Sep 15: Every festive season promises something new, a new print, a new colourway, a new name stitched onto an old idea. Max Fashion is done with that version of new. This September, the brand is tearing up the playbook and asking India one question: what if new wasn’t something you bought off a rack, but something no one else could ever own?
That question has a name: Project New, an artist-led initiative from Max Fashion launching pan-India starting September across stores, online and the Max app. Forget “collection.” This is a movement, where real artists and master artisans stop being inspiration footnotes and start being the main story, thread by thread, block by block.
Project New opens with its debut edition, created in association with brand ambassador Kalki Koechlin, colliding two forces almost never found on the same hanger: unfiltered original art and centuries of living craft, remixed and made wearable for right now. The idea took shape when Kalki brought her own vision to Max Fashion, giving something back through design a thought the brand leaned all the way into, pushing past trend-chasing altogether. Kalki was hands-on throughout: personally shortlisting Kairassi and the three artists whose work anchors the collection, and doubling as creative gatekeeper on the craft side, steering the exclusive Sanganer block print design and its fusion with heritage technique.
“Fashion, for us, has always been more than what we wear, it’s a form of expression, a way to tell stories, and a platform that can create real impact,” said Sumit Chandna, CEO, Max Fashion. “That belief found new energy when Kalki shared her vision to give something back through design. Project New is our way of proving that the most exciting thing fashion can offer isn’t a trend, it’s a story that belongs to someone real.”
First, the art. Max Fashion’s collaboration with Kairassi, a Chennai-based organisation giving differently-abled artists a real platform and livelihood, brings three talents into the spotlight: Simron Raj, Pavithra and Manas. Their work isn’t “inspired by”, it IS the collection, original paintings lifted straight onto dresses, shirts, scarves and totes exactly as they were created.
Then, the craft. Max Fashion went to Sanganer, Rajasthan, home to some of India’s finest hand block printing masters, and commissioned something that has never existed before: an entirely exclusive block print pattern, made only for Max, drawn from the fleeting beauty of Japan’s sakura blossoms in full bloom. The first piece was hand-carved, hand-coloured and hand-printed, one layer at a time, before the design scaled to reach every Max store nationwide. As the design team puts it: you don’t just wear the craft, you become part of its story.
“When I first spoke to Max about wanting to give back through fashion, I didn’t expect it to turn into something this personal,” said Kalki Koechlin, Brand Ambassador, Max Fashion. “Working with the artists at Kairassi and the artisans of Sanganer has been humbling. Every piece here already had a story before it became a garment, all we did was make sure that story got to travel further.”
Where a Japanese cherry blossom meets a Jaipuri block print, this debut collection finds its identity, spanning fluid dresses, kalidar sets and fusion kurta sets in Indianwear, effortless shirts and tees in menswear, and an accessories edit of scarves, totes and clutches, priced between ₹599 and ₹1,999. Kalki fronts the campaign under the line “Our New Just Got Newer” — fitting for a brand that’s spent years owning what’s next, and is now rewriting the rules of it.
The debut edition drops in two consecutive monthly chapters: a painterly, garden-fresh palette in September, followed by a warmer, earthier bohemian edit in October. Beyond that, Max Fashion has confirmed Project New is built to run as a continuing platform, bringing new artists, new crafts and new stories to life every season.
Watch Project New in motion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?