Anurag Gupta Interview
Q. Your pieces feel like a mix of emotion and structure. What philosophy guides your design language, and how has it evolved since you started?
From the beginning, my ideas were often dismissed, first in college, later in the industry. People felt they were vague, too experimental, too unconventional. But that is exactly where my foundation was formed. My philosophy grew out of resistance: every rejection sharpened my ability to understand myself and my work more clearly.
For me, emotion itself is a kind of rebellion, a refusal to design safely or predictably. Structure, on the other hand, comes from survival. When the world challenges you, you learn how to shape that emotion into something solid, something wearable, something that can stand on its own. My design language lives in that tension: raw feeling held together by discipline.
In the early years, I was completely experimental, tearing things apart, reconstructing, exploring without boundaries. Over time, I learned how to translate that experimentation into something commercial without letting it lose its soul. I didn’t dilute my identity; I learned how to refine it. My evolution has been about finding that balance where rebellion becomes design, and design becomes wearable expression.
Q. Every detail in your work feels intentional. How do material, form, and joinery influence your process? Can you share a project shaped by these decisions?
My details are always intentional and functional, but they start from experimentation. People often say, “If you’re experimental, how can the detail be intentional?” Because intention comes later. First, you experiment. Then, once you build it, it becomes intentional. Nothing new can ever be made without experimenting first.
A good example is when we wanted to create a fabric that could be heated or steamed and then hardened into a sculpture-like form. That wasn’t an accident. We sourced the yarn, got it knitted in a specific composition, tested it, and built the material exactly the way we imagined. If you’ve seen that piece we made, the one with the skull structure, if you steam it, it freezes like a sculpture. That was a fully intentional material invention. That’s how experimentation becomes purpose.
Q. Creativity often comes from personal spaces. Were there early experiences or inspirations that shaped your aesthetic voice?
Honestly, I don’t have one dramatic “inspiration story.” Many designers talk about nature or flowers, or some emotional moment. I don’t connect with that.For me, the only constant was this: I was experimental from college itself. Deconstruction, cutting things apart, rebuilding, that was my language even before I had the words for it.
But back then, I didn’t understand the industry. Experiments made sense in college, but not always in real life. When I started working, I realised that what I naturally did, deconstruction, could actually become my niche.
So my aesthetic voice wasn’t shaped by childhood stories or one emotional moment. It was shaped by finding myself through experimentation, and then realising with time that this could become my signature.
Q. Every designer has a signature. What’s yours, and do you consciously nurture it?
My signature is clear: edginess. I don’t do flowy silhouettes or scallops or soft curves. My pieces are always sharp to the cut. Even the collars. Even the hemlines. There’s no high-low play or soft drama. It’s structured, edgy, and rooted in deconstruction, both in surface and silhouette.
And yes, I nurture it consciously. I know what my hand looks like. I know when a piece feels like “me.” If it doesn’t have that edge, I don’t release it.
Q. Running a brand means balancing artistry and strategy. What’s been the toughest part of building yours, and what did you learn?
The toughest phase was the beginning. When I started my brand, there were no clients. Nobody was buying my pieces. My work wasn’t commercially viable at all. But I stayed consistent, showing up again and again for almost five years. Slowly, people started understanding the niche I was building.
The hardest thing was sustaining the brand when revenue wasn’t coming in. Survival was the lesson. Strategy came from necessity. You learn where to compromise and where not to. Somehow, we made it through.
Q. Your designs feel intimate and expressive. How do you balance innovation with wearability?
This style-my style- comes from within. It’s instinctive. But no, I didn’t always know how to make it wearable.At first, I didn’t balance innovation and wearability at all. Slowly, with time, I learned.
You can’t just create for yourself. You have to understand different bodies, different climates, different lifestyles. Wearability is something I grew into. Innovation was always there; I just had to learn how to shape it so someone could actually wear it.
Q. Design is a dialogue between the creator and the world. How have clients, collaborators, and your audience influenced your direction?
I don’t listen to people’s opinions. Truly, I don’t. If I did, I would have stopped long ago. But what has shaped me is meeting people, travelling, and understanding geography, climate, and cultural differences.
Earlier, I was only in Delhi-I didn’t know how people in Hyderabad dressed or what Calcutta prefers. When I started travelling for exhibitions and meeting clients, I learned the commercial side. Understanding silhouettes, colours, and preferences- that came from interacting with different cities, not from opinions.
That exposure helped me refine my work for real people without changing my identity.
Q. What excites you going forward -new techniques, crafts, stories? And what advice would you give someone finding their own design voice?
There’s no big philosophical advice. If you want to understand design, you have to work in the industry, work with designers, stay around the craft, observe, suffer, repeat. If you work with someone for nearly 10 years, you’ll understand their style deeply. That’s how you learn.
That’s how you build your own voice. As for me, I’m always experimenting. Anything can change in the future. I’m open to new techniques, new materials, new forms, as long as they allow me to keep evolving. My excitement comes from not being stuck.
Bio:
Anurag Gupta is a designer whose practice is rooted in experimentation, material innovation, and a disciplined approach to form. His work sits at the intersection of emotion and structure, guided by a belief that design should express rebellion while remaining deeply intentional. Over the years, he has developed a distinct design language built on deconstruction, engineered textiles, and sharp, architectural silhouettes. His process is driven by continuous exploration and an evolving understanding of how garments can hold narrative, function, and identity simultaneously. Anurag is committed to shaping a niche that reflects clarity, edge, and an uncompromised design philosophy.
Interviewed by: Gunjan Joshi
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