The 2026 Craftsmanship Award has recognized Yoshita 1967 among the nine finalists of the LVMH Prize, themselves selected from more than 2,400 applications. It is a major recognition for the young house founded in Nairobi by Anil Padia, the first Kenyan fashion house to reach the final of the prize. It also brings attention to an approach to fashion in which creativity, craftsmanship and collective work are closely intertwined. This singular combination, shaped across several cultures and within a workshop that has become an integral part of the project, now defines Yoshita’s identity.
Paths Converging
Anil Padia grew up in Kenya in a family originally from Gujarat, a region in western India. Long before imagining his own label, he was already drawing silhouettes in his school notebooks. Fashion gradually became an obvious calling, nourished by the images of his childhood: the women in his family, the way they dressed and adorned themselves with jewellery and ornaments, as well as Bollywood films. Among his most vivid memories is an appearance by actress Madhuri Dixit, dressed in a costume covered with small mirrors, shells and silver jewellery.
His training began in London, including a period at Central Saint Martins, and continued in Paris, where he deepened his understanding of clothing and worked with Paco Rabanne, Y/Project and Jacquemus. These years gave him a particular sensitivity to construction, draping and finishing, as well as a level of rigour he would carry into his own work.
When the pandemic brought him back to Nairobi after several years in Europe, Anil Padia returned to what intuitively drew him to clothing. He embarked on a new phase of experimentation with fabrics and crochet, working with Catherine Wanjalo, a craftswoman he had met several years earlier during an internship at Kooroo, a local brand.
This return to Nairobi also brought elements of his own history back to the surface. The small mirrors echo shisha, a textile tradition particularly associated with western India. The bells, meanwhile, recall the silver anklets worn by his mother and the sound associated with Navratri dances and rituals. In his garments, these memories become matter, movement and light.
Born from the convergence of several influences and shaped by childhood memories, the brand takes its name from an aunt who was particularly dear to Anil Padia’s family and was born in 1967. The name also echoes Yoshita Industries, the company founded by his grandfather.
Craftsmanship as a Form of Luxury
At Yoshita 1967, the creative process begins with technique and handwork. Crochet lies at the heart of Anil Padia’s practice, and he works with the smallest possible crochet hook. He describes his process as deeply sensory: he imagines a silhouette, then allows the material, technique and gesture to shape and transform the piece. Working with yarn, he explores textures, densities and ways of assembling elements from which new forms can emerge.
Around twenty craftswomen work alongside Anil Padia in his Nairobi workshop. Heirs to skills passed down from hand to hand, they bring their own experience to the process. Under their hands, a texture, a stitch or a particular way of assembling elements can open up new directions and transform a design. Craftsmanship is therefore not simply a means of producing the garment: it contributes to its conception.
Anil Padia and Catherine Wanjalo’s first creation, a pale blue crochet polo dotted with small glass mirrors, already contained several of the elements that would become Yoshita’s signature. A few years later, these elements reappear in far more sophisticated pieces. Temple Road, Yoshita’s first official collection, gives this emerging language its first fully developed expression. In the Abla dress, small glass mirrors surrounded by crochet are assembled together until they form the very fabric of the garment. In the Jhanjar design, more than 800 small silver bells accompany the movements of the body, giving the garment a distinctly sonic dimension.
With Manorama, his bridal collection, Anil Padia takes this language into another territory, exploring the corset and the construction of the silhouette while continuing his research into yarn, mirrors and bells. Named after his grandmother, the collection further develops the dialogue between personal memory, craftsmanship and contemporary creation.
This mastery of craftsmanship places Yoshita’s pieces somewhere between ready-to-wear and couture. The silhouettes from Temple Road are produced in limited editions, through a process that gives a central role to handwork and the precision of the gesture.
At Yoshita, craftsmanship thus becomes a component of luxury: not simply an ornament added to a garment, but a creative material in its own right, capable of determining its texture, shape and identity.
A Different Way of Growing
Deeply rooted in its local community, Yoshita is developing with a strong social dimension. In Nairobi, the workshop works with women from the local community, including single mothers. The house supports the development of their skills, with the ambition of helping them gain greater economic independence through craftsmanship.
This ambition is gradually extending beyond the workshop itself. In the longer term, Anil Padia envisions creating a community centre for women, bringing together training, financial education, access to healthcare and services designed to support their financial empowerment. Yoshita’s growth is thus conceived in connection with the people and communities who contribute to its development.
The same attention extends to the conditions in which the garments are produced. Anil Padia explicitly connects sustainability with heritage and says he wants to incorporate both dimensions into his choices of materials and processes. Production capacity, fair remuneration, the cultural significance of materials and respect for the environment are among the criteria he takes into account.
This approach finds a particular resonance in Yoshita’s selection as a European finalist in the Circular Design Challenge, whose international final will take place in New Delhi in October.
This selection and the LVMH Craftsmanship Award are accompanying the growth of a young house whose craftsmanship and local roots are now attracting attention well beyond Kenya.
This new visibility marks a new chapter for Yoshita. From Nairobi, Anil Padia can now bring his language to an international audience while continuing to develop the workshop and the collective that have accompanied him since the beginning.
