designer

Born in India, Kanika had early childhood experience at textiles spending time at her mother’s beading factories in New Delhi and nearby Bareilly, where she would sit with skilled craftsmen as they ornamented some Oleg Cassini’s gowns and produced luxurious clothing for Roberto Cavalli, Adriana Papell and highly respected private label brands. After graduating from the Philadelphia College of textile design and engineering, Kanika moved to New York to help her brother to launch his line ‘Rishta’ of avant gardewomen’s wear which quickly became a buzz in the New York Fashion scene. Driven by an innate passion for individual style and leveraging her father’s factory capabilities, she developed a collection of embellished t-shirts which were quicklypicked up by Barney’s, Henry Bendel, Nordstrom and numerous speciality stores. In 2003, Kanika’s collection was launched under the new eponymous ‘Nikka New York’ label, which set the ball rolling for the creation of a top-notch design, production and marketing team. Since then she has evolved into a lifestyle collection designer and stylist.

Kanika's constant pursuit for excellence, design and innovation coupled with wearability and affordability enabled her to be selected and featured in ‘ELLE’ magazine New York as one of the top new designers. In addition to her passion for designing, styling and business, Kanika has strong personal values and loyalties to her friends, factory workers, the goals and visions of her late mother, and to the underprivileged in her community. As the Creative Director, Kanika spear headed Nikka New York into a fast growing lifestyle brand of high-end women’s wear apparel and accessories. With the growing popularity of Nikka, Kanika created a huge following of press and celebrities. Celebrity clientele regularly picked Nikka, including Sarah Mac Lachlan who wore the collection for her world tour in 2004, Mischa Barton, Kimberly Stewart, Paris Hilton, Rihanna, Ashanti, Brandy, Vanessa Minnillo, Tyra Banks andf Nicole Linkletter for America’s Top Model, Miss Universe 2007, and Jenny McCarthy for her top picks for summer 2005.After the success of Nikka New York, Kanika decided to move back to India to be closer to her family and aspired to start Anaikka. The first ready to wear line got an overwhelming response. This led her to launch the Anaikka accessories line , which immediately proved to be the very well accepted by buyers, enabling her to fulfill her dream to make a break through in the accessories market.