you going. It’s something that I have learned from a very senior person in the industry and has helped me grow as a person today.
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