HELLO! India Exclusive: The opulent brilliance of Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla

"A Beautiful Life" would be the movie title that couture stalwarts, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, would use to describe their life and eponymous career and what a fitting title indeed. 

India's rich tapestry of textiles, craftsmanship and artistry has long woven the country's social and cultural fabric. Where some have played muses, others have been the culprits of change. Indian couturiers Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, for over three decades, have found themselves oscillating between both facets. Although among India's leading couturiers, it'd be an understatement to call them just that. Over the many momentous years of their career, they've become custodians of beauty, who continue to breathe life into lost crafts like chikankari and ajrak, first through textiles, until accessories. In an exclusive interaction with HELLO! India, the duo went back to where it all started to attempt to trace the brand's future with a renewed zeal. 

Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have, for decades, occupied that rare space where India’s most intricate craftsmanship meets couture’s most unapologetic grandeur. But theirs is not a brand frozen in nostalgia. Abu and Sandeep have built a couture vocabulary that reveres tradition while reinventing it to dazzling new heights. "India is our muse," they say. And it shows. Their chikankari drapes, embellished with rich zardozi filigree, have long been associated with their design identity. When we asked the duo what their secret is to striking the right balance between tradition and modernity, their concise answer provides deep insight. “We revere hand craftsmanship and ancient techniques,” they explain. “But innovation is in our DNA. Both the classical and the avant-garde coexist in perfect harmony in our work.”

In the ever-evolving world of fashion, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla's label remains resolute against the changing winds of viral trends. “We’ve never followed trends,” they assert. Instead, they carry the weight, almost effortlessly, to create timeless and opulent trends, immune to any expiration date. When they say that they "reinvent classical design to brand new standards of finesse and excellence," they mean every word of that claim. Although their work has often been deemed "wearable art," their own definition is more nuanced. “We are both custodians and disruptors,” they reveal. “Our work melds heritage with new vocabularies of design. We break rules, borders, and boundaries to create impossibly beautiful, rarefied beauty.” The duality of guardians of the past and architects of the future is what keeps their couture relevant across decades.

Many luxury designers chase minimalism today, yet Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla's language celebrates maximalist grandeur unapologetically. So, what is it? Is it rebellion, preservation, or pure indulgence? The answer lies in their very ethos. “Maximalism isn’t rebellion for us—it is who we are,” they share. “Freedom lies in letting go, in complexity, in a joyous dance of multiple elements.” Their couture is a celebration of excess, layered emotion, and soul, reinterpreted in drapes that celebrate the feminine form, in its many beautiful facets. 

And yet, there's a softness, a subtle sense of delicate romance that comes from resham. A "highly treasured and coveted part" of their design expression in their billowing masterpieces, beyond the Chikankari and zardozi, they add, "our Resham collections are signature Abu Sandeep. Understated yet deeply impactful."

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Although they have been known to dress the likes of the biggest names in Bollywood and the Ambanis back home, all the way to Hollywood stars like Dame Judi Dench and Beyonce, the duo would have loved to strike one name off their bucket list. When asked who they’d love to dress from history, the answer comes with a touch of reverence and instant revelation: Madhubala. “We would reimagine her as 21st-century royalty in the most magnificent Chikankari. She was the ultimate beauty," they shared further. In Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla's designs, the beauty would have only magnified. 

In effect, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla are not merely couturiers; rather, they are storytellers of Indian grandeur in essence. Their work is a dialogue between centuries, between restraint and extravagance, between the sacredness of heritage and the thrill of reinvention. And as they remind us with quiet confidence, the best is yet to come. 

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