Moments Before The Raw Mango London Fashion Week Debut, We Spoke To Sanjay Garg

It's almost time for Raw Mango to debut its Fall-Winter 2026 collection at London Fashion Week.

Hearing the brand name ‘Raw Mango’ brings to mind an image filled with bold colours and motifs, Indian handloom and textiles—vividly rustic, textile-heavy, and rooted in nature. From raw silk to chanderi, the brand has always championed minimalism, yet with a deeply rooted narrative that merges craft traditions with sharp, contemporary methods. The pieces are flowy yet striking, and structure and fluidity—though seemingly poles apart—come together in harmony. Mastering craft with Mashru, a silk textile once prized for menswear and upholstery, each collection proudly sings the tune of “Made in India.” It’s no surprise that the brand soon found itself a cult favourite among discerning patrons across borders.

Sanjay Garg, founder of Raw Mango, was raised in the village of Mubarikpur, Rajasthan, and his appreciation for aesthetics began with the sensibilities of rural India. “The memories I have of those days — my favourite foods, the gallis, the textiles I saw around me, and our relationships with those — all find their way into my everyday thinking." He further said that his early work with Chanderi shaped his philosophy. "The textile language I helped develop during my work with Chanderi was my earliest experience of the intersection between textiles and fashion. That experience clarified the relationship I now have with fashion, one rooted in exploration, engagement, and experimentation with craft."

As Raw Mango approaches its 18th year, Sanjay Garg is presenting his brand at London Fashion Week on February 23, 2026, with a collection inspired by garlands titled It’s Not About the Flower. Speaking about his debut, Garg told The Style List, “Showcasing in London is as good as showcasing in Kanpur for me. At the end of the day, it is the work being presented that matters, and that doesn’t change according to who is viewing it or where.”

Sanjay Garg, founder, Raw Mango

the collection features very light embroidery, with flowers and garlands created and placed entirely by hand. “I wanted the garment’s underlying beauty to shine, which is often lost under the weight of excessive embroidery,” he said. Jasmine-like motifs were assembled from laser-cut silk, while rajnigandhas (tuberoses) were hand-rolled from silk with a paper-like finish.“We wanted to shift the focus away from the labour hours that go into making a garment to the immense creative and intellectual thought that flourishes in the subcontinent. I want audiences to question how we can read a garment from the subcontinent through a focus on its creative rather than its manual labour,” added Garg.

Interestingly, the colour palette moves away from what global audiences may expect from an Indian aesthetic, leaning instead on black and white. Yet Garg still communicates his brand philosophy to an international audience by playing with contrast.“We’ve used pops of green, lemon yellow, and pink to create visual sorbets, which can be organically found in the colour palette of garlands—as visual relief rather than the primary focus,” he says.

Textiles And The Foreign Land

For Sanjay Garg, the idea of “local” and “global” has never felt like a battle to be won. As he speaks about taking Raw Mango beyond borders, he gently questions the very framework through which fashion is often understood. “Cultural specificity and global relevance are not two opposed forces that need to be balanced,” says Sanjay Garg, founder of Raw Mango. “That binary itself needs to be questioned. The history of craft and textiles tells us that cultural exchange has always been a part of this world. So how do we measure where the global influence on a creation stops, and culturally specific influence begins?”

In his view, textiles have always travelled through trade, migration, memory and adaptation. The exchange is constant, and it is layered. To separate the global from the local is, perhaps, to misunderstand how culture evolves.

He extends that thought to the way Indian clothing is perceived. “Even this idea of ‘Indian’ wear is, in my view, a box that limits our imagination and creates divisions between tradition and modernity. Today, the sari is being worn as a ballgown on red carpets. There is no line that separates the local from the global. It is all part of a fluid conversation we are having with each other.”

He believes that what remains under-represented is not Indian textiles as a category, but their complexity. “Right now, it is the complexity and diversity of textile traditions from the subcontinent that is under-represented. There is still a strong association between Indian textiles and a certain aesthetic — heavy gold embroidery and maximalist ensembles that overwhelm the eye with ‘bling’.” Too often, he feels, Indian fashion is quantified rather than understood. It is measured by the number of hours spent weaving rather than its innate aesthetic value. “It becomes a surface-level engagement that sometimes drowns out the beauty of the weave itself.”

The future of textiles

For Sanjay Garg, the future of textiles is not about competing with luxury brands in the conventional sense. It is about expanding the conversation itself. “My goal is not just to create and sell fashion,” he says. “I want to interest the world in conversations around art, design, and kala — which is a by-product of all forms of artistic creation.”

At Raw Mango, this belief has always guided the way textiles are imagined and made. “We’ve always been about adding value and innovating on the loom,” Garg explains. For him, survival of craft lies in thoughtful evolution. “I believe that for textile crafts to survive, they require design intervention. Ultimately, it is about identifying what is needed, and then designing for that.” Yet, he is careful about how craft is positioned. Garg resists the temptation to turn handloom into pure sentiment. “Overselling and romanticising the craft story is an attempt to sell a feeling — almost fetishising it and creating emotional blackmail,” he says. “At the end of the day, a creation has to be a combination of design, craft, and quality.”

What stands out in his approach is accessibility. While Raw Mango’s textiles are layered with research and skill, appreciation is never meant to feel intimidating. “Deep knowledge of handloom and craft has never been the barrier you must cross to appreciate our creations,” he says. “We want our audiences to come as they are, and form relationships with these garments in ways that feel authentic to them.”

For Garg, that openness is where the brand finds its true purpose. “Creating the space for curiosity to evolve, take shape, and spark conversation — that would be the biggest contribution,” he reflects. Through this, Indian textiles are not frozen in time but positioned as living, evolving participants in a shared global culture.

Looking ahead, Garg hopes the next chapter of Indian textiles will move away from excess and surface-level admiration. “I want the appreciation of Indian textiles to shift away from the ‘more is better’ approach and towards a holistic understanding of the garment and the weave being presented,” he says. He wants each piece to be engaged with deeply, beyond what meets the eye. At the same time, the emotional connection remains important. “For those who choose to wear these creations, I want them to feel special — and part of the arrangement that adorns them,” he adds. For Garg, the future lies in collaborations and conversations that challenge old ideas and dissolve long-held stereotypes around Indian textiles.