New Delhi To New York: A Peek At Bhane.'s Latest Collection

With a trans-atlantic nod to at least half of their roots, one of our favourite Delhi brands has just made a surprising but ballsy move. As if seriously shaking up the standards of street wear in New Delhi (and India, considering all of their super wearable clothes were available online before they ever were, online) wasn’t enough, they’re now switching up zip codes to a city so nice, Sinatra sang it twice—New York, New York.  

And while we’ve grown to love their Delhi store, tucked away in Mehar Chand market—a gorgeous, sprawling space in itself—we couldn’t be more excited to see them take flight to newer pastures.

For those who’ve been living under a less fashion-forward rock, Bhane. has been pretty revolutionary in creating a space for wearable, versatile, but still individualistic clothing of really good quality that also just happens to be affordable. And between their clothes and their eye-catching campaigns, these unabashed purveyors of cool have made their mark on the subcontinent.

But let’s get back to the departure at hand. This fall, the Delhi-based brand launched its American domain, bhane.us. It takes an ironclad stomach and some serious nerves to foray into this viper pit of cutthroat fashion and lifestyle, but Bhane. simply shrugged, put on its boots and marched nonchalantly into the Big Apple like it was no big deal.

Anand Ahuja, the brand’s creator and CEO, and Rohan Tibrawalla, the CFO, have both spent an adequate amount of time in the US and have a keen understanding of how the market there works. In fact, they’re confident that Bhane.’s motto of ‘wearability, versatility, authenticity, and individuality’ render it as intrinsically NYC as any of the city’s other famed fashion jaunts (think: Opening Ceremony).

And we couldn’t agree more. One look at their campaign, New Delhi to New York, and we’re already quite smitten. There’s virtually no difference between the images taken in New Delhi and New York—save for the backdrop.

The people they’ve chosen to model the collection include Emily Bache and Abigail Breslin from The Wanderlust Girls (blog), Marileidy Morel from The Social Butterfly (blog), Tajrina Mannan (founder, Merril + Forbes), Paula Rosine (jewellery designer) and Akash Shah (partner at McKinsey).

In Delhi, Bhane. chose Richen Ongmu Bhutia (blogger), Jasjyot Singh Hans (illustrator), Mehtab Mann (photographer), and Dhruv Madhok (food tech start-up) amongst others, gathering together a motley crew that symbolizes Bhane.’s long standing tradition of crowd-sourcing people from all walks of life, symbolising he diversity and versatility of their creations.

The clothes are intrinsically Bhane., the models (who are real people like you and me) are comfortable and carry off the clothes without so much as an awkward, staged stance, and the clothes themselves scream ‘individuality’, which is what NYC is all about anyway.

As you can tell, we’re incredibly excited about this new project because it’s so much more than a fashion venture. It’s a socio-cultural experiment. Indian designers in the past right from Bibhu Mohapatra and Manish Arora to Naeem Khan have gone global and tipped the sartorial scales in ways we could never have imagined.

Bhane. seems to have quietly taken the opportunity to do just the same in the street style space and showcase modern India’s fashion to the discerning populace of New York City—and the world. Besides, the way they’re doing it is right up our alley and an extension of the clothes they create—simple, unpretentious and tasteful.
We can’t wait to see how this goes.

Scroll down to see images from the AW15 look book