Akhil Nagpal, a Delhi-based fashion designer, is the brains behind the luxury womenswear label AKHL. His collections are a mesmerizing marriage of complex textiles and reinvented textile craft processes such as hand weaving, hand interlocking, traditional hand embroidery, applique, and gradient hand-dyeing. Having worked with a celebrated caravan of designers, Akhil emerges as one of those artists who articulate a breath of fresh air into the existing landscape of tailored garments. His label’s diaspora of innovative cocktail dresses, plush gradient tops, and multicolored dresses are fashioned in innovative fabrics. They seamlessly blend with novel shapes and modern cuts while paying homage to traditional Indian handicrafts. Akhil’s studio weaves some of these textiles in-house, employing unusual materials like industrial glass yarns, raffia mesh, silk, rayon, etc. Additionally, they also visit various fishing villages in Mumbai to source tangled and unusable monofilament yarns. With several honors to his name, Akhil is also a Central Saint Martins alumnus fueled by the vision to forge his own path. Through constant innovation and experimentation, this new-age designer is artfully highlighting the importance of traditional Indian handicrafts and techniques.