very designer
needs a story. What is my story? Who am I?”
For Naeem Khan, it’s a question best answered by
his creations. By one dress in particular, actually:
A strapless cream-coloured gown in a silhouette
inspired by Marilyn Monroe, with sterling silver
appliqués reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s poppies,
embellished using a technique he learned from
his grandfather. Michelle Obama immortalised
the dress when she wore it to the Indian State
Dinner at the White House in 2009, but it’s
special even without the former First Lady’s
endorsement. Without force or conflict, it brings
together the legacy of embroidery Khan inherited
and the decadence he experienced when he
moved to New York City in the 1970s.
Khan grew up with fashion—his grandfather
started an embroidery and fabric-making
business in Bombay in the 1930s, and his father
carried it forward, even designing for royal
families in India. His earliest memories, in fact,
include playing with yards of fabric and wooden
spools. “My Indianness comes from the chaos,
the colour, the embroidery, when there is no
inhibition of mixing colours. Everyone in the
world studies colour, but here it comes naturally.
What I know in fashion is from India,” he says.
It’s evident in his pieces, in their unapologetic
vibrancy—the Doha dress from his Spring 2017
bridal range, shaped like a dome and inspired byhis mother’s saris; the dresses from Fall 2012,
with hand-painted circles and dots, from the
body art of Indian sadhus; the Kashmiri textile
gown for Michelle Obama in 2016.
Decades ago, though, India couldn’t offer him
an education, not in this field, nascent and niche.
He set out, instead, for Fashion Institute of
Technology in New York City—only to never
attend a single class. “It was my lucky day.
My father asked me to go with him to a meeting
with this amazing designer who was interested in
collaborating with our company. I grew up
playing in the workshops, so I started chatting
about what our family did, and he said you won’t
go to school, you’ll come and work for me,” says
Khan, when we speak after his session at the India
Today Conclave in Mumbai earlier this year.
He is referring to Roy Halston, the legendary
designer who mentored him for eight years,
a relationship that extended beyond the studio,
where he saw firsthand every fitting and began
to understand the function and constructionMichelle Obama and President Obama
at the Indian State Dinner, 2009BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/GETTY IMAGES ➤