IT TAKES TWO

Designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla on new terrains, old crafts, and making their own future

- Butool Jamal

In 1989 actor Dimple Kapadia, star of the film Bobby (1973), was photographed in a campaign wearing a velvet, high-collared men’s sherwani. The image was for designers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, who had opened their first store, Mata Hari, just three years before in 1986 in Juhu, Mumbai. The gender-bending sherwani might be hailed as cutting-edge in the current conversations about gender-fluid dressing, when images of women in power suits and men in skirts still get feted. But for the Mumbai-based duo, designing is never according to gender; or even age, sexual orientation, or any of the other categories we’ve constructed for ourselves. “It’s about beauty,” says Jani, “that’s what we’re always looking for. There has to be emotion and poetry behind what you do.”

This tireless pursuit of beauty has led the longtime partners and colleagues to become masters of craft. Their work is defined by detailed threadwork embroideries—from subtle white on white chikankari, to intricate aari, shimmering real gold or silver zardozi, metallic mukaish patterns, and graphic use of mirror work. On lavish bridal lehengas, saris, and voluminous anarkalis, their colourful patterns demonstrate the skill and painstaking hours of work that go into each hand-stitched piece.

Just one skirt, for example, embroidered in Tharad— a region in Gujarat known for its unique threadwork— can take upto six months to finish. They push their karigars to excel, champion the purity of age-old techniques, and help maintain the craft’s status as covetable luxury.