Isha Ambani’s custom Anamika Khanna look at the Met Gala took 15,000 hours to make

It isn’t every day that Indian handicraft and textile take centre stage on the world’s most-watched red carpet, but Isha Ambani’s arrival at the 2025 Met Gala managed to do just that. Crafted in collaboration with designer Anamika Khanna and stylist Anaita Shroff Adajania, the look is a salute to both the tradition of dandyism, as well as an ode to the rich cultural history of Indian artisanship. “I have always enjoyed fine tailoring from around the world. When I heard of this year’s theme, we had to figure out how to bring together our heritage with dandyism,” says Ambani about the process, on the morning of the event.

She recruited Kolkata-based Anamika Khanna to design a craft-forward piece. “Being a part of the Met Gala red carpet is like being a part of history,” adds Khanna, “It’s amazing to think that Indian fashion now has a space and a voice of its own on an international platform—one that’s dedicated to documenting the beauty and depth of fashion.”

This year’s Met Gala theme, ‘Superfine: Tailoring Black Style’, pays homage to the history of precision tailoring and black dandyism, highlighting the generations of African-American men and women who have used fashion as armour, aesthetic rebellion, and as a symbol of aspirational elegance. For Adajania, the theme presented a unique challenge—re-telling this narrative with a distinctly Indian sartorial vocabulary. “How are we going to join the dots?” she wondered, until further brainstorming with Ambani led them to Khanna, whose work has long been defined by her ability to balance the masculine with the feminine. “There are always sharp cuts to her outfits,” says Adajania, “But there’s also flow.”

The result? A pitch-perfect ivory-and-black look featuring a Benarasi checked fabric handcrafted by the Swadesh Foundation, covered in semi-precious stones and zardozi hand-embroidery at the Anamika Khanna atelier. The tailoring is precise without veering into harshness. The structured, hand-embroidered waistcoat comes with its back softened into a halter silhouette; the sweeping coat is dotted with delicate real pearls fashioned into tassels. There are surprising details throughout, like cutwork motifs shaped to reference the bowtie, a dandy style staple. In all, the look took over 15,000 hours to fabricate by Khanna’s team of master artisans.

The styling here belies a familiarity with the language, which makes sense given that Adajania felt a personal connection to the theme: “The whole concept of a dandy is very close to my heart, because I believe that my grandfather was a dandy. He always wore a tailored suit. Everything was bespoke—cufflinks, tiepin, pocket square. So, I grew up in that environment,” she says.

This comfort allowed Adajania a certain freedom to subvert traditional menswear elements, like using suit jacket’s buttons to decorate the back of the outfit, or taking a vintage men’s turban ornament, a sarpech, and tying it to the waist. “I’ve always loved layering accessories,” says Adajania, “Playing with placement, adding a touch of the unexpected... That spirit of experimentation is exactly what we brought to life here, celebrating the idea of the dandy in our own unique way.”

“Anamika has a gift for reimagining traditional textiles and techniques in ways that feel fresh but deeply rooted,” says Ambani, who has a history of collaborating with both the designer and the stylist. Perhaps it is this sense of faith that translates to a look that feels at once fresh and classic, surprising but also true to form. “The entire look was based on Isha’s personality. She’s a gentle person, she has a certain demeanour. She’s not that person who tries too hard to make a look happen, so I wanted to respect the ease of it, the nonchalance of it, the very fact that she knows what she wants,” says Khanna about the process.

For Adajania, who is styling mutiple celebrities at the Met Gala this year, “Isha is the perfect muse... Strong, stunning, and so deeply intuitive. Her quiet confidence and unwavering trust in the team always feels like such a gift.”

Despite this, it wouldn’t be the first Monday in May without a hiccup or two: “The outfit came together two days before the event,” Adajania says, laughing. “I had this antique pocket watch I’d saved for years, but we couldn’t get it working in time. You let go of a few things and move with the moment—especially in a city where the rain doesn’t wait for anyone.”

And wait it didn’t. As Ambani stepped onto the Met red (or blue) carpet, the look read as nothing short of a love letter to Indian craftsmanship, a tribute to the time-honoured codes of dandyism, and a portrait of a woman confidently encompassing both.

Jewellery: Nita Ambani’s private collection. Styling and Creative Direction: Anaita Shroff Adajania. Hair: Yianni Tsapatori. Make-up: Tanvi Chemburkar. Manicure: Julie K.