ELLE Fashion Speaks: Inside Dhruv Khurana’s World Of Almost Gods

It’s one of those fierce Mumbai afternoons when even your clothes feel tired. Inside the Almost Gods store, though, it’s another world. Before I can even start my recorder, Dhruv Khurana — the brand’s creative director, appears with a big grin and a bag of cookies for me and my team. “I got cookies for you guys,” he insists cheerfully. That pretty much sets the tone for the next hour: fast-paced, sharp, yet easy. He’s fun to be around — warm, witty, and refreshingly clued in. But when it comes to fashion, you can tell he knows exactly what he’s talking about.

Almost Gods is one of those names you hear constantly in Indian fashion now, the kind that gets thrown around in conversations about India’s ‘cool brands’ with ease. But before it was a cult label with international collabs and a fiercely loyal community, it was just a phrase in Khurana’s college notes.

“In 2016 Kanye West dropped The Life of Pablo,” he starts, eyes lighting up. “As a college kid, it felt like the whole world was moving to his rhythm — the music, the shows, the drops. I wrote my final paper on him. Somewhere in there, I used the words almost god-like, and that just stuck.”

Cut to him years later and back in India, fresh from living abroad, where sneaker culture was booming and indie labels were having their moment. “I came back and realised that India hadn’t had that movement yet. So I said, "Let's start it.”

The beginnings were small but spirited. “We made eight garments in the first year,” Khurana laughs. “I had no idea what merchandising meant. I just wanted to make cool things. I’d go up to twins at parties and ask them to model for me in exchange for a T-shirt. That’s literally how we started. There were no logistics. Just pure love for what we were making”

And somehow, that little side project started catching fire. Someone wore a piece to an event; it got picked up by a few blogs, and eventually, in a wild full-circle moment, Kanye’s own team spotted it. “They picked up some pieces,” he grins. “Next thing I know, I’m getting a Snapchat of Kanye wearing one of them while working on ‘Ye.’ That was the moment. I was like — everything else after this is a bonus.”

The Name, The Noise, The Nerve

In a country where religion is held in the highest regard, the name Almost Gods does raise eyebrows. It’s bold, a little audacious, a little provocative, and Khurana knows it. “You know,” he says, leaning forward with a positive smile, “usually people ask me why I named it Almost Gods, and I am so tired answering the same questions again and again.” He pauses. “But your question is refreshing and something I would love to answer.” 

He’s genuinely animated now. “I love the tension in those two words,” he explains. “Almost Gods. There’s something powerful about it. It can sound deeply spiritual, or totally irreverent, depending on who’s reading it. And I love that.”

For Khurana, the name isn’t about religion at all — it’s about power, identity, and creation. “We’re not referencing any specific religion,” he says. “It’s about how humans have always tried to reach something beyond themselves. The same intention that goes into worship — we try to put that into creation.” He draws a lot from Japanese Shintoism, where sacredness is tied to spaces and objects. “In Shinto, a circle marks a place as divine. Even the idea that we can give importance to something just by defining it, I find that fascinating.”

Inside the Temple

If Almost Gods sounds like a belief system, its stores feel like temples, obviously minus the incense, plus brutalist concrete. The Dhan Mill flagship, in particular, is a visual moodboard of everything he stands for. “The facade could honestly be out of Dune. I wanted people to feel something the moment they saw it, as if they were entering a new world.”

There’s clay, stone, and steel everywhere, which is tactile, raw, and strangely calming. He even wanted a fire pit in the middle of the store at one point. “Yeah, that didn’t go down too well with fire safety,” he laughs. “But the idea was to have all the elements — earth, air, fire, light. Every good temple plays with them. Why shouldn’t a fashion space?”

For Khurana, the store isn’t about retail. It’s about immersion. “I don’t think of it as designing a store. I’m curating an experience,” he says. “People have figured out how to make spaces feel powerful, and I’m just borrowing from their blueprints.”

Streetwear, and Then Some

Almost Gods may have been born in the streetwear boom, but it’s far from boxed in by it. “Streetwear was our entry point,” Khurana says, “but we’ve grown beyond that. I love what streetwear did for fashion, how it blurred lines, brought new voices in, and mixed high and low art. But we’re not bound by that. If I make a T-shirt today, it’s because I think it’s cool, not because it’s streetwear.”

His vision for Indian fashion is clear that it’s about evolution, not imitation. “For the longest time, we’ve borrowed from the West. And that’s fine. But we’re at a stage now where India has its own vibe. We’re watching MrBeast and going to Ganpati together. That mix is so authentically us. That’s the voice we’re taking global.”

Collaboration and Chaos

Almost Gods’ collaborations read like a timeline of ambition — from G-Shock watches that sold out in six hours to the much-talked-about Fila collection, now displayed at the Fila Museum in Italy. 

And then there are the art collabs, something Khurana treats with almost spiritual excitement. “We do one every year with India Art Fair,” he says. “Fashion and art together create a whole new vernacular. It’s like expanding your vocabulary as a brand.”

Of course, working with big names comes with its own share of chaos. “Every collab is like a relationship,” he laughs. “Everyone has their own objectives, and you just figure it out. But when it clicks, it’s magic.”

Building a Belief System

By the time we start talking about what’s next, Khurana is already halfway into his next sentence. “I want to build a global brand,” he says matter-of-factly. “I want Almost Gods to be in wardrobes across Tokyo, Paris, New York — everywhere. I want people to know India doesn’t just consume cool, we create it.”

The plan? More stores, more collabs, and more expansion.  And while the scale is getting bigger, the emotion stays personal. “I think the thing that keeps us human is that we really care,” he says. “We make sure even a simple T-shirt has a crazy amount of thought behind it. Like, embroidery density, stitch lines, rib testing, the works. Nothing’s casual.”

He leads me around the store, pointing out pieces like they’re old friends: an upcycled sweatshirt made from army scarves, a printed Templar shirt, the Save the Dragons tee — “our first T-shirt ever.” My favourite moment? When he quotes, completely unprompted, “The art lies in concealing the art.”

Almost Gods has grown far beyond the hype. It’s now a world — a mix of faith, design, and fearless imagination, all orbiting Khurana’s vision. 

With the conversation flowing so easily — fun, fast, and full of energy, I couldn’t resist asking him one more thing. “Dhruv, you’ve mentioned you’ve really liked my questions,” I said, smiling. “So tell me, what’s one question you wish I had asked?”

He paused for a moment, thoughtful, then grinned. “You know,” he said, “no one’s ever asked me how I’m doing. I’d want you to ask me that — ‘How are you, Dhruv?’”

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I laughed, pleasantly caught off guard by his answer. It wasn’t something I saw coming. So of course, I did ask, and he told me he’s in the middle of doing a million things at once, expanding, building, managing chaos, and somehow still finding his balance through it all. And in that moment, I realised something, that beyond the ambition and sharp creative mind, there’s a quiet humility and warmth to him. It’s that genuine kindness that makes his work, and him, feel instantly more human and relatable.

As we wrap up, he’s still smiling, buzzing with ideas, cookies in hand. “At the end of the day,” he says, “this was supposed to be my side quest. But look where we are.”

And maybe that’s the real story, how a side quest turned into a belief system. Not in gods, but in creation itself.

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