At Lakmé Fashion Week, jewellery is increasingly moving beyond a supporting role to become central to storytelling and cultural expression. Keeping this in mind, Indriya released Orizon, in collaboration with designer Amit Aggarwal, marking a more deliberate push into contemporary luxury.

The collaboration signals a broader strategic shift, with Indriya leveraging design partnerships and fashion platforms to build cultural relevance beyond retail. In this context, Lakmé Fashion Week operates less as a visibility play and more as a content and perception engine, one that allows brands to shape how they are seen within the wider luxury conversation.

We spoke with Shantiswarup Panda, head of marketing and visual merchandising, Indriya, on building a design-led jewellery brand at the intersection of culture, content and commerce, and how Orizon is shaping a more experiential, contemporary narrative for Indian luxury.

Edited excerpts:

Indriya has entered Lakmé Fashion Week through a conceptual collaboration rather than a traditional retail-led presence. What does that signal about how you’re evolving the brand?

For Indriya, entering Lakmé Fashion Week through a conceptual collaboration signals a deliberate shift. We are building a design-led jewellery house that participates in the larger cultural conversation of luxury, where fashion, craft, and experience intersect, rather than remaining purely retail-driven.

Platforms like Lakmé Fashion Week allow us to translate craftsmanship into a sensory narrative. Our collaboration with Amit Aggarwal brings together engineered couture and fine jewellery to reimagine heritage techniques like polki and diamonds for a modern context. By creating immersive moments where jewellery interacts with light, movement, and form, we move beyond display into experience, positioning Indriya at the intersection of heritage and innovation while building brand equity beyond traditional retail.

Fashion weeks are increasingly becoming media platforms in their own right. How is Indriya approaching Lakmé Fashion Week as an exercise in content and cultural visibility?

Fashion weeks today have evolved into high-impact media platforms where culture, content, and commerce intersect. For Indriya, Lakmé Fashion Week is an opportunity to create a cultural moment, not just a showcase.

Luxury brands are increasingly built through experiences rather than traditional advertising. We approached the platform as both a content engine and a storytelling canvas. Every element from the collaboration to lighting, textures, and silhouettes was designed to shape how our jewellery is experienced and remembered.

These immersive experiences help build desire and recall at a depth traditional campaigns cannot, enabling Indriya to move beyond visibility into cultural relevance within India’s evolving luxury landscape.

With the ‘Orizon’ collection, how are you using storytelling to position jewellery not just as adornment, but as an emotional and cultural signifier?

At Indriya, we reimagine heritage jewellery as immersive, experiential art. With Orizon, we traced a journey from introspection to radiance, using light as a metaphor for transformation.

The presentation moved from quiet brilliance to bold expressions, reflecting a wearer’s shift from inward reflection to confident self-expression. We flipped the traditional narrative, starting with the consumer’s experience and weaving in the emotions of the artisans behind the craft.

The idea is to position jewellery not just as something you wear, but as an extension of identity, almost like a second skin.

Partnering with a designer like Amit Aggarwal brings strong cultural capital. How do you convert that into scale beyond the runway?

While such partnerships bring cultural capital, the real opportunity lies in translating that into sustained scale. We approach collaborations as ecosystems, not events.

The runway builds aspiration and credibility, but scale comes from extending that narrative through digital amplification, creator-led storytelling, and retail integration. As we move toward our 100-store milestone, collections from these collaborations are adapted into wearable pieces for stores, bridging aspiration with accessibility.

Ultimately, it’s about converting cultural capital into relevance, recall, and conversion.

You’ve described heritage as a living, evolving force. How is that philosophy reflected in your marketing for a younger, global Indian consumer?

We view heritage as a point of departure for reinvention, not preservation. For younger consumers, it’s as much about identity and empowerment as inheritance.

Our marketing reflects this by repositioning jewellery as self-expression, focusing on design, emotion, and personal meaning. At the same time, we bring traditional techniques like Shindeshahi, Dashavtar Saaj, and Kalighati carving into a contemporary context, ensuring relevance across audiences.

Whether on the runway or in our stores, the aim is to create a sensorial experience where heritage feels modern and lived.

In luxury, scarcity builds desire, but visibility drives relevance. How do you balance both?

It’s not about choosing between scarcity and visibility, but orchestrating both. We create high-impact moments through collaborations and activations to build aspiration, while scaling through retail, digital, and regional narratives.

Our hyper-local marketing strategy focuses on relevance within store catchments, while design differentiation, 50–60% developed in-house, maintains exclusivity. This ensures we stay culturally attuned while preserving luxury appeal.

Are you repositioning Indriya as part of an everyday luxury lifestyle?

Jewellery is shifting from occasion-led to everyday self-expression, and that is central to how we’re building Indriya. We’re seeing a rise in self-purchase, with consumers choosing jewellery for personal identity rather than milestones.

Our storytelling reflects intimate moments of self-expression, while our designs prioritise versatility and wearability. Campaigns move beyond weddings toward everyday elegance, supported by platforms like Lakmé Fashion Week.

Our stores are designed as immersive ‘brand theatres’, with features like private lounges and transparent karigar rooms, making the experience as meaningful as the product.

How central is social media to amplifying a showcase like this?

Social media is critical. We approached Lakmé Fashion Week as an experiential media platform designed for amplification beyond the runway.

Orizon’s narrative from shadow to radiance was crafted through lighting and form to create a shareable, 360-degree experience. The showcase encouraged user-generated content, positioning Indriya within a broader fashion ecosystem and accelerating relevance among younger audiences.

How do you market craft innovation while keeping it aspirational yet accessible?

We balance comfort with craftsmanship. Techniques like samosa dart and wall-prong settings enhance brilliance while minimising visible metal, creating jewellery that feels lighter and more fluid.

By focusing on wearability and intuitive design, our pieces feel like a second skin, while the quality of stones maintains their aspirational value.

What does success for a showcase like this look like?

Success is a balance of cultural conversation, brand perception, and business impact.

First, it must spark dialogue across media and social platforms. Second, it should sharpen perception positioning Indriya as a design-led, culturally relevant player. Finally, it must drive tangible outcomes, from engagement to store footfalls and purchase intent.

When these come together, a showcase moves beyond a moment to become a long-term driver of brand equity and growth.