Amrita Khanna is basically a ‘Pant Person’ with a lot of personality

Amrita Khanna doesn’t post much on Instagram but the few ‘fit pics’ that fill up her quiet grid have been studiously stalked by me. There is so much to be said about the designer’s sense of style. For one, it’s never boring. A head of curls, olive skin, and carved cheekbones... She’d be a fitting muse for an Amrita Sher-Gil painting. She’s also that Cool Girl of urban legend—a carefree club kid who can pull off what might be intimidating (or tacky) to most, like fishnet stockings. When we speak one afternoon over Zoom, her daughters chattering in the background, the first thing Khanna confesses to is a love for monochrome clothing. It’s a surprising admission from the creative director of Lovebirds, a brand known for its delectable colour codes and joyful prints, and I wanted to know more. Like, how do you find sartorial clarity when you are constantly surrounded by clothes in an atelier? For Khanna, it’s all about nostalgia and investing in pieces that tell stories.

What’s old is beautiful

Khanna’s was a postcard-pretty childhood. An army kid, she grew up in the foothills of Nagaland, and was raised amongst a brood of four brothers. “I spent my formative years in this idyllic place that has always been fashion-forward and individualistic. I have distinct memories of waiting for the school bus and seeing the older kids dressed in these slouchy, oversized silhouettes, wearing a lot of vintage—it all seemed so effortless and cool,” she shares. Surrounded by her boy squad, she would pluck boxy shirts from their wardrobes and was often handed down their baggy jeans. One washed-out pair is still a totem of comfort, caressing her belly through her pregnancies and expertly cinched by a leather belt in the present day. And so even today, her personal style subconsciously veers towards the androgynous. 

The fashion design seed was planted during these early days. She remembers her mother, formerly a teacher, had quit her job, bought a sewing machine, and set up a tailoring unit. And it was a pint-sized Amrita, who followed her to textile markets, curiously inspecting rolls and bales of fabric. 

But it only became her calling once she went off to college. After graduating from the London College of Fashion in 2001, she spent a decade honing her design skills, frequenting thrift shops and flea markets on the weekend. By the time she returned to New Delhi in 2012, she had amassed quite a collection. “I fell in love with the storytelling of these pieces. There was an unbridled joy in discovering something really special—a maxi dress from the 1930s or a French hat from the 1950s. Sometimes you had to stand in long queues for hours to get into these stores. I travelled through Europe uncovering the tales behind these finds. I realised I had a passion for reviving old pieces, making them usable once again. When I came back home [to New Delhi], I had no choice but to open a vintage store.” The store was Lovebirds, a nostalgic corner shop in Hauz Khas Village, whose curation included tailored trousers from the ’40s and vintage velvet corsets as well as rare offerings from Gucci and Ferragamo. This was the first stage in what gradually grew into the ready-to-wear label she now helms with her husband, Gursi Singh.

I love somebody who can wear a frothy couture gown on the sidewalk one day and throw on boxer shorts and combat boots on another.”

The everyday runway

Khanna enjoys the very act of getting dressed up. She rocks up to the atelier in lacy dresses worn under floppy tailored shirts, and high-waist trousers paired with Yohji Yamamoto jackets—and calls herself a “Pant Person”. The interplay of contrasting silhouettes, where an apparent masculinity is blended with hints of sensuality, has become integral to her uniform. “I like my outfit to always have an element of theatricality to it. My fashion icons are Lady Gaga, Tilda Swinton, and Björk—there’s something deeply alluring about the unexpectedness in the way they dress. I love somebody who can wear a frothy couture gown on the sidewalk one day and throw on boxer shorts and combat boots on another,” she shares. This irreverence shows up in tiny but conspicuous hints through her dressing—a smear of sparkly eyeshadow, spikey acrylic earrings, or a pair of Balenciaga sculpted feet shoes, her most “out there” purchase yet.

“I think fashion is always about having fun, and for me it’s also about breaking norms. Even if I’m wearing a lehenga, I like styling it in a cooler way that feels more authentic to me—with a really tiny blouse that has big taffeta sleeves, or a slinky top. We’re surrounded by a wealth of texture and embellishment, but I find myself gravitating towards subtler choices, like pairing a plain white sari by Nishar Ahmed with my grandmother’s heirloom jewellery. I like these unconventional synergies.”

Not without my girls

A mother to two young daughters, Caro and Dali, Khanna is now pleasantly swathed in girly energy that’s a contrast to her own childhood. “My younger daughter has very strong opinions. She is often amused by why I get dressed up everyday but will also want me to pick her up from school so she can show me off to her friends,” she shares. Dragging her to Dua Lipa concerts and rescuing her from the rare wardrobe crisis, the girls enable her to view design from a different lens.

I ask about how motherhood has changed the way she dresses, and Khanna reminisces about wearing a layered Lovebirds dress with an elasticated waist on loop, accessorising it with silver jewellery from the Japanese label Ambush and her favourite Jil Sander shoes, debunking every trope about pregnancy style by keeping her innate spunk intact.

Today, she loves stealing their tiny tees and little hair clips, much to their displeasure. “Having girls has been an incredible learning for me. Becoming a mother has made me more daring. I’m experimenting more now than I ever did before. I’ve truly come into my own.”