Venture capitalist and cultural strategist Kavita Gupta stands as a figure who has worked across finance, technology, and creative industries. From pioneering Green Bonds, investing in decentralised systems and supporting global storytelling platforms, she has established herself as a fintech expert. Recently, Gupta was appointed to the leadership board of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), New York. The recognition enabled her to bring in her cross-sector experience to fashion education and craft ecosystems. Having worked closely with Anurag Kashyap, Gupta advocates frameworks that ensure artisans are credited and that long-term cultural value is rewarded.
During an exclusive conversation with Robb Report India, Gupta shares, “Opportunity is structural. With recognition, my focus is to ensure that Indian craft is recognised as intellectual and academic capital.” Here, she talks about how her objective is to move Indian craftsmanship from labour to design authority in order to reshape global luxury with cultural specificity.
Kavita Gupta: I understand why people see this as symbolic, and symbolism does matter. But for me, the real opportunity is far more practical. FIT sits at the centre of how fashion education is legitimised globally. That gives it the power to decide what knowledge counts.
What excites me about FIT is its ability to influence curriculum, access, and legitimacy at a global level. Structurally, this opens the door to Indian craft being taught not as an extractive skill set, but as a body of knowledge with theory, history, and authorship.
Practically, that means Indian textile schools, artisan clusters, and institutions like Chanakya are being brought into formal academic exchange with FIT. It allows us to create frameworks where artisans are invited not as demonstrators but as educators and co-creators, and where Indian textile knowledge is documented, credited, and taught at scale. Over time, that shifts power from extraction to authorship.
KV: Fashion isn’t operating in a vacuum anymore. It’s entangled with capital, technology, sustainability, and geopolitics all at once. My background sits at the intersection of finance, technology, storytelling, and creative ecosystems, which is where fashion is heading.
I come from international finance, where I worked on things like Green Bonds long before sustainability became a buzzword. I’ve spent over a decade in crypto and decentralised systems, thinking about ownership, provenance, and value. And I’ve also lived inside creative ecosystems — film, fashion, and storytelling — often behind the scenes.
That combination allows me to translate between worlds that don’t always speak to each other easily: Artisans and institutions, creativity and capital, heritage and future-facing technology. I think, that’s the gap FIT is responding to the need for leadership that understands culture not as nostalgia, but as strategy.
KV: Indian artisanship has never lacked depth or provenance — what it hasn’t had is control over narrative and design authorship. For decades, craft has been treated as labour rather than intellect.
The shift I’m interested in is simple but radical: Artisans participating earlier in the design process, influencing form, not just execution. When craft informs design thinking, not just production authority, it follows naturally. Institutions like FIT can help by creating platforms where Indian craftsmanship informs design thinking itself, shaping what luxury looks like, not just how it’s made.
KV: I’ve learned from finance that systems change faster than sentiments. Sustainability can’t survive on good intentions alone; it needs structures that reward it. Sustainable luxury also cannot be reduced to materials alone; it’s about longevity, dignity of labour, and economic viability. My work in Green Bonds taught me that capital follows structure. If you build the right financial and governance frameworks, behaviour changes at scale.
At FIT, I see an opportunity to bring together heritage craftsmanship, technology, and responsible capital in a way that’s practical, not performative. Blockchain, for instance, can protect provenance and attribution. Decentralised identity can ensure artisans are visible stakeholders, not anonymous labour. And capital can be structured to reward long-term cultural value rather than short-term trend cycles. Sustainable luxury, to me, is about dignity, continuity, and transparency — not just eco-friendly fabrics.
KV: Meaningful exchange begins with parity, continuity, and shared authority. It’s not about inviting Indian artisans or institutions for a single season or showcase; it’s about creating recurring, reciprocal pathways, where learning, leadership, and decision-making flow both ways.
Representation on platforms like the FIT board must translate into action. That means actively bringing designers from South Asia, especially India, into global systems such as New York Fashion Week (NYFW) and allowing them to serve as jury members, professors, and guest lecturers at FIT and other fashion institutions and venues across the US, particularly in New York. Indian designers must be positioned not only as participants but also as educators and evaluators.
Equally important is expanding the lens beyond a single institution. While the Chanakya School of Craft is a strong model, India’s embroidery and weaving ecosystems are vast. Meaningful exchange must include embroiderers, weavers, and craft communities across the country. Students from FIT and other global institutions should come to India to see, firsthand, how weaving and embroidery are practised, bridging the gap through immersion and real cross-pollination rather than surface-level exposure.
Another critical shift is building closer working relationships between the fashion weeks in India, New York, Paris, and London. Bringing these international fashion weeks into closer dialogue can create stronger job pathways for students while also enabling the exchange of best-in-class technology, research, and talent.
Finally, creating an FIT presence in India, either as a standalone campus or through partnerships with leading creative schools, would allow for long-term engagement rather than one-off collaborations. When Indian craft ecosystems align with global systems, and Western institutions treat India as an equal partner, tokenism disappears, and collaboration becomes durable.
KV: Cultural dilution happens when designers feel they must translate or simplify themselves to be understood. I don’t believe Indian designers need to dilute their identity to be globally relevant. What they need is context, institutional support, and access.
Historically, much of Indian fashion centred around sarees and unstitched garments, but contemporary Indian design reflects a powerful evolution. Today’s India represents precision in construction, fall, and tailoring, comparable to traditions like Savile Row, while still being rooted in exceptional textiles and handwork.
Designers such as Gaurav Gupta, Rahul Mishra, Bloni, and Raw Mango exemplify this shift. They bring together unmatched weaving and textile heritage with modern structure and silhouette. This amalgamation, where craft meets construction, is what positions India not just on the global map but as a preferred luxury choice for consumers worldwide seeking depth and authenticity.
At platforms like New York Fashion Week (NYFW), the goal is to build institutional frameworks that allow Indian designers to present work on their own terms through mentorship, market access, and narrative context. NYFW doesn’t need Indian designers to look Western; it needs them to look authoritative. When platforms understand the cultural and technical depth behind the work, specificity becomes an asset, not a risk.
KV: My early years working with Anurag Kashyap taught me something that’s stayed with me: Stories decide what the world values. Whether it’s cinema, fashion, or finance, narratives shape legitimacy. That’s why I see craft and fashion not just as creative outputs, but as strategic assets. When you tell the right story honestly and at the right scale, perception shifts, and with it, opportunity.
KV: I do think fashion is one of India’s most underutilised soft-power tools. Fashion and design are where culture becomes visible, aspirational, and exportable. India has the depth; what it needs now is coherence and confidence.
For Indian luxury to truly own its place globally, it must move beyond being reactive, beyond responding to Western validation, and instead build brands, institutions, and narratives that are internally strong and globally legible. When that happens, fashion becomes not just an industry but a language of influence.