FOLD gathers 26 menswear labels for India's first curated menswear pop-up (interview)

Most fashion energy goes to womenswear; good menswear is scattered across a few brands and online-only stores, and traditional Indianwear already dominates the occasions men dress for.

India's first curated luxury menswear pop-up: 26 handpicked logo-shy labels under one roof for two days, so online-first menswear can finally be touched and tried.

Two days at IFBE, Ballard Estate, Mumbai (October 17–18, 2026): an open department-store-style floor across 26 labels, an Edit Floor to check fit in pictures, an Experience Centre for installations and trials, and a Grooming Room run with Truefitt & Hill.

The event had not yet taken place as of publication, so there are no attendance or sales figures; the measurable fact is the curation itself — 26 labels selected from 60–70 approached.

In an interview with Esquire India published on October 11, 2026, Mumbai lawyer Jai Hiranandani explained FOLD, which he calls India's first curated luxury menswear pop-up. After more than ten years negotiating deals and disputes, he kept facing the same problem: when an event or a trip came up, putting together the right outfit meant 'hunting across different corners of the city, sometimes even the country'. FOLD, held at IFBE in Ballard Estate, Mumbai on October 17–18, 2026, is his answer.

Hiranandani says he approached 60–70 labels to land the final 26 — established names like Rkivecity and 11.11 beside emerging ones like OSHIN, VIXII and Unscene — chosen because they 'communicate through unique design elements' rather than logos. Heavy traditional Indianwear was deliberately excluded ('there is enough and more to see in that'), alongside a segment of everyday lifestyle brands. He estimates about 40% of his own wardrobe is represented in the room.

The design of the two days pushes discovery: an open, department-store-style floor with no prescribed route, an Edit Floor where guests can see how fits photograph, an Experience Centre for installations and product trials, and a Grooming Room with workshops and testers from Truefitt & Hill. For online-first labels, he says, the point is physical contact — a photograph cannot tell you how a fabric feels or how a piece moves.

Hiranandani approached 60–70 labels to pick 26, filtering for brands that communicate through design detail rather than logos.

Online-first menswear labels need customers to judge fabric, proportions and movement in person — photography can't carry that.

The line-up mixes established labels with emerging ones, plus an everyday-wardrobe segment, instead of occasion-only dressing.

Traditional Indianwear was left out on purpose, carving a distinct lane for a menswear space in India.

When a category's curation collapses into logos and womenswear, the openings are the unglamorous ones: convene the undiscovered and give people a reason to touch the product.

As of the October 11, 2026 Esquire India interview, FOLD was set to run October 17–18, 2026 at IFBE, Ballard Estate, Mumbai, with grooming workshops by Truefitt & Hill; no post-event figures exist yet.