The stage is being set for India Couture Week 2026, scheduled to take place from 23-30th July, but this year carries a distinction unlike any before it for the first time in its history, ICW will unveil its curtains outside Delhi, in the city of Hyderabad. Anamika Khanna is set to kickstart the week, opening the country's most exclusive and prestigious showcase of luxury fashion against the grandiose backdrop of the Falaknuma Palace.
The timing matters as much as the theatrics. Since FDCI launched Hyundai India Couture Week in 2008, the event has spent nearly two decades built entirely around Delhi’s calendar, even as India’s luxury spending has quietly moved south. Sending the platform’s most closely watched show outside Delhi for the first time reads less like a one time spectacle and more like FDCI repositioning itself around where its customers, and its craft, increasingly are.
Sunil Sethi, Chairman of FDCI, who welcomes Hyundai India Couture Week 2026 to Hyderabad.
Source: Manifest India
The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) launched India Couture Week in 2008, nearly two decades ago, and it has since remained the definitive platform for spotlighting the country's most prominent couturiers. Since its inception, Delhi has served as the home of ICW, the city where designers, patrons and press have gathered each year for a week of glitz, glamour and unreal craftsmanship. As FDCI continues to be the leading platform propelling Indian fashion onto the global stage, the time has come to expand beyond a single city and transform ICW into a truly nationwide event.
Mr. Sunil Sethi, Chairman of FDCI, reflected on the significance of this shift: "The Hyundai Inaugural Show at the regal Falaknuma Palace marks a significant milestone for Hyundai India Couture Week as we take the platform beyond Delhi for the first time. Anamika Khanna's work is deeply rooted in craft while constantly pushing creative boundaries, making her the perfect choice for this landmark presentation. We are delighted to begin this new chapter with an out-of-state fashion show, with a designer whose vision continues to shape the future of Indian couture."
Anamika Khanna, among India's most celebrated designers, with a body of work that has earned acclaim not just domestically but on international stages will open the show in Hyderabad, making her the first designer in ICW's history to showcase outside Delhi. She is widely known for marrying Indian craftsmanship with a narrative and storytelling, creating collections that feel as much like art installations as fashion.
Designer Anamika Khanna, who opens Hyundai India Couture Week 2026 in Hyderabad.
Image Credits: Architectural Digest
For this landmark occasion, Anamika Khanna will present a collection that is a poetic reimagining of a lost civilisation, unfolding through a series of archetypal figures across womenswear and menswear. Each persona steps into the light with a distinct silhouette, possessing a unique craft language and an intimate dialogue between the body, ornament and identity. Through a rich interplay of texture, embellishment and form, the collection explores the enduring relationship between memory, craftsmanship and self-expression.
FDCI Chairman Sunil Sethi at a previous India Couture Week showcase.
Image Credits: Reddiff
Speaking about the responsibility of opening this historic edition, she shared: "Being the Inaugural Show at India Couture Week is both an honour and a responsibility. It offers an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary craftsmanship that defines Indian couture while exploring new ways of expressing it. I am continually interested in how craft can remain deeply rooted yet feel entirely contemporary, and I look forward to sharing that perspective as we begin this season's showcase."
The choice of venue only adds to the occasion’s weight. Completed in 1893 for Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, then Prime Minister of Hyderabad state, Falaknuma Palace was briefly the tallest building in the city before passing to the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, and later hosting royal guests including King George V and Queen Mary. Perched roughly 2,000 feet above Hyderabad and built, famously, in the shape of a scorpion, the palace fell largely silent after the 1950s until Taj Hotels and Princess Esra spent a decade restoring its Venetian chandeliers, Italian frescoes and one of the world’s most significant private jade collections, reopening it as a hotel in 2010. That is the history Khanna’s collection now shares a stage with, one that FDCI is betting will make its Hyderabad debut feel less like a satellite show and more like a homecoming for Indian couture’s own sense of grandeur.
The grandeur of Falaknuma Palace, once home to the Nizams of Hyderabad.
Image Credits: Booking.com
The timing also lines up with a broader shift in how the world is reading Indian couture. Over the past couple of seasons, luxury houses from Louis Vuitton to Prada have folded references to Indian textile traditions into their own runway collections, Indian designers now show regularly during Paris Haute Couture Week, and international stars have worn pieces by designers such as Rahul Mishra and Anamika Khanna. Opening ICW’s most prestigious edition inside a former royal residence, rather than in the capital, fits a moment when Indian fashion is being read less as wedding wear and more as heritage craft with genuine international currency.
As India Couture Week steps beyond Delhi for the first time in nearly twenty years, this inaugural showcase brings together couture, culture and craftsmanship in an opulent setting that reflects the spirit of the collection while marking a significant moment in the evolution of India Couture Week. It is a moment that signals not just a change of address, but a broader ambition– one where India's finest couturiers and their craft can find new stages, new audiences, and new stories to tell across the country.
With Anamika Khanna leading the way, ICW's Hyderabad debut promises to be remembered as more than an opening show–it is the beginning of a new chapter for Indian couture itself
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The stage is being set for India Couture Week 2026, scheduled to take place from 23-30th July, but this year carries a distinction unlike any before it for the first time in its history, ICW will unveil its curtains outside Delhi, in the city of Hyderabad. Anamika Khanna is set to kickstart the week, opening the country's most exclusive and prestigious showcase of luxury fashion against the grandiose backdrop of the Falaknuma Palace.
