Joy division: How Kanika Goyal is making fashion fun again

In the fashion world, Goyal is everywhere too. The 35-year-old designer is prolific, even among her Millennial peers who are creating looks for the red carpet and real life. In the last year alone, Goyal has showed her collection at London Fashion Week – presenting creased taffeta shirts, and accessories made from surplus leather, laminated crushed leather and cracked bonded taffeta. She’s had a special fashion showcase in her hometown of Chandigarh, and did a themed look-book with the art collective Excise Dept, inspired by her roots in rural Punjab. She’s also dropped a line of 114 pieces with Disney, which draws on her memories of watching animated classics and visiting Disneyland in Paris as a 10-year-old. The skirts, dresses and shirts feature hand embroidery and sequinned lungi checks; the denims bear endless loops of Mickey Mouse ears. It’s aimed at the grown-up who prefers nostalgia with a bit of edge.

Team Kanika Goyal is now 90 members strong. And her empire spans her OG eponymous label of kitschy couture (Kanika Goyal Label or KGL), an affordable casual chic line (Kilogram), collabs, as well as plans of expansion into home décor and product design.

It may seem like a lot. But Goyal is more driven and hard-working than most. And she’s manifested it all, she says.

Bursting at the seams

Goyal says she was artistic, but had an entrepreneurial streak even as a young girl in Chandigarh. Her mother encouraged her to pursue a career in fashion. But NIFT Delhi was as far from the homestead as her father was willing to let her move. She missed out on the coveted rankings for the course in fashion design, so she studied space and lifestyle accessories instead. Goyal made it work, co-founding the accessories brand Yelo in 2009 at 20, creating bags and key-chains that cost between ₹1,500 and ₹5,500. It retailed nationwide and was a hit with young women who wanted stylish looks they could afford. She was still a student. She’d tasted success. She wanted more.

“That’s when I decided to go to Parsons School of Design in New York to pursue Fashion Design,” she says. Most Indian students struggle with coursework, and a side hustle to pay the rent. Goyal did all that and landed 14 internships, working with big brands such as Prada and Marchesa, and a long-term gig with renowned Odisha-born fashion designer Bibhu Mohapatra in the early 2010s. “He wanted me to stay on, but I knew I had to return to India to start my own label,” she recalls. “It was now or never.”

Bold measures

So, she started out in 2015 with a small store in Delhi’s Shahpur Jat “above a halwai’s shop”, determined to put out youthful, free-spirited fashion that captured the moment. The T-shirts screamed with slogans: As If; That’s So Rad; Super Weird. The designs were edgy and surrealist. “We would totally be cancelled for making those statements now!”

Celebrities came calling. Actors Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh and sportsmen such as Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya have championed Goyal’s work through its many avatars. And unlike one-hit wonders, Goyal went back to the studio and kept refining her subversive-but-make-it-fashion formula. She held on to the idea of playfulness and finding joy in the ordinary, but backed it up with impeccable tailoring, colour-blocked fits and deconstructed pieces. “We’ve now found a balance by keeping our childlike sensibility in place but introducing maturity into our clothes”.

It’s what got international celebrities interested too. Singer Jacob Collier has worn the Goyal label (mismatched electric brights, no less). Gen Z’s favourite singer-songwriter Tyla has sported her denim-cotton hybrid co-ord sets. Halle Bailey (yes, The Little Mermaid) has rocked her high-slit jeans. Kelly Rowland, almost twice Bailey’s age, has looked chic in Goyal’s denim trench and matching pants.

Fits of genius

Goyal’s most recent work has included chunky knit sweaters bearing Punjabi epithets such as Chardi Kala (a call for being positive) and Balle (joy) in Gurmukhi. Her September 2020 capsule collection, a nod to a nation in lockdown, was titled It’s OK to Put on a Few KGs, and consisted of oversized T-shirts, hoodies and sweatshirts.

Her collection for New York Fashion Week in 2023, Agrestal Mind, put crazy prints on sweaters and sequinned minidresses, “something you could wear to a rave party”. And all over Instagram, influencers have cheered her recent collection, Playfield. The line celebrates movement, imperfection and unhindered ideas: Tie-dye effect jeans, lightweight printed silk jackets, patchwork leather trench coats.

It’s somehow hyperlocal and international at the same time. “Fortunately, the Indian market has evolved,” Goyal says. “Indians would never pay ₹25,000 for a pair of jeans, now they do. My clients range in age from 20s to their 60s and 70s.”

Everyone likes a bit of edge, it seems. Which can take its toll on a creative mind. “I’m quite critical of myself, and the self-analysis can lead to frustration. So, I’ve read self-help books to develop discipline,” Goyal says. “And I’ve struggled to reconcile my desire to be empathetic with my selfish interests to excel at work. So, I actively prioritise empathy.”

She also still maintains a gratitude journal which she started in the pandemic when she was struggling to keep her business and her team of 20 afloat. It didn’t just pull her out of a lull, it got her to focus on the small wins, and grow her brand. “When I was younger and brimming with ideas, I had zero doubt that I would make it. That’s the feeling I like to channel now too. There shouldn’t be any doubt about your creativity. You have to believe in it wholeheartedly. You have to know this collection is a hit and it will be. If you have this level of clarity at the start, that’s half the job done.”

From HT Brunch, June 28, 2025

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