Safety, Suits & Shifting Green

In this edition: an industry tragedy, drag queen drama, MAGA goes Green, is Vogue romanticizing a climate disaster? and a Tisci case update.

Happy Monday and welcome back to DISCOURSTED.

Unfortunately, we’re starting the week with a tragic industry accident.

If you’re not familiar with Kartik Research, it’s a New Delhi-based artisanal menswear label founded in 2021 by designer Kartik Kumra. The brand, known for its contemporary reinterpretation of Indian craft, textiles, and subcultures under the banner of “Indian future vintage,” has enjoyed significant international attention recently.

The brand known for its contemporary reinterpretation of Indian craft, textiles, and subcultures under the banner of “Indian future vintage” gained widespread visibility when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wore a custom eri-silk tie by Kartik Research to his swearing-in ceremony earlier this year and also when head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri wore a look to the Met Gala. The label was also named a semi-finalist for the 2026 LVMH Prize (its second time on the shortlist), became the first Indian brand to appear on the official Paris Fashion Week calendar, and has attracted global stockists and celebrity interest.

That momentum has now been overshadowed by tragedy. On May 28, 26-year-old Divyanshu Joshi, who had managed the brand’s Delhi retail outlet for the past two years and had also modeled for Kartik Research, including walking in Lakmé Fashion Week, drowned while scouting locations for a commercial photoshoot in Kerala.

Joshi was part of a small team from Delhi that arrived early at an abandoned, water-filled stone quarry in the Mudakuzha area of Ernakulam district, ahead of the main production crew. The disused quarry, inactive for more than two decades, is widely known locally as a hazardous “death trap” and is off-limits to the public. According to police, Joshi entered the water as a friend filmed him, slipped from a shallower area into a much deeper section (approximately 30 feet down), and drowned.

Allegedly Kartik Kumra, the brand’s founder, entered the water in an attempt to search for and rescue Joshi but was unable to locate him though the Station House Officer of Kodanad Police Station told Indian media outlet Mint Lounge “Nobody jumped in the lake after Joshi”. Rescue teams from the Kerala Fire and Rescue Services later recovered Joshi’s body. He was pronounced dead at Perumbavoor Taluk Hospital.

The shoot was being facilitated by Kochi-based Rubberband Productions. An FIR has been registered at Kodanad Police Station, and officers are investigating what they have described as “logistical lapses” that led the team to the unauthorised and dangerous location.

On May 31, Kartik Research issued a statement on Instagram expressing heartbreak over the loss of their “dear colleague and friend.” The brand noted Joshi’s warmth and dedication, clarified that he “was not participating in any swimming-related activity as part of the production,” and addressed what it called “inaccurate accounts” and “mischaracterised circumstances” circulating online. It requested privacy for Joshi’s loved ones and said it would make no further public comment.

The incident has triggered widespread discussion and backlash across social media about safety standards, risk assessment, location choices, and accountability in fashion production as well as worker safety especially in India.

Police investigations are ongoing.

Today on DISCOURSTED: corporate brand protection meets queer creativity, environmental language finds surprising new political homes, media aesthetics blunt the climate crisis, and a key legal twist in the Riccardo Tisci case.

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