Shopping in Mumbai: A Psychedelic Spin
Shopping in Mumbai
A psychedelic spin through India's most inspired boutiques, and the bigger story under all the sparkle: a country long celebrated for its hands, finally being celebrated for its imagination.
The first time I traveled to Mumbai, I was obsessed with Bombay Electric. Exploring the city for its independent designers and brands, like a local rather than a tourist, is still one of my favorite travel experiences anywhere. The more I went back, the more Mumbai became my favorite shopping destination on earth: the colors, the fabrics, the sparkle, the impossible locations. This is a love letter to that. It is also, quietly, an argument, because somewhere in all the sequins sits one of the most important shifts happening in fashion right now.
Hands, and Now Imagination
For years, the luxury you bought in Paris or Milan was quietly Indian. The embroidery, the beadwork, the hours of handwork behind a couture gown were often done here, uncredited, an open secret of the global supply chain. India was celebrated for its hands. What is changing now, and changing fast, is that it is finally being celebrated for its imagination.
For years, India was celebrated for its hands. Now it is finally being celebrated for its imagination.
The most interesting conversation in Indian fashion has moved past heritage craft. The young designers are not asking how to preserve embroidery or reinvent the sari. They are asking a harder question. What does contemporary Indian identity actually look like, not as nostalgia, but as now?
The Languages
It helps to remember what India is working with. Ikat, chikankari, zardozi, kantha, bandhani, kalamkari, kanjeevaram silk, block printing. These are not trends that arrive and leave with a season. They are centuries-old cultural languages, and the designers who matter treat them exactly that way.
Designers Worth Writing About
Rahul Mishra turned Indian embroidery into couture-level art and carried it to Paris Haute Couture Week, where his pieces read like wearable ecosystems, dense with insects, flowers, mythology, and a real environmental conscience. Gaurav Gupta is the sculptor of the group, building garments that feel architectural, marrying Indian draping to futuristic silhouettes, which is why Cardi B and Beyonce wear him. Sabyasachi Mukherjee did something structural: he repositioned Indian craftsmanship as luxury rather than ethnic fashion, with vintage references and storytelling that reach far past clothes. And Vaishali S works so closely with handloom that she proves the whole point of this piece, that Indian craft can be contemporary instead of nostalgic.
Bombay Electric
Which brings me back to where I began. Bombay Electric was never just a store. It was a cultural conduit, gathering India's most exciting designers and artisans under one heritage roof in the chaotic heart of the city, edgy and somehow sacred at once. It championed people like Karishma Shahani Khan, whose label [Ka][Sha] is all clashing color and layered print, and Olivia Dar, whose jeweled headpieces turn getting dressed into ritual. It closed in 2017, and I still miss it. Bungalow Eight, the concept store that once put Mumbai on Wallpaper's list of the ten best shops in the world, closed two years after. An era ended, and it is worth saying so.
Shahani Khan, at Bombay Electric
at Bombay Electric
Where to Go Now
The good news is the city did not stop. Here is where I would send you today. In Bandra, Lune for celestial, demi-fine jewellery and a gallery space curated by Sreesha Shetty, and Two Extra Lives for conscious, circular fashion, vintage and upcycled one-of-a-kinds sourced from Barcelona to Hanoi. Also in Bandra, Call of the Valley, a rare perfumery by the Parisian flautist Jean-Christophe Bonnafous, built on single-ingredient simplicity and India's three-thousand-year-old craft of scent. In Lower Parel, Good Earth, Anita Lal's temple of handcrafted homeware, and Hatsu, a design studio for lights, furniture, and rugs with a streak of quirk. And in the heritage village of Khotachiwadi, James Ferreira, on the scene since the 1980s, who sells from his two-hundred-year-old home.
Still on the List
There is one store I have never been to and want badly: the Gem Palace in Jaipur. It stays on my list the way the best places do, as a standing reason to go back. Because the truth about this city is simple.
Mumbai does not just sell style. It embodies it.
About Antakly Projects
Antakly Projects has been in conversation with artists and creatives from around the world since 2003.
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