She started with thirty artisans in her own home. Seventeen years later, the embroidery on couture pieces walking down runways in Milan, Paris, and New York leaves her workshop in Mumbai. The journey is the holistic syllabus.
The core session with Gayatri Khanna, Founder & CEO of Milaaya Embroideries, covered the entrepreneurial spirit of Parul Institute of Design’s Industry tour to Mumbai. This exclusive session was held at the Milaaya Headquarters in Mumbai, wherein students of Fashion Design, Interior Design, Animation & Visual Communication actively participated and received exposure straight from the leaders, with no gaps in between!
She spoke on how a global luxury brand is built, how one can maintain patience with suppliers, and what the next quarter of craft & technology looks like!
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What Milaaya Embroideries actually does
The company specialises in luxury embroidery and surface development. It is structured as a multi-disciplinary operation with dedicated departments and premises across Mumbai.
Milaaya Embroideries was founded in 2008 with operations across India and the United States. Over seventeen years, it has grown into a multinational firm operating from major centres of global fashion, including New York, Milan, Paris, and London. The Mumbai operation is itself a multi-department organisation, with separate premises for embroidery, sewing, manufacturing, interior design work, and art design. Her company holds next-level expertise in Luxury Embroidery and works in sync with top-notch fashion houses internationally. In the last few years, Milaaya Embroideries has expanded tremendously to multiple fields, extending surface development expertise to wallpaper, ceiling treatments, furniture, interior design and an art venture, i.e., an art gallery, wherein famous Indian artists collaborate with Milaaya Embroideries to translate their paintings into embroidered gems.
- Embroidery – Hand-crafted embroidery for fashion houses across Europe & the USA!
- Sewing – The manufacturing & production departments are operating with embroidery work.
- Interior design – Embroidered treatments are applied to walls, ceilings, wallpaper and furniture as well.
- Art gallery – An art-inspired initiative translating painting into embroidered gems.
The entrepreneurial journey: from selling pashminas at twenty-three to a multinational
Gayatri Khanna’s path into the business was anchored in international exposure and incremental learning. She studied entrepreneurship and marketing at Babson College in the United States, an institution known specifically for entrepreneurship education, then entered the fashion industry in New York through a purchasing programme for luxury retailing. The programme exposed her to international fashion markets, consumer demand patterns, retail systems, and the operations of luxury brands. The exposure was the foundation. The business came later, in stages.
At twenty-three, while working in New York, she began selling pashminas to boutique stores. The small operation grew when a client asked whether she could produce embroidered products. The request opened a manufacturing dimension to what had been a trading business.
Subsequently, she returned to India and commenced a small unit of 30 to 40 artisans in her own Mumbai-based home. She managed the embroidery production, took care of clients & suppliers, and travelled immensely to Mumbai & New York. Her home phase laid the core ground for what eventually became globally famous. She said success doesn’t come overnight, it takes persistence, willingness to learn, sacrifice and continuous travelling. If you’re willing to join the same art-inspired ship, delay not and enrol in the Bachelor of Design (B.Des) in Communication Design program of PID and say yes to your dream company + package!
Entrepreneurship is not a glamorous overnight success. It is a gradual process that requires patience, sacrifice, experimentation, and continuous effort.
Founder’s framing of her own twenty-year journey to building Milaaya
The distinction between a business that scales and one that does not is the founder’s willingness to accept that scaling is slow. Most entrepreneurial education hides this.
The 4 factors behind translating global luxury aesthetics into embroidery
Designing embroidery for international luxury houses requires more than craft skill. It requires cultural literacy at the brand level.
One of the most operational sections of the session covered how Milaaya translates the aesthetic identity of each luxury brand it serves into specific embroidered output. The session covered the cultural and aesthetic distinctions across the major luxury markets and how those distinctions translate into design choices. Italian brands often favour expressive colour and graphic boldness. French brands tend toward minimalist elegance. American brands have their own conventions. After two decades of working with these houses, the company has developed the capacity to read the artistic vocabulary of each brand and produce embroidery aligned to it. And if you too wish to be a part of such globally famous fashion houses, delay not and kickstart your journey with PID’s Diploma in Fashion Design & Technology program right away!
- Artwork style: The visual language and reference vocabulary of each brand.
- Colour scheme: Colour preferences specific to brand identity and regional luxury markets.
- Materials: Thread, beading, sequin, metal, and fabric choices aligned to brand standards.
- Embroidery methods: Stitching techniques and surface treatments specific to each commission.
The framework is itself a piece of educational content for design students: working with global luxury brands is not about imposing a single design vocabulary. It is about reading the brand’s vocabulary accurately enough to extend it to new products. This is brand-side cultural literacy as a professional skill.
AI and the future of embroidery: where machines can help, where they cannot
The most asked question of the session was about artificial intelligence. The answer was specific, not panicked.
