Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla: Reviving Indian craftsmanship in couture

Three years after  Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla had opened the boutique Mata Hari in Mumbai’s Juhu area, bride-to-be Rima Kapoor asked Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla if they would make her wedding dress.

It was 1988 and she only gave them one direction: it had to be in her favourite shade of green – an unusual colour choice in a sea of red weddings. The bride was Bollywood royalty, her dress would become fashion legend.

Crushed emerald silk, a band collar and a bodice covered in gold and silver embroidery around dozens of square-cut mirrors, a twist on traditional Kutch-style Shisha work.

She would have lit up the room in the cinematic ensemble. As she told the designers afterwards, she felt her husband Manoj Jain married her for the way she looked that day.

Jani and Khosla’s first piece of bridal couture would also go on to light up stores across the nation and the rest of the world. Travelling through Kenya several months later, Kapoor Jain passed a tailor’s shop in Nairobi. Displayed in the window was the cover of Savvy magazine, with her own wedding photo on the cover. “This can be made here,” the shopkeeper had written on it.

The designers’ path-breaking reinterpretations of subcontinental craft traditions has sparked an entire industry of copycats, and not just in India’s garment bazaars, where Khosla, unrecognised, often comes across rip-offs and says he has even been told he will be introduced to the designers, who “work nearby”. “Forget Chandni Chowk,” he says, referring to the historic market at the centre of Old Delhi, “there are at least 20 brands that copy us directly.”

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – but it must also be good business for the plagiarists. Because for nearly 40 years, Khosla and Jani have devoted themselves to keeping alive – and paying tribute to – India’s rich and diverse legacy of craftsmanship and culture.

Most famously, of course, Chikankari, the fine white hand-embroidery of nature-inspired patterns on cotton and silk. The designers were instrumental in turning it from declining craft into high-couture, sought-after design, through extensive research and development with artisans, experiments with luxury fabrics like georgette and chiffon for the first time, and using the technique for intricate and opulent couture garments. Their first line of chikan work in the mid-nineties sold out when it went on sale at Delhi’s Oberoi Hotel. (Next year will see them introduce new stitches that Khosla promises will be “much more over-the-top”.)

They also promoted handwoven Jamavar textiles by using antique shawls and jackets, and have embraced the ancient (and relatively widely available) craft of Zardozi metal embroidery, reinventing it in new colourways and designs – most notably in their new Raj collection, which debuted just last week. Other crafts that regularly show up in their collections include Vasli, another type of metal embroidery, Resham or silk needlework, and Kutch Shisha mirror work, which they have returned to time and again – using it with multicoloured threads, in Art Deco patterns, and in three-dimensional styles.

The cynical journalist might see this as a shrewd way of tapping into the dual appetites for pride in India’s heritage, and the everyday Indian’s inter-generational cultural familiarity with traditional crafts. Speaking to Khosla, it’s apparent that this signature approach is grounded in passion.

“We are fiercely proud of our heritage and are devoted to its reinvention,” Khosla says. “But it’s never enough for us to merely recreate the past, our focus is always in reimagining and revolutionising couture in the present and for the future. To look at the old with new eyes, to dream bigger, to create better.”

It’s also much more personal. Over the course of our freewheeling conversation – we bitch about the industry and compare notes on Indian fashion history – it’s evident just how close a relationship the designers share with the artisans whose intricate handiwork adorns their garments. One threadwork specialist is in the midst of a personal tragedy: a couple of her family are missing, he says. The emotion in Khosla’s voice over our Zoom call is palpable.

I wait until the mood shifts, and then ask about the couple’s different brands. Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla is the couture label. The mainstay of their wedding work, and the label worn by everyone from Judi Dench to Anant Ambani and Priyanka Chopra, it’s where all the embroidery and embellishments are done by hand. “It’s all hand and only hand. And we will maintain that till our dying day,” Khosla says. He won’t be drawn on cost, but only says: “We are never looking at the selling price of a garment when we are creating it, we are looking to satisfy ourselves first.”

That’s also why they’re vehemently against artificial intelligence (AI). No shortcuts for them. “We understand and acknowledge AI’s immense potential, personally we are old school and devoted to real design,” they tell me in a joint email statement later, touching on the derivative nature of generative AI and large language models. “It’s also a little disappointing when people reference an entire line via AI. It is hard to know what’s real and what is fake anymore, especially with news and social media. That’s unsettling.”

So yes, you’re buying labour – and no AI-guided robot can replicate the human hand’s finesse and idiosyncrasy. But couture’s value proposition also includes legacy, and we’re still some distance away from AI being able to generate a truly original or iconic design (though humanoid robot artists like Ai-Da are questioning what art, design and creativity mean – in itself arguably be a form of art).

