In 2022, Kartik Research had its first New York City pop-up at Colbo, a Lower East Side menswear boutique that boasts a loyal following of downtown style-scene staples. A short three years later, Kartik Kumra, the brand’s 25-year-old founder, stands around the corner from that first pop-up, at the door of his first Manhattan store, visibly exhausted but also proud.
Given that the brand began as an experiment born in Kumra’s college dorm room in 2021, the significance of signing a five-year lease on his first retail space in one of the world’s most expensive cities cannot be overstated. The label has garnered the kind of underground buzzy-cool word-of-mouth that many have tried and failed to manufacture, quickly becoming a favourite of in-the-know fashion connoisseurs from Paris to Brooklyn. Think ‘Fauji’ pants with hand embroidery at the knees, a silk overshirt hand-embroidered in Lucknow but with an unexpected lambskin collar, and wool shirts made of handwoven wool from Kinnaur that become the canvas for zardozi embroidery.
Despite Kumra’s scholarly approach to design—he is known to spend months diving deep into archival techniques while developing the concepts for each collection—his garments have quickly found mainstream appeal. NBA star Stephen Curry, F1 great Lewis Hamilton, and actors Damson Idris and Paul Mescal have all been photographed wearing the label’s designs. And yet, the launch party at his Orchard Street location was less a star-studded PR-driven photocall than it was a mix of like-minded creatives—a departure from the norm at a time when follower counts and red-carpet optics reign supreme.
Consider the space itself: clean, contemplative, and bordering on monastic, with textured concrete floors crowned by a linen canopy, and a rail of garments lining one edge of the room. Given Kumra’s commitment to treating textile as language and garments as an archive of craft, it feels wholly appropriate that the space leans more art gallery than contemporary clothing store.
While we were chatting, a fascinated customer asked tentatively whether she was “allowed to sit on” a dramatic straw bench steps from the entrance. The bench—like many other pieces dotted around the store—is custom-designed in collaboration with Mumbai-based furniture studio Æquo, and the answer to the question was an emphatic “yes, of course”. Between attending to a steady stream of customers, Kumra discussed the significance of this new store, what he does to unwind in New York, and his upcoming runway show in Paris this summer. Excerpts from the conversation:
