The Interview: Kardo founder Rikki Kher on India’s new trade deal with the UK and how it could help grow his brand

Contemporary Indian menswear brand Kardo, which launched its first womenswear line for SS25, has been slowly building a UK fanbase through retailers including END and Mr Porter via Martin Gill at MOM Agency, who handles the wholesale side for the likes of Oliver Spencer and Universal Works. It’s all about the fabrics, colours and styling – often more Dalston than Delhi.

Kardo founder and Londoner, Rikki Kher, has been based in Delhi since 2013 – starting out in a small workshop with one tailor, one pattern maker and one machine. He now has 42 machines in a "state-of-the-art" factory, and things are looking good – especially in light of the recent new trade deal between India and the UK. He gives us his take on the deal and how he’s building the business...

What does the new UK and India trade deal mean for Kardo?

I’m excited that this deal has finally been done, as it’s been a long time coming. It’s a balanced deal that ensures that India’s interests are taken more into consideration, which is a good thing. Britain needs India - their goods and services as well as their talent pool. It should help our business, as long as the UK economy picks up - especially in terms of supporting small businesses, high streets decimated by online retailers and prohibitive tax and lease costs.

There are several reasons the new deal will be good. Firstly, being import duty free it will lead to cost savings. There will also be an increased interest in India, and India made products. An increased flow of goods and services to the UK would also ideally mean reduced shipping costs - with the economies of scale and faster delivery times, as well as less red tape.

Is the UK market now even more ripe for Kardo to grow following the trade deal?

Let’s see. We sincerely hope so, but it depends more on the state of UK economy and whether the Government will support small independent businesses with rent protection, reasonable rates and a drive to rebuild towns and communities where independent shops used to thrive. I’d love for more regional UK stores to take a bigger chance with us to grow the brand, and I’d also love to open a Kardo store in London – something I’m looking into, though it’s all about finding the right location for the right price, and finding the time!

With the USA and Canada being your biggest markets, is Kardo currently being impacted by Trump's tariffs?

Luckily, the tariff was sidelined for 90 days. If it gets implemented, we will struggle with rising wholesale costs to counter the tariff. If we need to mitigate the rise in costs, we will have to do some mathematical calculations to work out how to offset the rise in costs in the USA versus reduced duties in the UK and Asia, as well as hopefully soon a trade deal with Europe. We’re a brand that sees a world without boundaries!

Can you now stabilise the prices of Kardo shirts?

Prices depend on so many factors. Rising costs of production, the cost of cotton yarn, the reduced labour force, as well as shipping costs and timely payments from customers. We do our best to stabilise costs by being efficient in our supply chain and production.

You were born in London to Indian parents, but how long have you been living in India?

I have lived permanently in India for the past 21 years now. Before I started Kardo, I worked with Spanish department store group El Corte Inglés – sourcing and production managing for it. I was actually head of its apparel and accessories sourcing for India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

I then started my own buying and production house, managing the production needs for retailers and brands across the world. I still travel to London as much as I can, usually twice a year to visit my parents and my daughter, who also lives there now.

Where do you get your design inspiration?

The sights, the smells, the way of life, the people and the crafts of India. I am also inspired by vintage workwear and the functionality of clothes, and I am heavily influenced by external forces too: music, art and especially literature.

What makes Kardo truly unique?

I think we were the first to take Indian artisanal textiles and make them into modern menswear. We looked carefully at how we made clothes and what we stand for philosophically. We are not a brand that is only concerned with making fashionable clothes. We want our brand to stand for principles such as support of community, low environmental impact processes, respect for traditional textile crafts, provenance, less consumption, transparency in the supply chain and treating people with respect.

When and how did you start up Kardo and how has that grown?

We started it in 2013 from a small workshop in the middle of Delhi with one machine, one tailor, one pattern maker and an idea. Now we have a fully compliant state-of-the art factory with over 45 machines and 75 factory employees. I still have the same pattern master though! Our stockist list for SS25 hit around 150, so we’ve certainly grown from humble beginnings.

What were the first designs?

I did a collection inspired by heritage. Some patterned shirts in ikat fabrics, a camouflage overshirt, some khadi fabric designs and a Jodhpuri suit made of French Terry. Jodhpuri is a style of dress from typical of Rajasthan, worn by Rajputs. It’s a Jodhpur style trouser with balloon thigh and a narrow calf, as well as a jacket.

What are Kardo's bestselling designs and why do they resonate with style conscious men?

The hand embroidered khadi shirts have been a very big success. They were initially very different, but a lot of other brands are now doing them. I think that, because they are hand embroidered, people feel that real sense of craftsmanship. That’s something that I think has become more important.

