Varoin Marwah Makes London Debut With Hand-Worked ‘MONARCH’ AW26 Menswear

Varoin Marwah made his London debut on 17 September with MONARCH, an Autumn/Winter 2026 menswear collection built around tailored tuxedos, fusion eveningwear and hand-worked metal embroidery. Presented at St John’s Church, Hyde Park Crescent by Fashion Week and the City (FWTC), the collection introduced the Dubai- and Mumbai-based designer’s approach to British audiences through a restrained palette of cream, maroon, chocolate brown and black, with chain, metal thread and other hard materials applied individually by hand.

Menswear Built Around Quiet Authority

The starting point for MONARCH is not royalty in the literal sense. Marwah describes the collection through the idea of a man whose presence does not depend on obvious displays of status.

That distinction shapes both the title and the clothes. Tailored tuxedos and blazers sit alongside fusion eveningwear and more futuristic occasion pieces, allowing familiar menswear structures to move between Western tailoring and forms connected to the designer’s wider Indian formalwear practice.

The palette remains controlled. Cream provides a lighter counterpoint to maroon, chocolate brown and black, keeping attention on silhouette and surface rather than broad colour contrast.

The collection’s most distinctive element, however, is its embroidery.

Metal Becomes Embroidery

Rather than relying only on conventional thread or surface printing, MONARCH incorporates metal thread, chain and other hard materials into hand-worked embellishment.

The technique introduces an unusual relationship between textile and weight. Materials normally associated with rigidity are used decoratively across garments designed for the body, creating tension between the structure of metal and the movement expected from occasionwear.

According to the house, the embroidery is developed individually for each look rather than mass-applied. It is an approach summarised by the collection’s phrase, “Made, not manufactured.”

For a collection centred on authority, the decision is meaningful. Its sense of luxury is located less in overt symbolism than in the time and labour embedded in the garment. The metalwork does not need to become a literal crown or insignia; craftsmanship itself provides the visual weight.

“Monarch isn’t about wearing a crown. It’s about the kind of man who doesn’t need one to be recognised as one. Every piece was built by hand — the metal, the chain, the thread — because that’s the only way to make something that holds its authority quietly,” said Varoin Marwah, Founder and Creative Director.

Between Western Tailoring and Indian Formalwear

Marwah founded his eponymous label in Dubai in 2012. The house works across Western menswear including tuxedos, blazers, suits and shackets, as well as Indian formalwear such as sherwanis, kurtas, bandi sets and Indo-Western silhouettes.

That breadth is important to understanding MONARCH. The collection does not position tailoring and Indian occasionwear as separate categories. Instead, Marwah’s practice moves between them, allowing formal menswear to absorb different construction, embellishment and styling traditions.

The London presentation therefore functioned as more than the arrival of another seasonal collection. It introduced a house already established across Dubai and Mumbai to a new fashion-week context, while making hand craft the clearest point of distinction.

For MONARCH, that craft is also closely tied to the collection’s definition of masculinity. Strength is not presented through exaggerated aggression or spectacle. Instead, tailored structure, controlled colour and meticulous metal embroidery are used to construct a quieter form of presence.

“London hasn’t seen this collection, or this house, before. I’m glad it gets to see it first,” said Marwah.

After more than a decade developing his menswear practice between the Middle East and India, the London debut gives Varoin Marwah another context in which to test that proposition: occasionwear where authority comes not from the crown, but from the detail of how the clothes are made.