Indelible India

Twice a year since 2023, the luxury menswear brand Stefano Ricci ventures out on the SR Explorer Project, an adventure with an award-winning photojournalist that pairs a spotlight on new collections with support of a local conservation charity.  

Over the years, donations have gone to the Kazakh Falconry Association for the research and reintroduction of eagles in western Mongolia; the Charles Darwin Foundation to protect giant tortoises on the Galápagos Islands; and Wild Earth Allies to protect and monitor Asian Elephants in Cambodia’s Cardamom Mountains. “Our aim is to leave each place we explore a little better than when we found it,” the company’s creative director, Filippo Ricci, explains. 

For the latest expedition, the SR Explorer team—led by Filippo and his brother Niccolò, the company’s CEO—travelled to the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan in India, bringing along photographer Steve McCurry, best known for his iconic photo Afghan Girl, which first ran on the cover of National Geographic in 1985.

McCurry began the tour by photographing endangered Bengal tigers in Ranthambore National Park. In 1900, India had 100,000 tigers in the wild; today, there are around 3,600. Though tiger hunting has been banned in India since 1972, there is still poaching, sometimes in response to attacks on livestock. That’s why Stefano Ricci chose to support Wild Seve, a program at India’s Centre for Wildlife Studies that helps communities live in harmony with nature.

From there, SR Explorer set out across northern India, with McCurry shooting the brand’s spring-summer 2026 collection at such famed sites as the Taj Mahal, the iconic ivory-marble mausoleum on the banks of the Yamuna River; the City Palace, Jaipur’s 18^th-century royal compound; and the Blue City, Jodhpur’s labyrinthine ancient quarter with vibrant blue-washed walls. 

“These are some of the most epic locations in the world—and places I love,” said McCurry, who has been shooting in India since his first days as a freelance photojournalist in the late 1970s. “To be in India awakens the senses.”  

Many of northern India’s most celebrated historic sites are a two-hour flight from Mumbai, where Four Seasons Hotel Mumbai—with its modernist architecture, tropical gardens, tranquil pools, and sweeping views of the Arabian Sea—offers a refined urban retreat in the heart of the Worli district. The hotel’s curated city tours introduce guests to Mumbai’s layered history, including Mani Bhavan, the home that served as Mahatma Gandhi’s residence and political base from 1917 to 1934.  

All of this history and wonder is why SR Explorer chose India for its latest campaign—and what McCurry aims to capture with his images. “A mood that conveys places that are magical, beautiful, and fun and inspires people to see the world,” he says. “You will see the best that humanity can produce.”  

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