Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla on completing 40 years in fashion, reviving chikankari and being their own muse
You think you understand luxury, then your idea is turned on its head as you eat a vada pav on a chikankari napkin at the Mumbai residence of Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla. True luxury, it seems, is normalising a craft you put back on the radar 35 years ago to a point where its expression feels quotidian. Three days before their 40th anniversary—the duo met on August 15, 1986, and have been partners in business and life ever since—we are seated in their living room, which could be mistaken for an art gallery, and talking about their most ambitious flagship store, Mubarak Baug, which really is one. Mumbai locals will remember the Framjee Cawasjee Institute in Dhobi Talao as a dilapidated shopping hub for cheap jeans and export surplus shirts. Witnessing the space’s glow-up makes me want to believe in Jani-Khosla’s revered Midas touch.
In 2022, after 36 years of operating independently, selling a 51 per cent majority stake in their label to Reliance Brands (RBL) gave Jani and Khosla the impetus and financial wherewithal to launch stores of their maximalist stature. In Mumbai, the choice was between the city’s defunct art deco cinema halls or heritage sites. The duo chose the Framjee Cawasjee building because of its iconic location and “ceiling height”. Named after the designer’s ancestral house Mubarak Manzil in Kapurthala, Punjab, the 20,000-square-foot expanse was designed by A Wonder Room, the duo’s interior decor venture, which has previously conceived luxury homes, wedding interiors and their namesake label’s extravagant store in Jio World Plaza, Mumbai.
“We wanted to create the utopia that was in our heads,” shares Khosla. The result is a larger-than-life treasure chest where art, archival pieces, craft and high jewellery co-exist to jolt the senses. On the ground floor, a fictitious city handmade completely out of brass hangs upside down from the ceiling. The walls are lined with mirrors, antique jharokhas sourced from Gujarat and a tree of cascading shola flowers made by expert artisans in Kolkata. On the first floor, brass repoussé panels depicting their interpretation of Mumbai’s skyline share space with massive brass birds suspended amidst three-dimensional clouds. A gallery of key looks created over the last four decades holds pride of place. “Some people may not even like it,” admits Khosla, their maximalist aesthetic, after all, is not for everyone. “But it is an experience nobody could imagine. You have entered a world you didn’t know existed.”
Both Khosla and Jani were born into wealthy families, but their realities changed after they “lost it all”. Having money and losing it—something they’ve admittedly endured throughout their careers, too—has made them uninhibited. Khosla, a Punjabi from Kapurthala, and Jani, a Gujarati Bohri from Mumbai, first met in the studio of costume designer Xerxes Bhathena. The idea of a partnership was conjured up on a car ride, from Bandra to Churchgate, that moonlighted as a first date of sorts. “I was very trusting, but Abu was reserved,” shares Khosla. “He knew that there was something here and we could do something with our creativity.” That something arrived shortly thereafter in the form of Mata Hari, a boutique in Juhu that the duo opened in 1986 with assistance from a Sindhi financier, Gopi Magnani. For their debut collection which shared its name with the store—the duo designed 80 individualistic pieces with no overlaps. Three days after the shop opened, Dimple Kapadia walked into the store, followed by Parmeshwar Godrej and Jaya Bachchan. “As our popularity grew, everybody started getting in touch with us directly. And as they say, the rest is history.”
