Five Bengaluru Designers to Have on Your Radar

From street-smart and beach-ready to big on crafts and textiles, here are brands from the city to add to your year-end mood board.

- Darshita Goyal

Bengaluru's littering of lakes and dense parks won it the title of the Garden City, while its willingness to welcome tech parks made it India's proud Silicon Valley.

And as much as every local will hate to admit, in recent times, Bengaluru has become synonymous with traffic that doesn't move and roads ridden with potholes. Yet, amid the flip-flopping identities, the city's sparse but strong pockets of design often get forgotten.

To zhuzh up your shopping list, here is a curation of five brands from the city that bring youth culture closer to craft.

UNTAMED STREETWEAR

There is no dearth of streetwear labels in India. One quick search will land you in industrial stores that stock limited edition sneakers, play music on vintage record players, and craft graphic tees by the bundle. But, few of these experiences promise the luxury of quality without losing the heart of street culture. It is precisely this gap that pushed Nandan Renukappa, the 23-year-old founder behind Untamed Streetwear, to start his label. For starters, the brand sells its collection of accessible hoodies and tees from a cart parked in the Central Business District of Bengaluru, bringing its audience out and onto the streets to touch and feel the clothing before copping it.

Since its inception in 2023, the brand also hosts print-your-own-tee workshops, graffiti sessions, and other art-driven activities that invite its community into the process. The clothing itself draws from internet subcultures and slang—pick between varsity-inspired logo tees, micro collections that pay homage to rappers, and hip-hop lords and slogan hoodies that read, “Red flag but heart-shaped.”