Students raised the question of how AI is affecting embroidery and luxury craft. Gauri Khanna’s answer drew a sharp working line between conceptualisation, where AI is already a useful tool, and execution, where hand embroidery cannot be replaced.
On the AI front, she explained that one can generate artwork inspiration, design concepts, and motif variations, followed by design review and development. But what AI cannot execute is the actual handmade embroidery because luxury embroidery is coming straight outta passionate artisans who are applying thread, needle and beading with a level of precision, judgement and with a technique that’s hard to replicate. Students were curious about one thing – is our industry at risk? She calmly said – the concept stage is shifting; the execution stage isn’t. Master your skills and lead the way!
The same logic applied when students asked about 3D modelling. Khanna acknowledged that 3D modelling is in use across fashion design, but Milaaya’s specialisation is embroidery and surface, not garment construction or three-dimensional product. Luxury clients order individually handcrafted details, and that demand will continue to depend on human execution.
AI can help generate artwork inspiration, graphic designs, and concepts. Hand embroidery needs human execution. The process requires meticulous details and attention to fine artistry that are beyond machine capabilities.
Founder’s working distinction between AI-assisted concept and human-executed craft
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The Indian embroidery heritage: gendered transmission, generational craft
Students noticed that the majority of artisans in the embroidery workshops were men and asked about the gender pattern. Khanna’s answer connected to the heritage structure of the craft. In many parts of the world, including India, embroidery skills have historically been transmitted within artisan families, typically from father to son, as part of a generational apprenticeship pattern that defined how the craft was preserved. The labour intensity and time investment of the work shaped the demographics that emerged. Her response opened a broader observation about the changing role of women in the artisan and creative-professional sector, an ongoing evolution.
The distinction between luxury embroidery and basic regional embroidery is one of precision. She also drew a clear distinction between the broad category of regional Indian embroidery, which is itself a rich tradition with many variants, and the specific demands of luxury embroidery. Luxury embroidery requires a high level of accuracy, neatness, and finish that turns the same fundamental craft into a different category of product. For students considering careers in either craft preservation or luxury fashion supply, the distinction matters: the techniques overlap, but the precision standards do not.
Moving into interior design and art installations
After establishing itself in luxury fashion embroidery, Milaaya extended into interior design and art installations. The decision reflected an underlying company philosophy of continuous reinvention. Rather than remain a fashion-only embroidery house, the firm began applying its surface-development expertise to architectural and interior contexts: embroidered wall panels, embroidered wallpaper, ceiling treatments, embroidered surfaces on furniture, and embroidered art installations. The art-gallery initiative is the most distinctive: famous Indian artists collaborate with Milaaya to recreate their paintings using embroidery rather than paints and brushes, turning embroidery itself into a medium of fine art rather than a decorative surface. The expansion is a working example of how a craft business can diversify without leaving its core competency.
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Practical learning, internships, and how students enter the industry
Asked what students should do to break into the industry, Khanna’s answer was direct. Skills and expertise come through practice and exposure to the industry. Embroidery design cannot be taught only in classrooms. Knowledge accumulates through observation, experimentation, and direct interaction with artisans and manufacturing processes. Students who do internships at firms like Milaaya engage with different brands, different styles, different materials, and different manufacturing processes across the term, and over time develop the intricate understanding required for luxury embroidery work. Cooperation between designers and artisans is itself a learnable skill. Khanna’s recommendation to the students was unambiguous: pursue internships and practical training actively, not as an optional supplement to college work.
Leadership, multitasking, and what entrepreneurship actually requires
The session also addressed leadership and management at Milaaya. Leadership, Khanna noted, is genuinely difficult in any business because individual employees differ in personality, emotional intelligence, expectations, and work ethic, and a leader cannot manage two people the same way. Entrepreneurs have to operate across multiple functions simultaneously: financial planning, operations management, product design and creativity, customer relations, strategic planning, and team development. Creative skill alone is not enough to manage a business successfully. A designer who wants to build a company has to develop competence in finance, marketing, management, strategy, communication, and teamwork.
Global exposure was a recurring emphasis throughout her account of what makes a good entrepreneur. Modern students, she argued, have far better access to international trends, markets, and business opportunities than her own generation did at the same age. The world is more connected through technology, travel, and communication. The route to becoming a strong entrepreneur runs through exposure to different cultures, markets, and industries, which builds the consumer-behaviour and business-operations understanding that classroom learning cannot fully provide. Working internationally during the formative years of a career produces practice that students cannot get any other way.
What the session meant for each discipline of Parul Institute of Design students
The session reached students across multiple design disciplines simultaneously.
- Fashion Design students: Direct exposure to embroidery techniques, surface ornamentation, the role of intricate detailing in enhancing garment aesthetics and storytelling, and the supply-chain reality behind luxury fashion. The session encouraged students to appreciate traditional craftsmanship while exploring contemporary approaches.