The most visible example of their craft discipline can be seen on film and in museum archives. The ghagra created for Madhuri Dixit in the movie Devdas – a 10-kilo, 10-panel marvel of mirrors – took two months to create and has been displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

The house’s client list, is a roster of modern South Asian glitter: Kapoor Jain, Alia Bhatt, Deepika Padukone who once wore a silk Jamdani seven metres long because the designers wanted it to trail. Just last year, their couture supplied the wedding wardrobe for Radhika Merchant Ambani, the commission bridging ritual and spectacle in equal measure.

Commissioning Jani and Khosla can therefore be seen a deliberate act of patronage, an exchange with named artisans and a house that documents and archives India, stitch by golden stitch.

At this level, bridal trousseaux take a minimum of four to six months from commission to delivery. The bride – and typically, her mother and sisters – meet with the designers to discuss what she likes and what she has in mind for the event. “Most of our clients do give us carte blanche, but this is where we tune in and resonate with their stories,” Khosla says. Often, this is also where other members of the wedding party may commission garments; the partners have kitted out bride and groom squads for many years.

The next step is sampling embroideries and colourways, after which the designers create muslin toiles of the garment to give the bride an idea of the silhouette. The garment then goes into production, and artisans can spend days – sometimes months – on sewing and embroidery.  embroidering and sewing the bridal outfit.

“Teams work for weeks to bring the fantasy to life,” Khosla says. “The process is one that sees a close relationship develop between client, designer and production team. “It is a lot of work. But much joy goes into the collaboration.”

Those hand-hours reflect in the price, but the garment’s value is often described as priceless, intended for a special occasion, and as another journalist once said, portable heritage.

It is this process that has birthed trends which rippled across ballrooms and gymkhana receptions: the Chikankari bride; the Khadi bride, centred around the handlooms that were integral to India’s independence struggle; saris paired with lehengas, and for a ceremony culturally dominated by shades of red (and sometimes green), the use of off-white and beige as the dominant bridal colour.

“A spirit of adventure, the confidence of individuality and a love for experimentation are all hallmarks of today’s Abu Sandeep bride who wishes to stand apart,” Khosla pronounces.

But although it’s common for the designers to involve brides’ families in the commissioning process, they advise against bringing in too many inspirational elements and ideas. “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” Khosla declares. “Only involve your closest family and the most trusted friend/s in the process. Experiment by all means but avoid gimmicks and transient and flippant trends. Nothing works more magnificently than the classical reimagined. Your bridal garment should be a timeless treasure, not a one-wear wonder.”

Bridal wear is about fantasy, he says, but it’s also about presenting the best version of yourself to your partner and to the world. “Your outfit must enhance your beauty, spirit and personality to the maximum. Most importantly let joy be your ultimate goal. This is your day. Shine brightest.”

For brides with busier schedules – or restrained pocketbooks – there’s Abu Sandeep, a diffusion label that caters to the aspirational buyer, man and woman. First launched in 2008, it’s the one you’ll see in shops. It also features a significant bridal range. 

Their other ready-to-wear label is less occasion-focused, although buyers may disagree with me. Gulabo by Abu Sandeep is straightforward pret a porter.

Heritage threads through all their labels, Khosla says. Nostalgia has been forecast as a major trend next year, and the celebration of all things Indian will likely continue as the country’s economic heft grows, and at a moment when we’re seeing an almost unimaginable potpourri of global ideas.

I later ask by email how the pair manage to straddle this fusion and if they see their bridal collections as reflecting broader socio-cultural narratives, such as the evolving role of women, the global rise of Indian luxury or the changing nature of marriage itself.

Their response: “Rejoicing in the beauty of our heritage and channelling it to create contemporary masterpieces isn’t mere nostalgia or a passing trend for us, it is a commitment to experimenting with legacy and reimagining the traditional through a brand-new vision.

“We take traditional craft techniques and reimagine them as high art. We create exceptional couture that breaks borders, boundaries and celebrates the setting of brand-new standards of craftsmanship and original design. Our work is always a celebration of individuality, diversity, difference and inclusion. Societies grow stronger when we embrace difference. When we include. There ought to be no place for discrimination in our minds or hearts.”

Back in my video call, it’s time to let Khosla go – I’m out of time and he’s got a blushing bride waiting for her first consultation. I ask who they’d like to design for. Someone fictional, since they’ve dressed political leaders and film stars, singers and socialites.

The answer is just what you’d expect from a pair of true romantics. “It would be Elizabeth Bennett from Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice. It is one of the most loved pieces of literature and Darcy and Elizabeth are possibly the most romantic love story ever! A love that deserves a total fantasy bridal ensemble.”

OK then, what then is the one thing they wish journalists would ask them?

“What drives us as humans,” comes the response. “Our hearts, minds and souls’ deepest desires. It’s all about love at the end of the day!”