Since 2011, homegrown, hand-spun, and India Proud design house — Anavila has celebrated time-honoured technique and embraced mindful production practices, crafting a singular vocabulary of ease, comfort, and refinement.
This month, as we spotlight homegrown Indian brands and their forward-thinking stories at Robb Report India, we turn our focus to Anavila, which has a loyal fan club, including the likes of Kangana Ranaut, Karisma Kapoor, Dia Mirza, and Genelia Deshmukh, among others.
With the creation of her first linen sari, founder-designer Anavila Misra managed to disrupt the traditional design and create a completely modern, effortless, and instantly desirable yardage. “With linen, we found a language that felt instinctively our own — not just as a material, but as a medium for ideas, sensibilities and emotions,” she shares. “Craft becomes contemporary through time, learning, and steady refinement. What holds true is the importance of working in a language that feels natural to us. And when that language feels resolved, we return to it with complete commitment.”
Taking the India story forward is both a privilege and a responsibility for Misra. “Few places hold such an expansive craft vocabulary — one that emerges directly from its landscape and the rhythms of everyday life. What is being rediscovered today as sustainability was never an external framework for us; it has always been intrinsic to the way we make. To interpret India Modern is not to reinvent, but to edit. Quiet, self-luminous, and simply true to where it comes from.”
Anavila forayed into couture three years ago, marking a remarkable expedition driven by a profound affection for the intricacies of weaving. However, for the design house, venturing into couture was not about occasion wear in the conventional sense, but about understanding the woman in moments that are intimate, transitional, and deeply personal. “Quiet thresholds or markers of life phases,” she points out.
Couture allowed the designer to dwell in these in-between spaces. “The pieces remain rooted in our material language but open themselves to finer gestures — embroidery that holds depth of meaning rather than existing as embellishment, metallics that catch light like fleeting reflections,” she points out.
The Anavila bride is someone who moves with ease. She dances, she inhabits the moment, she is unburdened by spectacle. “There is a certain playfulness, an intimacy in how she wears the garment, as though it belongs to her even before the occasion arrives,” she adds.
Experimenting with yarns and design techniques has been an intuitive and evolving journey for the designer. “It allows us to keep the process alive, but always with a deep respect for the integrity of the craft. Every intervention is thoughtful, never imposed.”
The brand works closely with artisans, understanding the skillset and limitations of textile crafts before gently pushing them into new territory. The idea is never to alter tradition, but to reveal newer possibilities within it. “What emerges are textiles shaped by the same landscape, yet responsive to the present moment — sensual, fluid, breathing with the body,” she quips.
Misra begins with the colour and texture of the textile, and from there, chooses the yarn based on its strength and behaviour. The process is intuitive and structured. It evolves through ongoing dialogue with artisans, sampling, and time. “What may appear instinctive is guided by a meticulous discipline, where experiment has a clear purpose,” she shares.
Mindful creation has been a continuous effort at the atelier. “Mindfulness in production comes from slowing down, respecting the pace of craft, and making conscious choices at every stage. The challenge lies in resisting speed and scale, but also staying committed to creating with intention, so the pieces naturally encourage more thoughtful and lasting consumption,” she notes.
The brand is in a more mature conversation around comfort in luxury that answers why it has always mattered and why it feels more relevant now than ever. New-age Indian luxury is no longer defined by visibility, but by a deeper alignment with oneself and with ecology. It draws from tradition without remaining bound by it — honest, cyclical, and at ease in contemporary life,” she shares.
Sharing and exchanging perspectives within different craft clusters has been enriching for the design house. Whether it is a young artisan still refining their skill or a master craftsman who has witnessed the craft evolve, the interactions bring a deeper understanding to the process. “Their traditions and lived experiences shape the work as much as our design inputs. It moves away from instruction toward shared understanding, where meaning is built through a dialogue between maker and wearer,” says she.
For the designer, it is less about redefining modern Indian fashion as a system and more about rethinking who it is made for. The starting point has always been the person who wears the garment: Their body, their life, their rhythm, their sense of self and style. “The intention is not to wrap or construct a spectacle, but to create something that responds to them as conscious, thinking individuals,” says she.
In many ways, she returns to the idea of alamkara — where adornment was once natural, intuitive, and organic. “Fundamental to the expression of meaning rather than being merely decorative. That sensibility continues to inform how I approach design today.”
The designer is clear that revival and reinvention can coexist, but they do not always overlap. "Our work leans more towards reinvention than revival. Many Indian crafts have naturally evolved in their tools, processes, and aesthetics — and fortunately, many have endured. With linen as our core material, not traditionally central to Indian craft, our approach has been to reimagine techniques rather than restore them: From rethinking handloom to exploring batik, block printing, appliqué, and metallic gota. Some crafts are at risk and do need focussed revival — we haven't worked directly with those yet, but remain open to it. With better documentation and a new generation engaging with them, there is hope they will find their way back," she informs.
Misra observes that the new generation of consumers is far more empathetic and aware, with a deeper understanding of the impact of their choices. “With greater exposure to craft and the effort behind it, they feel more connected and take genuine pride in Indian design. At the same time, they are not rigid. They are open to experimenting with styling and wearability, approaching tradition in a way that feels personal and relevant.”
Over the years, the brand has found a place within popular culture, with the who’s who of showbiz and art spaces choosing to wear Anavila pieces at significant moments and events. The designer sounds excited about the brand’s newest flagship store in Mehrauli, where Anavila’s aesthetic unfolds under the sprawling canopy of a Ber tree in the historic heart of Delhi. “The space is shaped by our ethos and our long relationship with linen and all that it holds. It is also a place that will bring together the journey of the brand alongside my own,” she says.