Nike drops India’s first designer collaboration featuring bold Bandhani, tie-dye prints

Dubai: Indian craft and textiles has done its time as fashion’s favourite muse — mood-boarded, exoticised, and footnoted.

But this time? India’s not the inspiration. It’s the main act. In a first-of-its-kind collaboration, global sports brand Nike taps Delhi’s cult label NorBlack NorWhite for a drop that doesn’t just showcase colour and craft — it rewrites the rules.

Bandhani goes bold. Sport meets story. And India shows up, not as a trend, but as the blueprint.

As revealed in an exclusive interview with Grazia India, the founders of NorBlack NorWhite, Mriga Kapadiya and Amrit Kumar, open up about the deeply personal, two-year journey behind the tie-dye-heavy collection, inspired by India’s ancient bandhani technique.

“It was never about fashion for fashion’s sake,” they told Grazia India about their collaboration with Nike.

“We started with storytelling. With colour. With identity.”

This isn’t a collab that plays it safe. Think bold bandhani patterns on sports bras, crop tees, bomber jackets, and sneakers, each piece fusing Indian craftsmanship with contemporary silhouettes.

The campaign, shot by photographer Bharat Sikka in Jaipur, features Indian athletes like Jemimah Rodrigues, Anshu Malik, and Priya Mohan, showing up with all the grace and grit the collection celebrates.

“Sometimes navigating life as a woman feels like a sport,” they told Grazia India. “Having athletes in the campaign felt like the most natural choice — they embody the athletic mindset we live by too.”

Bandhani with a backstory

The duo has been exploring Indian textiles long before “artisan” became a fashion buzzword. Previous collections saw them rework ikat into sportswear silhouettes and bandhani into reversible silk jackets. So when Nike came calling, it didn’t feel like a trend moment — it felt like recognition.

“We’ve been building this brand for over 15 years,” they said. “To see it come full circle with Nike? It means we’ve been heard. Seen. And we get to keep doing what we do — but louder.”

One of the standout pieces? A 5-inch tie-dyed short with a matching crop top — playful, punchy, and very likely to sell out.

We’ve seen luxury fashion lean into Indian craftsmanship in recent years — Dior’s show in Mumbai, Gaurav Gupta at the Oscars, and Rahul Mishra bringing couture to Paris. But this feels different. It’s not fashion borrowing from India. It’s India co-authoring the brief.

“Nike is nostalgia,” said the designers.

“We grew up in Toronto, watching the Swoosh as something aspirational. We still remember getting our first Jordans on sale. Now here we are — creating something from our roots, in our voice.”

For them, this collaboration means the world and putting Indian crafts and textiles on the map means more.

“Bandhani, to us, represents that exact energy — that slow, careful work that eventually erupts into something joyful and bold.”