United Colours of India

THE BIGGEST, The Grandest, & The Maddest Fashion Campaign to come out of India,” an­nounced a recent post on fashion label Torani’s Instagram handle. The account had seemingly been on a social media pause for three months prior to this announcement, an unusual move for the popular fashion label helmed by designer Karan Torani. This could mean two things: things were go­ing slow or something big was brewing behind the scenes.

It turned out to be the latter. Since launching in 2018, Torani has come to be known for its ambitious visual cam­paigns but its latest offering, titled ‘Juloos’, exceeds every standard previously set by the brand. Inspired by India’s multicul­turalism and festivities, the collection is presented in a shoot staged at Delhi’s Red Fort with a star-studded cast of more than 200 models and celebrities posing among elephants, musicians and danc­ers, and an array of festive settings. Think actors Jim Sarbh, Sayani Gupta, Supriya and Shriya Pilgaonkar, Mona Singh, Randeep Hooda and Lin Laishram; rapper and songwriter Raja Kumari; fashion entrepreneur Divya Kapoor Gurwara; drag performer Rani Kohenur aka Sushant Divgikar; digital creators such as Kusha Kapila, Sakshi Sindwani, Sanjana Rishi, and Niharika NM. A trio of floral-themed festivities anchored the campaign—the Phoolwalon ki Sair, a centuries-old tradition led by Hindu and Muslim florists; the festival of Karaga from Tamil Nadu, and Kerala’s Thrissur Pooram. Other ceremonial festivities also appeared in the scenography—from Ram Lila, Durga Puja, and Ganesh Chaturthi to Gangaur from Rajasthan and Uttarakhand’s Nanda Devi Festival.

Bringing ‘Juloos’ to life was akin to building a house, says Karan who initially intended for the campaign to be shot in November 2023—a grand spectacle celebrating five years of the label. It turned into a much longer journey, as Karan and his team worked on the logistics of the shoot. There was the sheer magnitude of the Red Fort as a setting. The historic Mughal complex, usually the venue for Republic Day celebrations, has rarely been used as a fashion venue apart from a 2019 fashion show which was hosted by the Ministry of Textiles featuring designers such as Rajesh Pratap Singh, Rahul Mishra, and Anju Modi. To secure the venue required permissions from multiple government bodies, police departments, the Archaeological Survey of India, and private stakeholders. Then there was the task of bringing together the models, celebrities, and performers, creating distinct garments and accesso­ries, conceptualising props and back­ground for each festive setting.

The shoot was finally done over a sin­gle day in March 2024—a full year before the campaign released last month. Karan and his team began setting up props and production three days ahead, and a cast and crew of more than 500 people worked to create the final images. While setting up, the possibility of scaling down the shoot or presenting it in other formats came up now and then, but Karan and his team kept returning to their larger-than-life vision. As the designer says, “You need to give your inspiration its due.”

IMAGE MAKING AND story­telling have been central to brand Torani from its very beginning, informed by Karan’s love for nostalgia, art and culture. “What you see of the brand is the sum total of who I am: highly emotional, always living in the past, driven by history and mythology, and of course cinema.” From his father, who ran a wedding tent business, Karan learnt what it took to set up weddings but also inherited a love for music. “My father would take us to ghazal nights at different hotels in Delhi every alternate week,” he recalls, confessing that he now often listens to the ghazals that had bored him as a child. He watched his mother mend clothes and create beautiful embroidery, sparking a love for fashion. His grandmothers were also constant companions. “I wouldn’t go to sleep unless my dadi told me a story. She would tell me mythological stories—of Krishna and Ram—or something from history books. That remained with me.”

Memories frequently become muses for Karan. Take for instance his 2022 col­lection ‘Sindhi Tent House’, which got its name from his father’s business and narrated the story of a wedding with actors such as Lillete Dubey, Richa Chadha, and Vijay Varma leading the cast. Or the 2024 campaign ‘Leela’, which had actor Tamannaah Bhatia play­ing Radha. Each campaign sprawls across several photographs and video narra­tives, with an eye on detail. Be it lights, flowers on a model, stacks of bangles on a wrist, playing cards, a bowl of kheer— everything becomes a character or prop of significance in the story. The label’s Indian occasionwear is rife with colour, prints, embroidery and embellishments, but what consistently draws attention— often to viral heights—has been its sensorial visuals.

Even as a fashion student at Pearl Academy, Karan would make films and write music to present his collections. “I wanted everyone to feel what I am feel­ing. Fashion is about colour and embroi­dery, but what does it make you feel?” For Karan, clothing is defined by craft, but it finds meaning in lived experience and memory. “This passion, stories, and mad­ness are for myself,” he adds.

The fashion campaign as a “complete package” also draws from Karan’s endur­ing love for cinema—its drama, style, and excesses. Not surprising for a designer who often inserts movie dialogues into real-life conversations. Movie stills, from Umrao Jaan to Hum Aapke Hain Koun to Lootera find their way into the brand’s social media images, as inspirations driving col­lections. The visual storytelling is also cine­matic—early campaigns such as ‘Shud­dhi’ released in 2020 referenced the Zeenat Aman-starrer Satyam Shivam Sundaram. For its first bridalwear collection in 2023, the label presented the ‘Baabul’ campaign featuring Wamiqa Gabbi as a newlywed leaving her parents’ home. ‘Rafu’, another collection from the same year, starred Adil Hussain and Sheeba Chadha as an older couple; the images were so filmy that the posts have social media users asking in comments about where they can watch the movie.

Torani designs have been seen on A-list celebrities, from Deepika Padukone to Aamir Khan; last year, the label created a line of custom cricket-themed ensembles for Janhvi Kapoor for the promotion of Mr & Mrs Mahi. But his campaigns are star-studded too, featuring actors less as brand ambassadors and more like characters.

These storytelling techniques hit fe­ver pitch with ‘Juloos’—shooting it, says the designer, was like hosting a dozen fashion shows in a single day. Inciden­tally, the label has never hosted a fashion show to present its collections. Karan enjoys the spectacle of a fashion show and notes that he might as well bring his designs to the runway one day, but a visual campaign offers a more accessible means to reach his audience, from show­casing the clothes and storytelling to the mood boards and behind-the-scenes making of a presentation. “It’s almost like bringing the audience to live within my design and creation. That journey is much richer and more textured.”

Karan clarifies that he is always mind­ful that these campaigns are the means to present his brand’s clothes and acces­sories. Expanding Torani’s production and retail footprint map his future goals. There are plans to expand operations and production capacity, including the brand’s factory and studio presently locat­ed in Noida. A store in Hyderabad is in the works, along with expansion plans for Delhi (where the brand has two stores) and Mumbai. “We stock in over 40 stores across the globe and are steadily making a product and appetite to serve the global consumer,” he adds. But the commerce of fashion is never estranged from its emo­tional value. The brand’s image-making lies at its heart, driving its aspirational value as much as commercial potential. A picture is worth a thousand words, goes a popular adage. Karan Torani seems to live by its power.

fashionJim SarbhKaran ToraniRed FortSatyam Shivam SundaramTamannaah Bhatia