If you’re into techno music, Indo Warehouse is not a new name to you. Founded by Kunal Merchant and Kahani (Armaan Gupta), what they’ve built goes far beyond the dance-floor. In a global electronic music scene that has historically overlooked South Asian voices, the collective has carved out a powerful space where heritage and underground culture collide.
Through hypnotic sets, immersive experiences, and a rapidly growing global community, Indo Warehouse isn’t just participating in club culture — it’s reshaping it. By weaving South Asian sonic elements into techno and house, they are redefining how diasporic identity can be expressed in nightlife spaces, creating a movement that feels both deeply rooted and radically forward, opening doors for a generation of artists and audiences who want to see their culture represented in global nightlife. Their movement feels less like a brand and more like a cultural shift — one that refuses to separate tradition from the future.
On the fashion side, Kardo founder Rikki Kher has been quietly championing a similar philosophy. Known for its thoughtful craftsmanship and modern interpretation of traditional Indian textiles, the label works closely with artisans across India, celebrating slow production and the beauty of handmade processes. Each garment carries a story of technique, heritage, and individuality — values that mirror Indo Warehouse’s own approach to culture and creativity.
It’s this shared ethos that brings the two worlds together. Through their collaboration, music and fashion intersect, exploring how sound, style, and South Asian identity can exist in conversation with one another.
Noctis caught up with Kunal Merchant of Indo Warehouse and Kardo founder Rikki Kher, about the inspiration behind the collaboration, the cultural dialogue between music and fashion, and how creative communities are building new spaces for South Asian expression around the world.
Over the past year, Indo Warehouse have gone from underground favourites to closing out major global stages like Coachella and Ibiza. How do you stay rooted in South Asian identity while operating at this scale?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: Scale doesn’t change the intention. The rooms get bigger, but the reason we started remains the same. For us, being rooted is about being authentic to our sound, but understanding that each moment should be respected. You have to consider why you’re there and what you want people to feel in that environment. We have so much to share, so it’s just about defining the story we want to share.
Our South Asian identity isn’t something we “add,” It’s our foundation. The scale simply allows that foundation to be seen more through different perspectives.
This collection takes the philosophy behind Indo Warehouse, honouring where we come from while imagining where we’re going, and makes it tactile. You can feel the stitches. You can see the labor. It turns sound into something you can wear. It extends the conversation from the dance floor into daily life.
Your work consistently blends sound, visuals, and symbolism. How consciously do you think about fashion as part of Indo Warehouse’s storytelling, especially within nightlife spaces? Do you see them as forms of self-assertion — a way of saying we belong here?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: Very consciously. Nightlife is already theatrical; it’s ritualistic, communal, and spiritual. Fashion becomes part of that ritual. It represents our intention.
For us, clothing isn’t merch. It’s an extension of the world we want to share. When we think about textiles, silhouettes, or embroidery, we’re thinking about texture the same way we think about percussion or synth design. It’s all storytelling.
If the music is about bridging memory and futurism, the garments should feel the same: rooted, but moving forward.
I see them less as assertion and more as presence. For a long time, many of us were told, directly or indirectly, that certain spaces weren’t built with us in mind. When we show up with our full identities intact, without diluting them, that’s powerful.
It’s not about demanding belonging. It’s about embodying it.
KARDO is deeply rooted in Indian craft and slow making while Indo Warehouse’s world is high-energy, immersive, and loud. How did those contrasting rhythms inform the final pieces? What made Indo Warehouse the right collaborators to translate those values into a nightlife-driven context?
Rikki Kher, Kardo: What felt right from the beginning was that Indo Warehouse wasn’t approaching nightlife as surface. Their sound, their gatherings, the way they build community on dance floors across cities — it all carries a deep sense of South Asian identity, even when expressed through contemporary formats.
Kunal and I have also been friends for quite a few years, so there was already a sense of trust and familiarity in how we spoke about culture, music, and identity. For us, nightlife became a site where bringing handwork expanded the vocabulary of where Indian craft can belong within modern collective experience. So the collaboration didn’t feel like a contrast as much as a continuation through another medium.
The contrast was actually generative. Our process remained what it always is — slow, considered, and rooted in handwork timelines. But knowing the garments would exist in these environments influenced certain decisions. We thought about durability, movement, and how embroidery would respond under light, motion, and sound. Pieces had to hold presence within immersive spaces without losing their material sensibility. It became a dialogue between tempo; the stillness of making meeting the velocity of performance.
Culture deserves time. Quick collaborations can generate attention, but they rarely generate depth.
– Kunal Merchant
The capsule draws from Kunal’s Gujarati heritage, referencing Rabari and Kantha textiles. What does it mean to see that traditional handwork move from intimate craft spaces onto global stages and into club environments? What does that visibility mean to you and the artisans you work with?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: It feels deeply personal. These textiles were never created for spectacle. They were made slowly, often within domestic spaces, carrying generational knowledge in every stitch.
To see Rabari and Kantha handwork enter a club environment, a space that’s loud, kinetic, future facing, feels like a dialogue across time. It’s not about elevating the craft; it’s about recognizing that it was always elevated.
Rikki Kher, Kardo: Visibility, when done with integrity, has real consequence.
For the artisans, it’s not simply about exposure — it’s about recognition of skill that has always existed, often without acknowledgement beyond its region. When Rabari embroidery or Kantha stitching appears in global cultural spaces, it affirms that these knowledge systems hold relevance far beyond geography.
