AK:OK is a contemporary Indian fashion label by designer Anamika Khanna. The name was born from a personal moment - when Anamika was unwell, her twin sons would constantly ask if she was okay, which inspired the brand name. Built around an ethos of ease, versatility, and being "okay" with imperfection, the label launched in 2021 as a joint venture with Reliance Brands and now has stores in Mumbai, New Delhi, and Hyderabad, with a recent debut at London Fashion Week.
AK:OK – the contemporary diffusion line by famed Indian couturier Anamika Khanna – sought to develop a credible menswear division with genuine international relevance. The challenge was to do so without displacing the brand’s distinctive Indian creative identity, and without restructuring an India-based team that excels at craft, fabric, and cultural storytelling.
The remit called for a seasonal strategic collaborator: an international designer who could inject global market intelligence, silhouette awareness, and commercial discipline into the design process – while creative authorship remained firmly with Anamika Khanna as Creative Director.
Two visits to India per year would anchor each season, with remote collaboration via Teams and email bridging the range development cycle. The collaborator would need to operate comfortably across both the global fashion calendar and India’s production rhythms – planning approximately 12 months ahead per season.
Trained at Istituto Marangoni and seasoned across three consecutive Paris houses – Chloé, Hermès, and Christian Dior Couture – fluency spanned wovens, leathers, sportswear, and the full cycle of RTW design from research to show. Their work on Sportswear and Leather Menswear RTW at both Hermès and Dior provided direct technical grounding in the categories AK:OK needed to develop. Crucially, a 2022 LVMH Prize recognition positioned them as a designer whose global perspective was industry-validated.
Alongside Dior, the candidate had simultaneously founded MILLIONVVV – their own label operating across Europe and South America – giving a founder’s understanding of B2C and B2B dynamics, product development, and e-commerce that a pure studio designer rarely possesses. Their concurrent role as Design Lead at Heliot Emil (Copenhagen) further demonstrated their capacity to oversee an RTW studio while holding a parallel commercial design mandate.
Our candidate was successfully placed as Crystal Cruises’ National Sales Manager, stepping into the role with an immediate mandate to build and future-proof the brand’s UK trade sales strategy ahead of the fleet expansion.
Their appointment gave Crystal the experienced, well-connected leader they needed to establish robust national account frameworks, deepen relationships with key consortia and cruise specialists, and ensure the trade was fully prepared and incentivised to sell the additional capacity coming to market. For Crystal, this was not simply filling a vacancy – it was securing the commercial architect for the next phase of their growth.