How Mumbai-based atelier Chanakya International became a force to reckon with in haute couture

Mumbai-based atelier Chanakya International has become a force in haute couture. Christian Dior’s recent Pre-Fall show was just the latest demonstration of this

‘Dior goes to India’, ‘Dior’s Gateway to India’, and ‘Dior Celebrates Indian Artisans’ were just some of the headlines that splashed across international news outlets earlier this year, when French maison Christian Dior showcased its Pre-Fall collection at Mumbai’s iconic Gateway of India. Making it all possible was Karishma Swali, the Managing and Creative Director of Mumbai-based atelier Chanakya International and the Chanakya School of Craft, which specialises in embroidery and craft that adorns international haute couture. 

Swali’s father, Vinod Shah, set up Chanakya in 1986 with 22 master artisans to share India’s finest craftsmanship and artisanal legacy with the world, and she joined the family enterprise 26 years ago. Today, Chanakya’s client list includes some of the biggest names in luxury. Apart from Dior, there’s Fendi, Prada, Valentino, Celine, and Saint Laurent. The atelier’s relationship with Dior itself goes back to 2016, when Maria Grazia Chiuri took over as the French brand’s Creative Director. “We work extensively with many clients in both the LVMH and Kering groups,” says Swali. 

It was during an internship at Italian luxury brand Alberta Ferretti in the mid-1990s that Swali realised the importance of handicrafts. “The Italians are so proud of it. If a shoe upper is being moulded by hand, they are like, you know it’s handmade. In India, everything is handmade. It is so much a part of us that sometimes we don’t realise how precious it is,” says Swali. “My one year in Italy really made an impression, and I realised that I wanted to spend my time exploring craft and contribute to making it a global language,” she adds.   

Today, Chanakya has over 1,000 master artisans and is a name to be reckoned with in the couture space internationally. For the Dior show, besides the embroidery on all the runway looks, Chanakya created a 46-foot embroidered installation, or a toran, which took 382 craftspeople over six months. 

Widening Reach 

With the Dior show out of the way, Swali is focussed now on widening the reach of the Chanakya School of Craft, which she co-founded with Chiuri in 2016 to train more artisans in Indian crafts and techniques. She is particularly keen on helping women become master artisans. “Generationally, in India, craft is taught only from father to son. And even though it is the second largest economy, it has never been institutionalised,” says Swali.

Karishma Swali, 
Managing and Creative Director, 
Chanakya International and the Chanakya School of Craft

It was Chiuri who pointed out that in all the years she had come to Chanakya (she started visiting in the mid-1990s) all the artisans were men. “The idea came from her, and we decided to dedicate the school to women,” says Swali. 

Currently, the school (where no fee is charged; an honorarium is given to the students) has an 18-month programme that integrates craft and design to equip its students with both technical and design know-how. It prepares them to join the industry or become entrepreneurs. It started with just eight students who had to be cajoled into joining, but now teaches over 100 in each batch. 

Swali and Chiuri have known each other for nearly three decades. “There was an immediate connection as she comes from Solento, Italy, an area famous for its artisanal legacies. We bonded over how craft is a tangible way to reflect our heritage,” says Swali. Since then, they have been working together. “It’s been an extremely fulfilling journey where we have understood how globally these communities need to be recognised, preserved, and celebrated,” says Swali.

Chanakya’s client list includes some of the biggest names in luxury. Apart from Dior, there’s Fendi, Prada, Valentino, Celine, and Saint Laurent

Blurring boundaries 

Chanakya primarily works in three verticals. There is a space for art where it enters into artistic collaborations with different artists around the world. It works with artists such as New York-based painter Mickalene Thomas, French artist Eva Jospin, and the New Delhi-based Parekhs. “What we do together is blur the lines between craft and art to create a new language collectively that celebrates craft excellence,” says Swali. As part of the Dior show, a public exhibition of 22 large-scale textile artworks by Manu and Madhvi Parekh called ‘Mul Mathi: From The Roots’, in collaboration with Chanakya was put on display. 

Then it works with international maisons and offers them a collection of crafts. There is the foundation and the school, which is the education vertical. Swali says they are planning to tie up with universities abroad and offer a course in craft. 

As a policy, Chanakya doesn’t take on many clients. “We work with a few, but they’re very close partnerships, where we almost exclusively design their craft requirements,” says Swali. It works both ways. Sometimes brands give them a mood board and they work accordingly, or present a new capsule of research techniques that then become part of the collection. 

She says the good thing about international collaborations is that Chanakya works way in advance. Typically, she works three seasons in advance—currently, she is working on Autumn/Winter 24/25. “So it gives us enough time to present a new collection and to begin working on prototypes.” Since retail is very organised internationally, brands collate orders and send them to Chanakya. “So the whole process is very sustainable as it is all made to order,” explains Swali. 

She says one of the biggest changes globally over the past few decades is that there is more awareness now. “Earlier, it was normal to celebrate something like fur. But now there is a deepened sense of consciousness, where luxury is becoming much more purpose-led. And, thankfully, customers are more aware of the repercussions of their choices.”   

As Swali continues to work with global luxury brands, she is extremely conscious of quality. “Our quality tolerances are one millimetre, the highest standard of craft. All our affiliates are certified globally for quality management systems. We are not only up to global standards, but we are also setting standards globally,” she says. Considering its illustrious client list, others, too, seem very aware of that quality.