It also shifts perception. Craft is often seen as nostalgic or rural — something belonging to the past. But when it enters global contemporary contexts — music, nightlife, performance — it repositions itself as living, adaptive, and current. For us, that visibility must always remain tied to authorship. The stage may be global, but the hands, histories, and communities behind the work remain centred.
Kantha and Rabari embroidery are deeply rooted in regional textile traditions, yet here they appear on modern silhouettes like bomber jackets, shirts and tote bags. How did you approach the ideation process while respecting both the integrity of the craft and contemporary form?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: This is what made the partnership with Kardo so special. They respect the textiles, the craft in a way that I appreciate so much. And they embraced my world with the same authenticity. This was a three-year education on both sides, where I embraced the textiles, fits and learned intently about how the products are designed. I also have been wearing Kardo throughout my shows, so I was able to share how the garments felt during my performances. From there, the collection delivered on preference, style and culture. This wasn’t a quick design process, it was methodical.
Rikki Kher, Kardo: The process always begins with the textile and the handwork itself — understanding its density, weight, and visual language. We don’t impose silhouette first. We like to spend time studying how the embroidery behaves and how much structure it can hold. Only after that do we begin thinking about form. When translating into silhouettes like bombers or shirts, the aim is restraint — allowing the craft to lead, rather than overwhelming it through design intervention.
Scale, placement, and negative space are always important. We try to retain the irregularity and human touch of the embroidery while placing it within forms that feel wearable in contemporary life. It’s less about fusion and more about coexistence — letting tradition and modernity sit beside each other without dilution or over-justification.
It’s not about elevating the craft; it’s about recognizing that it was always elevated.
– Rikki Kher
This collaboration with KARDO grew organically from friendship and mutual respect for craft. In an industry driven by fast partnerships, why does that slowness matter to you?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: Because culture deserves time. Quick collaborations can generate attention, but they rarely generate depth. With KARDO, the relationship existed before the product. There was trust. There was shared language around craft, lineage, and responsibility.
Slowness allows for intention. It allows you to ask harder questions. It ensures you’re not extracting from culture, you’re contributing to it. That difference matters.
In a previous interview you talked about not seeing yourself reflected on screen, and being reminded that certain identities weren’t “allowed” to be heroic. How did that early absence of representation shape your imagination? Looking back, do you see Indo Warehouse and Kardo as a way of rewriting those narratives you were once excluded from?
Rikki Kher, Kardo: Growing up, representation was limited, and when it did exist, it carried stereotypes more than depth. However, I don’t think the work comes from a conscious desire to rewrite narratives, but rather from building worlds that feel honest to lived experience.
With KARDO, and collaborations like Indo Warehouse, what we want to see emerging are spaces where South Asian identity is expressed without apology — complex, contemporary, and self authored. If that contributes to expanding what feels visible or possible, then that’s meaningful — but it comes as a by-product of doing the work truthfully.
Global spaces don’t need replicas — they need distinct voices. And the more grounded you are in your own authorship, the less you’ll feel the need to compromise when stepping into them.
– Rikki Kher
The idea of “not being allowed” certain dreams is something many children of colour experience. How do you hope your presence on global stages shifts what feels possible for the next generation?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: I hope it normalizes it.
When I was younger, there weren’t many examples of South Asian artists occupying electronic music spaces globally. So the dream felt abstract. Now, if a young kid sees someone who looks like them closing a stage or collaborating with heritage artisans, maybe it doesn’t feel radical, it just feels possible.
If we can reduce the psychological distance between imagination and reality for even a few people, that’s meaningful.
Rikki Kher, Kardo: Presence alone doesn’t change systems, but it does expand imagination. When young creatives see people who share their histories occupying global spaces without diluting identity, it subtly shifts internal permission. And so, if the work that we do allows someone to feel they don’t have to edit themselves to belong — that their language, histories and stories can travel intact — then that’s a meaningful shift for us.
How intentional are you about creating spaces where young South Asian creatives can see themselves reflected without compromise?
Rikki Kher, Kardo: It’s deeply intentional — though not always articulated outwardly. Whether through collaborations, partnerships, or creative direction, we try to build ecosystems rather than isolated projects. Reflection matters — seeing oneself within creative industries changes one’s sense of belonging within them. But it’s important that this reflection doesn’t become tokenistic. It must be grounded in real opportunity, authorship, and participation. So the focus is less on optics and more on building genuine platforms where South Asian creatives can contribute, lead, and shape narratives themselves.
It’s not about demanding belonging. It’s about embodying it.
– Kunal Merchant
If you could speak to a younger generation of South Asian creatives stepping into global spaces today, what would you want them to know?
Kunal Merchant, Indo Warehouse: Your specificity is your strength.
Don’t rush to universalize yourself. The more deeply you understand your own story, your language, your textures, your rhythms, the more universal your work becomes.
Also, respect the craft. Whether it’s music, fashion, or anything else, mastery takes time. And when you move with integrity, the impact lasts longer than the moment.
Rikki Kher, Kardo: I’d say — don’t rush to universalise yourself.
What feels local, personal, or inherited often holds the most power when carried outward. Spend time understanding where you come from — the stories and the labour that shaped your context. That depth becomes your foundation. Global spaces don’t need replicas — they need distinct voices. And the more grounded you are in your own authorship, the less you’ll feel the need to compromise when stepping into them.
Follow Kardo on Instagram
Follow Indo Warehouse on Instagram
Words: Nandini Bhattacharya