Arjun Khanna's new store shows off his cheeky style and terrific tailoring, boasts of his bad-boy-doing-good vibe

AMONG Mumbai’s most beautiful boutiques is Arjun Khanna’s new store at Mumbai’s bustling Kala Ghoda. It’s tucked atop the Kala Ghoda Cafe, the fabulous modern take on Irani cafes run by two brothers Yazad and Farhad Bomanji, which is quite the destination for locals as well as visitors.

Khanna’s boutique is such an extension of his life and personality – a bad boy doing good work– it’s worth a dekko even if you aren’t buying anything. Its dark red, blue and black walls and matching sofas bear testament to the irreverent louche that Khanna has been for his 30-plus-year long career. He calls it his “man cave”, as it features everything his wife Shefali and he have collected and hold precious – antique cameras, vintage leather trunks, two barber’s chairs, old photographs, and even a gorgeous Lambretta that’s lovingly restored and hand-painted on by the designer himself.

“Yazad, who unfortunately passed away recently and too soon, came to me when he learnt I was looking for a space to open a new store. The brothers are fellow Campionites, and like true Campionites we shook hands on it on a Friday and signed the deal on Monday,” Khanna, 54, says, referring to the city’s most renowned all-boys’ school. The store, a collector’s delight, is truly a labour of love.

Khanna’s three decades in fashion have been a roller-coaster. He was part of the initial team that launched at Ensemble, Mumbai’s first multi-designer boutique, along with Tarun Tahiliani and Rohit Khosla.

“I was sitting in London finishing off my education at London College of Fashion, when I watched a documentary on Network East that profiled Ensemble, and Tarun and Rohit Khosla. I was just amazed that all of this existed in Bombay, just in my backyard,” Khanna says. His interest in the arts came from an architect father and an artist mother, but when he started customising his school’s white shirt and trousers uniform, with cuffs, and pleats, and stitch details, and turn-up trousers, he knew the path he had to take.

“I owe my label to Tarun. I had come to India on vacation and met him, and we got on like a house on fire. Ensemble was putting together a show at the US Club and he insisted I showcase there. Tarun and his wife Sal helped me get three tailors, I bought a black ribbon and put my name on it, and that’s how my label was born. Most of it was menswear, since I had to introduce that high street energy and gorgeous tailoring I learned in London to Bombay, but I had some women’s wear too. And oh, I had Rahul Akerkar modelling for me, he had hair back then,” he says, speaking of one of India’s most celebrated restaurateurs.

“There was no turning back from here on.”

What was India’s fashion scene 30 years ago? And how difficult was menswear in a country that was just about to give birth to its gargantuan bridal wear industry? “It was absolutely beautiful,” Khanna remembers. “It was pure and all about design. None of us had a head for commerce or business, I know I didn’t. They were great days.”

The Arjun Khanna label has had its share of ups and downs. The designer has not worked consistently, and has fallen out of fashion and come back into it a few times. “I’m just whimsical and moody. I’ve taken too many sabbaticals, but what keeps me going is when someone comes up to me with a sherwani or bandhgala I made decades ago and they still wear. Now I am dressing three generations of families and that just makes me very happy.”

The Arjun Khanna label boasts of cheeky fashion with remarkable tailoring. The pieces boast of great style matched with wit and humour. Like a bundi he had made for a GQ magazine show, with old HMT watches instead of buttons. “The editor Che Kurrien offered me the show wondering if I was serious about fashion as I was on one of my breaks,” Khanna laughs. “I called the collection ‘When Time Stood Still’. I’m still taking orders on it.”

Designer Arjun Khanna’s bundi with old HMT watches for buttons pic.twitter.com/dAS8k1Xmg5

— Firstpost (@firstpost) June 17, 2023

Khanna is a proud upcycler of fashion. One wall at his store shows off bags, pouches and iPad cases that used to be an ironing-board cloth, or then jeans. “I’ve been a zero waste brand ever since I launched. Every chindi that falls off my cutting table gets turned into something else. All these sustainable terms we use today are new, but I am a genuine and longtime believer of slow fashion.”

Khanna has certainly dug his heels into the business today. His website has a category called ‘Biker Jackets’ that pretty much sums up the label’s vibe. Khanna laughs when he says the jackets are a strong part of his philosophy. “I’ve always been drawn towards the rebels of the world – whether James Dean in Hollywood or the Italian mafia. My fashion seeks the form and function of that energy. So yeah, the guys who wear me are sometimes men who have a dual personality. Sometimes, the takers are women, who just love them. In fact, a friend wore one of my biker jackets over her lehenga and sneakers at her own wedding,” he adds.

“The Indian customer has evolved wonderfully in the last five-six years.” Khanna has made a small capsule line for women, as a growing number of women started flocking to his menswear. “I’m taking orders and they are just flying through the roof. I need to launch it formally soon. Right now, it’s just underground, like a guerilla vibe,” he smiles.

He also needs to introduce us properly to Arjun Khanna coffee. In two flavours, Bold and Matte Black, he calls this new enterprise “a Covid baby”.

Khanna credits much of his turnaround to a near-death road accident he had in 2016. He was motorcycling from Bombay to Goa, as he often does, but this time with a group of friends. “I am usually a very slow and relaxed rider, and usually the last in a group. But this time the guys wanted me to lead since I knew the route. Around Kolhapur, a villager popped onto the road from nowhere and I crashed into him,” Khanna remembers. His wife Shefali and friend Gautam Singhania had to have him airlifted out of the village hospital to a Mumbai one where the doctors saved his life, but were unsure he could use his wrist and draw again. But Khanna was unstoppable, he was back on his feet in a few months. “But I couldn’t get back to work for a long time after this. But I stopped taking things for granted, and I began to live every day like it was my last,” he smiles.

Namrata Zakaria is a seasoned writer and editor, and a chronicler of social and cultural trends. Her first book, on late fashion designer Wendell Rodricks’ Moda Goa museum, is due to be published shortly. Zakaria is especially known for her insider’s take on fashion, luxury and social entrepreneurship in India. Her writing is appreciated for shaping opinions, busting myths, making reputations and sometimes breaking the odd career. Zakaria is also involved in putting together philanthropic efforts in the field of economic and environmental sustainability.

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