How do Indian fabrics, design and culture influence Kardo's products?

Our brand is all about Indian textile craft. How we use it in a contemporary way, by celebrating it wholeheartedly. We are heavily influenced by everything around us here in India, but being a Londoner I have a great understanding of western markets too.

Do you find there is any resistance to made in India clothing at all?

Sometimes. People can be quite ignorant about India and can have preconceived ideas about our country and culture, which can often be negatively skewed. Indian culture is vibrant, and the clothes reflect that, so when there is a trend towards more ‘calm’ clothing then maybe we don’t get the attention!

What is unique about Kardo's products and why are they appealing to the UK market?

I don't think anyone was doing what we did, fusing a blend of traditional Indian textile craft and modern menswear. We were the first to really do it in menswear 12 years ago, and people are now much more aware of who we are and what we do now.

In the UK, we were originally supported by a few independents, such as Array Store in Stoke Newington, Murray in Crouch End and then Mr Porter and END Clothing came on board. It's funny because, although I am from London - and we have one of the largest Indian populations in the UK - the market was not that good for us at the beginning. It was only really when I started working with Martin at MOM Agency – the agent for Universal Works and Oliver Spencer – that the UK started to take off.

Who is the real target market?

I guess people who generally fall into the category of creatives. The interest in what we do and create has increased, and we see a growing amount of both men and women wearing our products who perhaps would’ve worn something within that workwear realm before.

Many of Kardo’s pieces certainly have vibrancy and colour. How does this translate to the western market and is it something buyers find refreshing?

It depends on the store. The braver the store, or the more it is invested in our unique story and also our story telling, the more successful they are at selling our product. What they get from Kardo, they won’t really find elsewhere, so we have a point of difference. However, we are nothing without our artisan communities.

How important is collaborating with like-minded brands and people to Kardo?

Collaborating can be a lot of fun, as long as you are on the same page as the brand you are collaborating with. For SS25, we are so lucky to have done two collabs with amazing people who own incredible brands. The first was with the inimitable Yuki Matsuda, owner of Yuketen and Monitaly. We have known each other for a while now and I show Kardo in his showroom in Japan. He asked us to work on the project together for Monitaly, and he had this great idea of making a collection featuring the tattoos of his friend, DJ Jacob Wilder.

It’s a capsule collection fusing art, design and craftsmanship that bring to life his bold and unique tattoos. We just did in in a Kardo way, using khadi fabrics which are hand woven or hand spun threads using natural fibres such as wool, silk or cotton. There’s also hand embroidery. It’s a real mix of LA rock ‘n’ roll and India craft! We made a shirt, some shorts and a blouson jacket. It’s had great feedback, and I’d love to do another Monitaly collaboration going forward.

The second collaboration for SS25 was with the brilliant Lauren Yates of W’menswear, a Thailand-based women’s workwear brand, using her intense knowledge of vintage inspired silhouettes and our craft textiles. There may also be more to come from that partnership.

Are ikat fabrics still very much at the heart of the Kardo offer?

We love ikat, so yes, we will always use it. However, it’s becoming a bit ubiquitous, so we are finding new ways to work with artisans to produce ikats exclusively for us.

What is the history of ikat?

Ikat is a resist-dyeing technique where warp and weft yarns are precisely tie-dyed with natural dyes before weaving, creating pre-determined geometric patterns in the final fabric. It’s a centuries old craft often found in Asia (India, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh).

The word ‘ikat’ comes from the Malay-Indonesian word ‘mengikat’, meaning "to tie" or "to bind". India has one of the oldest living ikat traditions, with historic centres for different types of ikat in Odisha, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh/Telangana. We work with artisans in all the ikat regions, especially in Andhra.

How does Kardo perform in the autumn/winter season?

It’s obviously less than our spring/summer business, but it’s growing steadily and performed 10% better for AW25 than AW24.

What other products will you be introducing to Kardo's offer for the upcoming SS26 sales season?

We are slowly moving deeper into collections that are timeless, such as ‘always in stock’, core fabrics and classic silhouettes, and SS26 will see a continuation of artisanal textile journey as well as being a more cohesive collection that flows better. There will be an even greater focus on khadi and manipulations of that venerated fabric.

We will also be developing our womenswear offer, having launched it for SS25 with a small collection. Our recent SS25 ‘Like Water’ campaign heavily features our new womenswear to get the message across that we are expanding into new design areas.

Where can buyers view the upcoming SS26 Kardo collection?

We’re not doing Pitti in Florence this time, but we’ll be showing in Paris at a showroom from 23-29 June, then at the Peregrine showroom in New York from 20-25 July, as well as in London at MOM Agency on Lamb’s Conduit Street throughout the SS26 sales period.