- Product Design and Interior Design students: A deeper understanding of materials, textures, and the role of craftsmanship in creating functional yet aesthetically refined designs. Surface treatment as a design lever in both products and interior spaces.
- Visual Communication and Animation students: The importance of detailing, texture, and innovation in visual storytelling and design execution; how subtle design elements contribute to audience perception and emotional engagement.
Sustainability is one problem that every designer should keep in mind.
Gayatri Khanna, Founder and CEO, Milaaya Embroideries, in the rapid-fire close of the session
FAQs
Define Milaaya Embroideries?
Milaaya Embroideries is founded by Gayatri Khanna. It’s a global luxury embroidery and surface development company, founded in 2008. As headquartered in Mumbai with operations across New York, Milan, Paris and London, it specialises in luxury hand embroidery for international fashion houses, with extended operations across sewing, manufacturing, interior design and embroidered art installations. The company is doing collaborations with leading luxury brands and provides supplies, and it has tremendously progressed across separate departments such as manufacturing, interior and art design work!
Who is Gayatri Khanna, the founder of Milaaya Embroideries?
Gayatri Khanna is the Founder and CEO of Milaaya Embroideries. She studied entrepreneurship and marketing at Babson College in the United States and entered the fashion industry through a purchasing programme for luxury retailing in New York. She began selling pashminas to boutique stores at the age of twenty-three while working in New York. A client request for embroidered products led her to establish a small thirty-to-forty-artist embroidery unit in her own Mumbai home. Over seventeen years, that home workshop grew into the multinational Milaaya Embroideries operating across four global cities. She spoke to Parul Institute of Design students at the company's Mumbai headquarters in March 2026 as part of the Parul Institute of Design Mumbai Industry Tour organised through IIMUN.
Can AI replace hand embroidery in luxury fashion?
According to Gayatri Khanna, Founder and CEO of Milaaya Embroideries, the answer is no for execution but yes for parts of conceptualisation. AI is already useful for generating artwork inspiration, design concepts, motif variations, and graphic possibilities that designers can review and develop. Hand embroidery for luxury fashion, however, cannot be replicated by AI because the work requires meticulous physical execution by skilled artisans applying thread, needle, beading, and surface technique with a level of precision and individual variation that machines cannot match. Luxury clients specifically order individually handcrafted detail, and that demand will continue to depend on human execution. The working line is clear: AI for concept, humans for craft.
How did Milaaya Embroideries grow from a home workshop to a global company?
Milaaya Embroideries began in 2008 as a thirty-to-forty-artist embroidery unit in Gayatri Khanna's own Mumbai home, triggered by a client request for embroidered products during her earlier pashmina business in New York. The home workshop was the proving ground. Persistence, willingness to learn, sustained sacrifice, continuous travel between Mumbai and New York, and the discipline of building a global supply relationship with international luxury houses progressively scaled the business. Over seventeen years, the operation grew into a multinational with offices in New York, Milan, Paris, and London, with separate Mumbai departments for embroidery, sewing, manufacturing, interior design, and art. The journey is a working example of incremental craft-based entrepreneurship rather than overnight scaling.
How does Milaaya translate luxury brand aesthetics into embroidery?
Milaaya Embroideries works with leading global luxury houses across Italy, France, the United States, and other major markets, each of which has a distinct aesthetic identity. Italian brands often favour expressive colour and graphic boldness, French brands tend toward minimalist elegance, and American brands have their own conventions. The epic translation of these identities is into handcrafted embroideries, wherein the brand’s vocabulary is personified across 4 sectors - artwork style, colour scheme, materials and embroidery methods. 2 decades of work with these houses have built the company’s capacity to extend each brand’s vocabulary via new products.
What career advice did Gayatri Khanna give to design students?
She suggested that students pursue as many internships and practical training as possible. Embroidery design cannot be learned solely in the classroom; one needs to move beyond it, and then one can learn it. Such crafts can be learned via observation, experimentation and direct interaction with artisans and manufacturing processes. She even spoke about if designers are passionate about building a company, they must develop finance, marketing, management, strategy, communication and teamwork skills as well. Students can achieve global exposure by accessing international trends, markets, and business opportunities.
What is Parul Institute of Design's Mumbai Industry Tour?
The Parul Institute of Design Mumbai Industry Tour is a structured industry-immersion programme that takes design students from Parul University in Vadodara to Mumbai to meet leaders across the city's creative industries. The 2026 edition, held between 9 and 12 March in partnership with IIMUN (India's International Movement to the United Nations), covered twelve speakers across studios, offices, and design houses, including Milaaya Embroideries, Vogue India, Kapadia Associates, Architecture BRIO, Applause Entertainment, NIFT Mumbai, Lodha, ShroffLeon, Papa Don't Preach, and the Abha Narain Lambah office. The tour is part of Parul Institute of Design's curriculum, emphasising practical learning and direct contact between students and working professionals. The full speaker list is documented in the dedicated tour hub article.
