At The Odyssey’s New York premiere, Christopher Nolan’s Ajrakh silk tie by 23-year-old designer Aahaan Tandon turned a heritage Indian craft into a global talking point. In this interview, Tandon explains the meticulous handwork behind tailoring fluid, hand-dyed Ajrakh into sharp menswear, his genderless design philosophy, and how everyday garments can carry centuries-old textile traditions forward.
At the New York premiere of The Odyssey (2026), director Christopher Nolan was photographed sporting a black Zegna suit, a white-collared shirt — and an Ajrakh tie! The custom silk tie was designed by New York-based designer Aahaan Tandon. The 23-year-old designer graduated with a BFA in Fashion Design and Film Production from Parsons School of Design, New York City, and his work primarily focuses on menswear and genderless designs.
Tandon chose to work with Ajrakh for this piece, a textile craft that was born in the Sindh region around the early 1600s, defined by its precise geometry. Over time, the craft tradition travelled to parts of Gujarat and Rajasthan, especially the Kutch region, where it continues to be practiced. As part of the process, the fabric is hand-dyed, and repeatedly washed and treated, following which the design is imprinted upon using carved wooden blocks.
Pairing the symmetry and rhythm of this centuries-old tradition with the sharpness of a tie, Tandon designed Nolan's wide-cut tie that quickly garnered global media attention. In conversation with Robb Report India, the young designer dives into the craftsmanship behind the tie and how he bridged the traditional Indian textile with Western formal tailoring
Aahaan Tandon (AT): Christopher Nolan’s son, who is a very close friend of mine, reached out to me about creating a custom tie to accompany the Zegna suit Nolan would be wearing to the premiere of The Odyssey. Following suit, I developed a few options, and this design was ultimately selected. I had sourced this particular Ajrakh silk about a year ago and had been thinking about how I could incorporate it into my menswear in a way that really celebrated it.
It felt like the perfect fabric for a piece like this. The brief itself was fairly open: the goal was to create something that complemented his suit. I didn't want to use the fabric just because it was beautiful; I wanted the construction of the garment to allow the textile to speak for itself. Ajrakh has an incredible sense of symmetry and rhythm, and I felt a wider cut tie would really allow that to come through.
AT: Silk is a difficult fabric to work with because of its fluidity. Preserving the shape of the print without distorting it demands a lot of patience when marking, cutting, and hand sewing everything together. I think that process complements the way Ajrakh is made. The craftsmanship doesn't stop once the textile leaves the artisan but continues through the making of the garment. I liked that continuity, because it meant the tie still carried that same sense of being made by hand.
AT: The textile itself is beautiful and the ideas of who should wear it have been added over time. For me, bringing these fabrics into menswear isn't about changing what they are, but about expanding where they can exist. The craftsmanship and labour behind them deserve to be seen and worn by as many people as possible. If putting them into tailoring or everyday clothing helps introduce them to a wider audience, then that's a really positive start.
AT: Spending time to understand the craft and the textile opens up several different ideas and if you can visualise it outside of its current context, you'll naturally find ways for it to exist within contemporary design. Bringing these techniques into everyday objects and clothing that people already wear is how traditions continue to evolve, stay alive or even grow and find new identities.
It's a really wonderful celebration of Indian craftsmanship and the histories behind these textiles. I'm incredibly grateful to have had my work worn by Christopher Nolan on such a special occasion, especially as a young designer. It's been great to see the response and the celebration of the craft, particularly by international audiences.
AT: It's influenced the way I design because so much of my life has been about adapting to different places while still trying to stay true to who I am. Every place I've lived in has had a different relationship with clothing, craft, and design, and being exposed to that from a young age naturally shaped how I think about making garments.
Moving to New York changed my perspective again. It's a city where people are constantly moving, so I became much more interested in designing for everyday life. I approach garment construction by asking how a piece can work better for the wearer rather than asking the wearer to adapt to the garment.
We're moving towards building wardrobes with fewer, better-made pieces rather than constantly buying more. Working with fabrics like Ajrakh reminds me that when something takes time, skill, and care to make, people naturally value it differently. Those are the kinds of pieces I want to design.
AT: It's an important part of my design practice because it's part of my background and something I'm genuinely interested in, but it's one influence among many. In my MFA thesis, I'm continuing to explore some of those ideas through contemporary menswear, and there are already a number of pieces that build on this conversation. At the same time, I'm equally interested in construction, tailoring, movement, and the way people interact with clothing in everyday life.
I hope that throughout my career I'm able to keep finding new ways to bring different forms of craftsmanship into contemporary design whenever they feel authentic to the work. India has an incredible depth of textile and craft traditions, and I'd love to see more of those techniques become part of the global design conversation simply because they're exceptional examples of design and making. I hope my work can contribute to that in its own way.