With Alwara, Tanishka and Kainaat Awla are setting out to build a global design house from India, beginning with a collection deeply connected to Punjab, a region they call home. Their debut Fall/Winter 2026 collection draws on the textile traditions of territories historically connected by the 19th century Sikh Empire that expanded all the way up from Kashmir down to Gujarat and Sindh, bringing together the craft practices of Ajrak, Daabu, Sozni and Phulkari.
However, Alwara’s design proposition is not rooted in nostalgia. Rather, the duo approaches these traditions as living practices, exploring how their techniques, materials, and visual languages can evolve within a contemporary wardrobe for men and women. The result is intended as both an expression of heritage and a starting point for a house whose ambitions extend well beyond it.
With Tanishka directing the house’s collections and Kainaat leading their strategy and operations, Robb Report India sat down with the co-founders ahead of the unveiling of the debut at Taj Palace, New Delhi on September 30, 2026, to explore the origins and design philosophy behind Alwara, and what it means to launch an Indian yet global design house in today’s fashion landscape.
Robb Report India (RR): Alwara brings together several regions that were historically connected through the geography of the 19th-century Sikh Empire. What was the starting point for you in approaching such a vast and layered cultural landscape?
Tanishka Awla & Kainaat Awla (TA & KA): The house draws from the cultural influences and textile heritage of the region without being defined by them. The debut collection looks closely at the textile heritage of the territories connected by the 19th-century Sikh Empire, and that starting point is also deeply personal to us. Our family comes from Punjab and we grew up surrounded by its culture, textiles and traditions. We’ve been patrons of its craft and culture all our lives, so beginning with something that was both familiar and personal felt instinctive.
At the same time, we did not want to approach this history as an exercise in preservation or nostalgia. We wanted to understand what these traditions could mean today, and how they could become part of a contemporary wardrobe and a global design language. The collection is therefore a point of departure—a way of introducing Alwara to the world through something that is deeply rooted in where we come from, while allowing the house itself to evolve far beyond it.
RR: What kinds of constructions, silhouettes, and colour palettes can we expect from the debut Fall/Winter 2026 collection?
TA & KA: As a FW collection, layering becomes central to the wardrobe. There are jackets, trenches, coats and formalwear, with a sense of structure that draws from the regal history of Punjab. We also looked closely at the region’s cultural dress—its proportions, layering, draping and relationship with the body—and interpreted those elements through a contemporary fashion vocabulary. The intention was never to recreate a historical dress. Instead, we asked ourselves how would these clothes and textile traditions naturally find their place within today’s fashion cycle?
The colour palette follows the same approach, drawing from the region’s landscapes and textiles with the depth and irregularity of natural dyes, rather than reproducing a historical palette literally.
RR: Ajrak, Daabu, Sozni and Phulkari each have very distinct histories and techniques. How did you get each of these traditions to interact with each other in order to arrive at a cohesive collection?
TA & KA: The region itself has always been diverse, and these traditions did not exist in isolation, with a great deal of exchange taking place between the different communities and geographies. Its position along the Silk Route also made it an important site of movement—of people, materials, ideas and culture. So, in many ways, the interaction between these crafts is not something we have imposed on them; it is part of the region’s history. Our approach was to bring that sense of exchange into a contemporary visual language and reimagine what it could look like today.
We allowed Ajrak, Daabu, Sozni and Phulkari to retain their individual identities and techniques, while considering how their different approaches to pattern, surface, colour and embellishment could exist within the same wardrobe.
RR: There is often a tension between preserving a craft tradition and changing it for a contemporary audience. How did you navigate that tension while developing this collection?
TA & KA: We don’t see preservation and evolution as opposing ideas. A tradition survives because it is capable of moving with its time. Our approach has been one of craft conservation and evolution: understanding a technique deeply enough to know what should remain intact and where there is room to experiment. We are not interested in reproducing craft as an artefact or placing it behind glass. At the same time, we don’t want contemporary design to erase the intelligence embedded within these traditions. The dialogue is therefore between the maker, the material and the designer. The techniques remain rooted in their origins, while their application, scale, combination and context can change. For us, that is how these traditions continue to have a future.
RR: You use the phrase “modern-day heirlooms.” What makes a garment an heirloom to you and how does your design philosophy work to create something that carries that kind of longevity?
TA & KA: An heirloom is ultimately something that develops meaning with time. It is not simply an expensive or well-made object; it is something you continue to want to live with. For us, longevity begins with design rather than trend. We look at proportion, material, construction and the emotional quality of a piece, while avoiding design decisions that are dependent on a particular season or moment. The use of natural materials and processes also means that the garments can age and develop character through wear. A modern heirloom should be able to belong to its first owner and still make sense when it enters the wardrobe of the next generation. That is the kind of longevity we aspire to build.
RR: Alwara is being introduced as a global design house based in India. What does “global” mean to you beyond simply selling internationally?
TA & KA: For us, being global is about relevance, dialogue and participation—not distribution. India has always been connected to the wider world through its materials, textiles, trade, art and ideas. We see Alwara as continuing that conversation from India rather than presenting India as something that needs to be translated for the outside world. A global design house should be able to speak to different cultural contexts while retaining a distinct point of view. We want the work to be understood in Paris, Seoul, New York, Dubai or Mumbai without diluting where it comes from. India is our point of departure, not a limitation on where the conversation can go.
RR: What does building a new fashion house in India today allow you to do differently from an established luxury brand?
TA & KA: It gives us the opportunity to build without inherited assumptions. We are entering at a moment when the relationship between luxury, design, culture and consumption is changing significantly. We don’t have to replicate the traditional architecture of a luxury house simply because it has existed for decades. We can be more fluid in how we think about collections, collaborations, communication and community from the beginning. It also allows us to build the house around the realities of contemporary India—its makers, its material knowledge, its cultural diversity and its rapidly changing relationship with the world.
RR: What does success look like for Alwara in its first few years?
TA & KA: Success for us would be establishing a distinct language that people can recognise without needing to see the name. In the first few years, we want to build a strong body of work, deepen our relationships with artisans and creative practitioners, and establish Alwara within a wider cultural conversation around design, art, material and India. We want the house to be known for its ideas as much as for its clothes.
Commercial longevity is, of course, essential to building a lasting house. But beyond numbers, the real measure will be whether Alwara can create work that feels relevant now and still carries meaning years from now—and whether we can take the material and cultural knowledge we have inherited and meaningfully contribute to its next chapter.