“I don’t want to see Indian clothes only at weddings,” Tarun Tahiliani on his luxury prêt store in Bengaluru

There has been a divide between ‘ethnic’ fashion and western fashion in India. “But the way we dress is changing. Indians are changing. I don’t want to see Indian clothes only at weddings. I felt we needed a new thing,” says couturier Tarun Tahiliani. That is where his luxury prêt label, called OTT, steps in. We are sitting in Phoenix Mall Of Asia in Bengaluru, where his OTT store recently opened. There is a buzz behind us as choreographer Prasad Bidapa is prepping the models for a runway show later in the evening.

OTT is ‘India modern’, an aesthetic the New Delhi-based designer has been championing for decades now.

India modern

“From the time we started showing in Milan in 2003, we did these western separates which were India inspired. But somehow when you have a store that sells bridals and beautiful embroidery, it gets swallowed. I wanted to focus on that. And that idea became OTT.” The Spring Summer 2026 collection of OTT defines itself as study in movement, texture, and assured ease. Cocktail saris, easy overlays, casual bottoms and tops make up the collection. Dresses range from sculpted draped numbers to breezy kaftans. The stunning corsets from the collection are the standouts. Fabrics such as crinkled silks, foil jerseys, organzas and knits make the pieces fluid, but structured.

Tarun Tahiliani
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Drape form

Draping used as a structural technique is an apparent motif in the collection. “As I have travelled around India over the last 15-20 years, I have seen beautiful things. Styles that are simple and native to one place. The man in Kutch will wear the frill jacket, working women in Mumbai will hitch their saris up. We look at things like that and make a cool skirt, for example. The drape form in India is dying, and we want to keep it alive. That is the genesis of OTT.” The drape skirts in the collection resemble pleats on a sari and can be dressed up or down in different ways.

The store at Phoenix Mall of Asia in Bengaluru
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“I wanted a new way of dressing, a new style, a new ease that different people could wear. You can take a jacket from the collection and wear on your jeans, wear it over a sarong, wear it over a sari, or wear it on a lehenga. It is up to you. This idea of Indian separates is old. I see many brands that are either western or Indian. There is no solution in between. For young women, there are very few brands that combine that. We wanted to be that.”

He adds how because of social media and the proliferation of fashion, the rootedness is lost. “Unfortunately, you can’t see quality on social media. A lot of bad quality pieces get made and copied, and because people have seen it on social media, they do not know the difference. In your mother or grandmother’s generation, perhaps they were much more knowledgeable about the textile or the embroidery they wore, because we lived a simpler life and we were rooted in a certain tradition.” He wants to keep that alive with OTT.

Bengaluru’s sense of style is global Indian

Hailing from Mumbai, but now based in Delhi, Tarun has an appreciation for Bengaluru’s sense of style. “When I did the opening of my store [in Richmond Circle] I saw a lot of women that night who were dressed so chic. They were very India modern in that sense. They were wearing a lot of drapes. In the south, it is more about the textiles, than the embroidery. I feel it is a global Indian look. I think Bengaluru is ‘global Indian’. I see that when I land at airport here or even at the malls. You are a tech city, and you have the past and the present.”

Images from the runway show at Bengaluru
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The OTT- Tarun Tahiliani store is located at Phoenix Mall of Asia, Bellary Road