The timing matters as much as the theatrics. Since FDCI launched Hyundai India Couture Week in 2008, the event has spent nearly two decades built entirely around Delhi’s calendar, even as India’s luxury spending has quietly moved south. Sending the platform’s most closely watched show outside Delhi for the first time reads less like a one time spectacle and more like FDCI repositioning itself around where its customers, and its craft, increasingly are.
Sunil Sethi, Chairman of FDCI, who welcomes Hyundai India Couture Week 2026 to Hyderabad.
Source: Manifest India
The Fashion Design Council of India (FDCI) launched India Couture Week in 2008, nearly two decades ago, and it has since remained the definitive platform for spotlighting the country's most prominent couturiers. Since its inception, Delhi has served as the home of ICW, the city where designers, patrons and press have gathered each year for a week of glitz, glamour and unreal craftsmanship. As FDCI continues to be the leading platform propelling Indian fashion onto the global stage, the time has come to expand beyond a single city and transform ICW into a truly nationwide event.
Mr. Sunil Sethi, Chairman of FDCI, reflected on the significance of this shift: "The Hyundai Inaugural Show at the regal Falaknuma Palace marks a significant milestone for Hyundai India Couture Week as we take the platform beyond Delhi for the first time. Anamika Khanna's work is deeply rooted in craft while constantly pushing creative boundaries, making her the perfect choice for this landmark presentation. We are delighted to begin this new chapter with an out-of-state fashion show, with a designer whose vision continues to shape the future of Indian couture."
Anamika Khanna, among India's most celebrated designers, with a body of work that has earned acclaim not just domestically but on international stages will open the show in Hyderabad, making her the first designer in ICW's history to showcase outside Delhi. She is widely known for marrying Indian craftsmanship with a narrative and storytelling, creating collections that feel as much like art installations as fashion.
Designer Anamika Khanna, who opens Hyundai India Couture Week 2026 in Hyderabad.
Image Credits: Architectural Digest
For this landmark occasion, Anamika Khanna will present a collection that is a poetic reimagining of a lost civilisation, unfolding through a series of archetypal figures across womenswear and menswear. Each persona steps into the light with a distinct silhouette, possessing a unique craft language and an intimate dialogue between the body, ornament and identity. Through a rich interplay of texture, embellishment and form, the collection explores the enduring relationship between memory, craftsmanship and self-expression.
FDCI Chairman Sunil Sethi at a previous India Couture Week showcase.
Image Credits: Reddiff
Speaking about the responsibility of opening this historic edition, she shared: "Being the Inaugural Show at India Couture Week is both an honour and a responsibility. It offers an opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary craftsmanship that defines Indian couture while exploring new ways of expressing it. I am continually interested in how craft can remain deeply rooted yet feel entirely contemporary, and I look forward to sharing that perspective as we begin this season's showcase."
The choice of venue only adds to the occasion’s weight. Completed in 1893 for Nawab Vikar-ul-Umra, then Prime Minister of Hyderabad state, Falaknuma Palace was briefly the tallest building in the city before passing to the sixth Nizam, Mir Mahbub Ali Khan, and later hosting royal guests including King George V and Queen Mary. Perched roughly 2,000 feet above Hyderabad and built, famously, in the shape of a scorpion, the palace fell largely silent after the 1950s until Taj Hotels and Princess Esra spent a decade restoring its Venetian chandeliers, Italian frescoes and one of the world’s most significant private jade collections, reopening it as a hotel in 2010. That is the history Khanna’s collection now shares a stage with, one that FDCI is betting will make its Hyderabad debut feel less like a satellite show and more like a homecoming for Indian couture’s own sense of grandeur.
The grandeur of Falaknuma Palace, once home to the Nizams of Hyderabad.
Image Credits: Booking.com
The timing also lines up with a broader shift in how the world is reading Indian couture. Over the past couple of seasons, luxury houses from Louis Vuitton to Prada have folded references to Indian textile traditions into their own runway collections, Indian designers now show regularly during Paris Haute Couture Week, and international stars have worn pieces by designers such as Rahul Mishra and Anamika Khanna. Opening ICW’s most prestigious edition inside a former royal residence, rather than in the capital, fits a moment when Indian fashion is being read less as wedding wear and more as heritage craft with genuine international currency.
As India Couture Week steps beyond Delhi for the first time in nearly twenty years, this inaugural showcase brings together couture, culture and craftsmanship in an opulent setting that reflects the spirit of the collection while marking a significant moment in the evolution of India Couture Week. It is a moment that signals not just a change of address, but a broader ambition– one where India's finest couturiers and their craft can find new stages, new audiences, and new stories to tell across the country.
With Anamika Khanna leading the way, ICW's Hyderabad debut promises to be remembered as more than an opening show–it is the beginning of a new chapter for Indian couture itself
TO BE CONTINUED, FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY.
This is where the surface ends and the reporting begins.
The complete piece, the full archive, and access to The French Press Circle. Reporting answerable only to its readers.
Already a subscriber ?
Login
Read these on the house, with our compliments.
A selection from the current issue, open to all readers. Read them in full. The rest is one decision away.
