The Leela’s third-year collaboration with Kulsum Shadab Wahab’s Ara Lumière brings The Phoenix Circle to Milan, uniting Indian luxury, fashion and art with a shared commitment to women’s empowerment
MUMBAI, India, Oct. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — For the third consecutive year, The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts has partnered with Ara Lumière, founded by philanthropist and social entrepreneur Kulsum Shadab Wahab, at Milan Fashion Week, continuing a shared commitment to creating meaningful intersections between luxury, fashion and purpose. This year, the collaboration brought The Phoenix Circle to Milan alongside contemporary artist Raghava KK, presenting PASSPORT as part of an intimate gathering centred on identity, resilience and women’s empowerment.
Founded by Kulsum Shadab Wahab, The Phoenix Circle is rooted in a long-standing commitment to empowering women survivors of acid and burn attacks, creating opportunities for dignity, creative expression and livelihood. Through fashion and art, the initiative seeks to shift the narrative from adversity towards agency, resilience and possibility.
This year’s PASSPORT collaboration with Raghava KK explored ideas of identity and representation, bringing together the artist’s perspective and the creative voices of the women at the heart of The Phoenix Circle. Presented against the backdrop of Milan Fashion Week, the initiative offered a powerful reminder of how fashion can transcend its traditional role as a form of expression to become a platform for social dialogue and change.
For The Leela, the collaboration reflects its belief that True Indian Luxury extends beyond hospitality into culture, creativity and purpose. By bringing an Indian perspective to a global fashion platform, the partnership creates a space where Indian luxury and a movement for women’s empowerment can come together in a meaningful way.
“Our association with Ara Lumière and The Phoenix Circle reflects our belief that luxury becomes more meaningful when it creates space for purpose, dialogue and impact. Milan Fashion Week offers a global platform to bring together India’s rich cultural perspective with voices that are challenging and reshaping the way we understand empowerment. Through our collaboration with Kulsum and Ara Lumière, The Leela is proud to support a movement that places resilience, creativity and the agency of women at its centre, while creating an experience that carries the spirit of True Indian Luxury onto the global stage,” said Preeti Makhija, General Manager, The Leela Palace New Delhi.
“The Phoenix Circle was created to transform narratives of adversity into stories of strength, dignity and possibility. Fashion gives us a powerful language through which these stories can be seen and heard, and our collaboration with The Leela allows this message to reach a global audience. Bringing PASSPORT to Milan is another step in creating spaces where the women we work with are not defined by what they have endured, but by their creativity, identity and the futures they are shaping for themselves,“ said Kulsum Shadab Wahab, Founder, Ara Lumière and The Phoenix Circle.
Through its continued association with Ara Lumière, and as The Leela celebrates four decades of True Indian Luxury, the brand reinforces the idea of fashion as a force for purpose — creating a dialogue between Indian luxury, global creativity and social impact, and demonstrating how hospitality can extend beyond the boundaries of a hotel to become a platform for meaningful cultural exchange.
About The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts
The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts is India’s largest institutionally owned and managed pure-play luxury hospitality brand. Backed by Brookfield, The Leela’s portfolio comprises 15 operating award-winning properties spanning owned, operated, and managed hotels and another 10 in the pipeline across leading leisure and business destinations in India and Dubai. Recognized globally for architectural excellence and bespoke services, The Leela was ranked #2 globally among the best Hotel Brand in the World by the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards 2026 and has been previously ranked as the World’s Best Hotel Brand by Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards in 2020 and 2021, and among the global top three in 2023, 2024 and 2026. The brand remains committed to delivering timeless Indian hospitality through world-class luxury experiences.
Please visit our website www.theleela.com and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
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SOURCE The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts
