From Delhi To The World
Emirates Man|March 2017

Meet menswear designer Suket Dhir, a self-described former “slacker” who once sold mobile phones for AT&T and has now made himself into India’s rising fashion star.

Guy Trebay
From Delhi To The World

In a stifling office on the second floor of an anonymous building along a dusty lane in Lado Sarai – the new hub for young artists in a corner of the southwestern part of New Delhi – a 38-year-old menswear designer Vogue.com has called a “global fashion superstar in the making” sat in semidarkness.

The power had gone out. Somehow the power is always going out in 21st-century India, a nation with 1.25 billion people, thousands of years of recorded history and the capacity to deploy nuclear weaponry.

India is a paradoxical country. And Suket Dhir is a paradoxical guy. Born in Punjab, he is an unshorn and unshaven Punjabi Hindu who styles himself a “wannabe Sikh”; a self-described former “slacker” now blissfully married to a Russian-Indian woman, Svetlana Dhir, who manages the business; a creative talent eager to compete on the global stage, and yet one who shares his small studio office with his elderly father.

He is also an expert craftsman whose subtle tailoring was recognised last January with one of the most prestigious honours in fashion, the International Woolmark Prize, an award that has also gone to Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent.

The judges who selected Dhir as the latest recipient focused their praise on the romantic and internationalised vision of the designer, whose last foray outside India (before travelling to Florence, Italy, to collect the $75,000 in prize money) was a brief trip to Dubai two decades earlier.

Perhaps most appealing of Dhir’s contradictions is how his restrained tailoring honours and deftly makes use of a range of the varied craft traditions that remain among the wonders of India while simultaneously mining a design vocabulary partly formed by his habit of binge-watching Seinfeld.

This story is from the March 2017 edition of Emirates Man.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the March 2017 edition of Emirates Man.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM EMIRATES MANView All
One Last Hit?
Emirates Man

One Last Hit?

Twenty years after the era-defining Trainspotting made him a star – and the poster boy of ’90s excess – ewan McGregor is back as Renton. Can he still hack it?

time-read
10+ mins  |
March 2017
The Coast To Coast Challenge
Emirates Man

The Coast To Coast Challenge

One of the UAE’s toughest cycle events returns, a 206km ride from Sharjah to Fujairah

time-read
2 mins  |
September - October 2017
Electric Road Warriors
Emirates Man

Electric Road Warriors

All the tech you need to get from A to B faster

time-read
2 mins  |
September - October 2017
Short Back And Sides
Emirates Man

Short Back And Sides

It’s never been easier for gentlemen to get groomed in Dubai. Here is our pick of the coolest barbershops for haircuts, shaves and more 

time-read
2 mins  |
September - October 2017
Notes From The Edge
Emirates Man

Notes From The Edge

As Idris Elba returns to the big screen in Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad’s The Mountain Between Us, Emirates Man examines what makes the English actor such a compelling talent

time-read
10 mins  |
September - October 2017
Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series
Emirates Man

Porsche 911 Turbo S Exclusive Series

The most powerful 911 Turbo S ever built.

time-read
1 min  |
July - August 2017
Bespoke Wings
Emirates Man

Bespoke Wings

Fancy taking the world’s fastest animal out for a spin in the priciest production SUV ever made?

time-read
1 min  |
July - August 2017
The King Of Podcasts
Emirates Man

The King Of Podcasts

Marc Maron is the host of the WTF With Marc Maron podcast and the star of the coming Netflix series GLOW.

time-read
3 mins  |
July - August 2017
The Collective Unconscious
Emirates Man

The Collective Unconscious

A new book of black and white photography by Ayla Hibri is set to detail her complex relationship with Lebanon.

time-read
5 mins  |
July - August 2017
Words Of Wisdom
Emirates Man

Words Of Wisdom

Jay Z, the reigning king of America,explains his life philosophy.

time-read
3 mins  |
July - August 2017