Quick Answer: Anamika Khanna is an Indian fashion designer born on 19 July 1971 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, and raised in Kolkata. She launched her eponymous label in 1998 and was one of the first Indian designers to showcase at Paris Fashion Week, with her international diffusion line Ana-Mika stocked at Harrods (London) in the early 2000s. According to the Business of Fashion profile and her Wikipedia biography, Khanna is known as the "designer's designer" for blending traditional Indian textiles and embroidery with Western silhouettes and tailoring. She operates from her Kolkata studio and has dressed Sonam Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, and international clients including members of the Saudi royal family. She does not show at fashion weeks on principle, preferring direct-to-client presentations.
Anamika Khanna was born on 19 July 1971 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, into a Marwari family. Her family relocated to Kolkata when she was young, and she was raised in the culturally rich environment of the city â exposed to Bengali craft traditions, Mughal-inspired embroidery, and the colonial-era textile heritage of Bengal. According to Aza Fashions' designer profile, Khanna was surrounded by a diverse blend of culture, art, and textile heritage during her formative years in Kolkata.
Khanna did not pursue formal fashion design training. She studied at a liberal arts college in Kolkata and is largely self-taught as a designer â a fact she credits for her unconventional approach to pattern-making and silhouette. Her lack of formal training allowed her to break rules that more traditionally trained designers adhered to, particularly in her fusion of Indian draping with Western structured tailoring.
Anamika Khanna launched her eponymous label in 1998 from her Kolkata studio. The early collections focused on what would become her signature: hand-embroidered Indian textiles (Banarasi silk, Kanchipuram silk, Chanderi cotton) cut into Western silhouettes (gowns, capes, structured jackets, jumpsuits). This was a radical departure from the prevailing Indian designer aesthetic of the late 1990s, which focused primarily on bridal lehengas and sarees.