AKHL was founded by Akhil Nagpal in 2019. After graduating from the renowned Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 2017 with various honours, he worked with leading designers in London and New Delhi before starting his label AKHL in 2019.
AKHL is defined by its unyielding commitment to crafting new-age and evocative pieces of fashion, constructed by radically contemporizing traditional garment and textile hand making techniques. The genesis of all designs at AKHL is rooted in the development of distinctive and complex textiles, engineered using unusual materials and a wide range of re-invented textile crafting processes, including hand-weaving, hand-interlacing, traditional hand-embroidery, applique and gradient hand-dyeing.
AKHL pieces are also made different by their novel shapes and cuts that elementally emerge out of the structure, form and tactility of its one-of-a-kind textiles.
Since its founding, AKHL has been a recipient of various awards. It showcased its debut collection at Lakme Fashion Week SS20 as the winner of the prestigious Gen Next competition and also won the Grazia Young Fashion Award in 2021. AKHL is regularly featured in articles and editorials in leading fashion publications including ID UK and Indian editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia and Cosmopolitan. AKHL has also been featured on ‘Label Alert’ segments in Indian editions of Harper’s Bazaar and Grazia.
