They built a fashion empire. Now they’re looking for successors

Last year, Tom Ford exited his eponymous Estée Lauder-owned label. In March, Dries Van Noten announced he would step down from his fashion house. And the whisper on the street is that Michael Kors might be searching for his successor. These men were not just founders of fashion labels; they shaped the way the people dress today. In India, too, designers of a certain vintage are thinking about the security of their legacies in a multitude of ways. Icons like Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, Ritu Kumar, and Anamika Khanna are all considered the architects of Indian fashion. Many of them are now in their 50s or older. So, what does the future hold for Indian fashion? Will we see our versions of behemoths like Kering and LVMH controlling the fate of labels? Will brands that are currently at the forefront of Indian fashion be forgotten in years to come?

The last few years have seen a slew of houses benefit from corporate investment. Since 2022, Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL) has acquired a majority stake in labels including Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra, and Abraham & Thakore. Around the same time, Aditya Birla Fashion & Retail Limited (ABFRL) acquired a 33.5 per cent stake in Tarun Tahiliani’s label for ₹67 crore, with an option to increase the stake to 51 per cent in the next few years. The announcement came a month after ABFRL bought a majority stake in Sabyasachi Mukerjee’s fashion house. Tahiliani was the first designer to represent the country at Milan Fashion Week, in 2002. He also co-founded one of the country’s early multi-designer stores, Ensemble, back in 1987. Considered the most business-savvy designer of his generation, the Wharton graduate recalls, “We were selling in 70 stores across the world at one time, but we did not have a plan and we just could not keep up with production.” For designers like Tahiliani, it was about building an industry. Legacy creation would come later.

The last few years have seen a slew of houses benefit from corporate investment. Since 2022, Reliance Brands Ltd (RBL) has acquired a majority stake in labels including Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, Manish Malhotra, Rahul Mishra, and Abraham & Thakore.

Now, as Indian fashion becomes a multi-crore business, the rules have changed. “I hope to be helming this label for another 20 years,” says Tahiliani. The man who coined the term ‘India Modern’ is famous for his concept saris, corset blouses, and body contouring zip-up saris. He has also worked closely with many craft forms, including chikankari, bandhani and Banaras handloom. Today, he believes those who work in his company will create a lasting part of the label’s legacy. “There is a difference today; there are fashion schools in India (NIFT opened its first campus in 1986), export houses you can apprentice with, there is the opportunity to work abroad.”

Tahiliani offers ESOP plans to certain employees; he wants them to build a career in his company that will last them a lifetime. The father of two says that for now, he does not know who will succeed him, perhaps one of his sons will grow into the role. “Right now I have the majority stake in the company. A time might come when I will not,” he says. However, he knows the codes of the house will go on; he has ensured that the craft clusters he works with are a part of his organisation and that his archives are in place. It’s a process he began a few years ago with the help of Pramod Kumar KG of Eka Archiving Services. More than 6,000 items are in the archive of his expansive Gurugram atelier, with everything backed up digitally and filed for posterity. Last year he also released a book chronicling his contributions to the industry, Tarun Tahiliani: Journey to India Modern.

When it comes to developing an Indian fashion vocabulary, Kolkata-based Anamika Khanna’s contribution is undeniable. Think of her dhoti pants, pick-up skirts, elevated capes, and reinvention of zardozi. Having entered the scene in the late 1990s, hers is one label that Tahiliani and many others believe has the potential to be the Chanel of India. Her twin boys in their 20s, Viraj and Vishesh, are both creative; Viraj is building his credibility in the Indian art world, and Vishesh is going to London’s Central School of Saint Martins for a master’s in art design. Says Khanna, “The biggest challenge is design aesthetics. The brand has certain values that Vishesh or Viraj need to respect. Evolution has to happen from where it is at right now, but doing something radically different can affect the brand. I am lucky that the boys understand and respect this completely, but I know it is a challenge. This will be a test in the future.”

At the end of 2021, Reliance bought a 60 per cent stake in her ready-to-wear label AK-OK, although she and her family still fully own the eponymous label, Anamika Khanna. “We have a lot to learn from the way a corporation works, especially Reliance. Nothing is impossible for them. They turn five-year plans into one-year plans. It’s helped us change our attitude, too, and jump into more things without thinking as much as before. Time is the most valuable thing.”

One label that has lived on past its founder is Wendell Rodricks. Just before the world went into lockdown came the news of the untimely passing away of the 59-year-old Goa-based icon of design. Credited with starting resort wear as a category in Indian high fashion and for his Indo-western approach to design, Rodricks, who was awarded a Padma Shri in 2014, had already passed the creative helm of his fashion label to his protege Schulen Fernandes in 2016. Her debut collection, Trapezoid, brought a new, vibrant energy and pushed forward the conversations that Rodricks had started in genderless and size-inclusive fashion. But by the end of 2020, the label had been bought by Purple Style Labs (PSL), who had previously acquired Pernia’s Pop Up Shop (PPUS). Fernandes left within a few months of the buyout stating in interviews that there had been “a major shift of vision.” On the flip side, the label now sells at more than 10 PPUS stores, has its own store in Mumbai’s Phoenix Palladium Mall, and is looking at reopening in Goa. They also recently announced a collaboration with Delhi-based Amit Aggarwal.

There are many examples globally where luxury families have scaled up with complete ownership or strategic investments with other family offices. In such cases, it’s mostly the next generation of the family who holds the baton.

Abhishek Agarwal, the founder of PSL, says, “We believe that very few designers out of India have been able to build a strong brand aesthetic that spans decades, and Wendell was one of the pioneers.” On corporate interest in fashion, he says, “I always cite Balenciaga as an example of what the brand used to be and what it is today. But the reality is that it is one of the few century-old brands which today has a revenue that matters, and credit goes to Kering for the turnaround in the last two decades.” However, he does not believe corporate investment is the only route to longevity. “There are many examples globally where luxury families have scaled up with complete ownership or strategic investments with other family offices. In such cases, it’s mostly the next generation of the family who holds the baton.”

One label-turned-fashion-house that has seen the next generation take the reins is the House of Anita Dongre. In 2013, US private equity house General Atlantic acquired a minority stake of close to 23 per cent in the business (which includes the western wear label AND, Global Desi Grassroot by Anita Dongre, and the Anita Dongre label). GA is reported to have paid about ₹150 crore for the stake, with additional investments to support business development. Today, the House of Anita Dongre has an estimated revenue of ₹800 crore and more than 750 points of sale. Dongre explains, “We set our succession plan in motion years ago. Our vision to scale internationally meant we had to corporatise and integrate experienced professionals to lead the company. My son Yash has been part of the company since a very early age and has played an instrumental role in leading our global business expansion. It’s been quite reassuring to see our brands seamlessly grow over the last few years and has emboldened me to already step back from the day-to-day operations and liberate me to do what I love the most—design.” After a decade in the company, starting as an intern, Yash Dongre is now the president of business operations. He says, “having an investor like General Atlantic on board has been invaluable in our growth strategy. Their expertise in technology and analytics has helped [us] build a strong operational foundation.”

While succession planning is on the minds of India’s first generation of designers, they believe they shouldn't dwell too much on the future, as there is still much work to be done. Anita Dongre says, “There’s so much to be proud of, yet so much left to achieve. As the poem goes, ‘miles to go before I sleep.’” What is more important to Indian designers right now is growth and building their labels into empires.