Kanika Goyal reimagines royal dressing with her modern, edgy twist

On a starry night, last week, the City Palace in Jaipur witnessed a celebratory meet cute of royal heritage and structured yet irreverent high fashion. The temperature had started dipping when the royal precincts in Pink City reverberated with the heady beats of electronic artist Curtain Blue’s live rendition of Yeh Duniya — apt atmospherics for the launch of ‘Palace Hours’, a dazzling collaboration between Kanika Goyal Label and The Palace Atelier.

Inspirations from the royal archives and regal Rajasthani architecture were immaculately woven in by designer Kanika Goyal into a collection highlighted by mirror-work minis, embellished bombers, and bead-fringed denim. The outcome; cool, chic, cutting-edge, adequately stamped with class, creativity and craftsmanship. The entire collection will be available at The Palace Atelier, the concept store housed within the City Palace and co-founded by Gauravi Kumari and Claire Deroo, as well as the KGL stores and online platforms.

Looking back to how this collaboration was conceived, Gauravi recalls, “Kanika messaged me about doing something together some time ago, and we thought, why not?” as she walks HELLO! through the collection, pointing out the many references from the palace’s archives that found their way onto the clothes. Be it in the motifs, the surface embellishments, the structural yet relaxed fits or the aura of luxury each of the creations oozes, ‘Palace Hours’ is stylish and striking to say the least. 

For Kanika, the idea clearly had been brewing for a while. “Gauravi and I have been talking about doing something for a couple of years now. I felt like she was really bringing in this new energy and changing the perception of how heritage is perceived in such a fun yet nostalgic way with The Palace Atelier,” she says.

For the collection, the designer wanted to move beyond the traditional lens through which Rajasthan and Jaipur are conventionally portrayed to craft something that’s “playful, grungy, and trance-like”. Architecture offered a ready moodboard. 

The NIFT-Delhi and Parsons School of Design alumna, who counts everything from Chandigarh’s modernist architecture to Jaipur’s nine-grid mandala format among her influences, began with exploring the city’s royal and architectural history. A visit to the Power & Diplomacy exhibition at the Maharaja Sawai Man Singh II Museum introduced her to historical weapons, including sabres and morning stars, which found their way onto shirts as prints. Historical maps and artefacts from the museum’s collection too received a similar treatment, while paisley borrowed from carpets were translated into embroidery. 

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Elaborates Kanika, “We wanted to combine these myriad influences with the otherworldly, surreal elements of KGL.” 

The sun, an insignia associated with Jaipur’s erstwhile royal family, and the talwar, a ceremonial curved sabre, peek out from all across the apparel through embroideries and prints. 

The 32-piece collection comprises slogan T-shirts and sweatshirts, embellished tops and bottoms, and bombers and blazers — all in KGL’s characteristic relaxed cuts and oversized fits. 

At the unveiling, Kanika also spoke a bit about the crafts incorporated in the collection. 

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“Mirror work was such a cool research point for us, because we always look at the crafts of India through a contemporary lens. It’s always seen in such an ethnic way and we wanted to make it cool.” 

She also tells us about a sheer embellished black skirt, a butter-yellow bomber embroidered with swirling suns, and jeans with cutouts and beaded fringe. The cheeky slogans, meanwhile, are a throwback to KGL’s early days. 

“Some of the pieces took me back to when I first started the brand at 24, when we used to do a lot of these funky statement pieces,” Kanika ends with excitement as we take in the halcyon mood at the palace amid good food, great music and a whole lot of fabulous fashion.