A Royal Thread Through Time: JJ Valaya On Memory, Craft, And The Enduring Pulse Of Couture

Last Updated:August 03, 2025, 11:36 IST

JJ Valaya’s EAST is a regal cartography of memory, travel, and craftsmanship where every thread tells a timeless story.

When JJ Valaya’s couture creations walked the ramp at the Grand Finale of Hyundai India Couture Week 2025, they weren’t just clothes, they were cartographies of memory. Entitled EAST, the Autumn/Winter collection was part travelogue, part tribute, weaving together the Far East, the Balkans, and India into a majestic, imagined Silk Route. But beneath the silk, zari, and structure lies something deeper: an insistence that fashion must mean something. That it must hold a story, a soul, and above all, a sense of time.

“We are Kuturiyas at heart,” Valaya says, in his characteristically grounded way. “We create luxury and luxury has a slower pace.” In an era where virality can dictate value, Valaya’s house remains an outlier: one that builds slowly, deliberately, and always with reverence. “Yes, it’s the age of reels and rapid content,” he adds, “but once you frame a story with depth, it becomes compelling.”

For Valaya, storytelling isn’t an embellishment to couture, it’s the very fabric of it. Each collection begins with two months of deep research, then months more of exploration, silhouettes, surface techniques, dyeing, embroidery. “This process is what we truly indulge in,” he says, “and I don’t see that ever changing.”

Born in Rajasthan, Rooted in Reverence

There are themes that reappear like leitmotifs across Valaya’s decades-spanning oeuvre: Art Deco geometry, nomadic memory, and the grandeur of royal India. But they aren’t trends, they are emotional inheritances.

“I was born in Rajasthan,” he says, “and I suspect that somewhere, the spirit of royalty and the Banjaras crept into my psyche.” It’s an observation offered without pretension as if this vast aesthetic vocabulary was simply inherited through osmosis. “Art Deco, meanwhile, has always fascinated me, it’s timeless in its geometry, clean lines, its chicness.” Together, these influences are not just decorative, they’re architectural. A personal language shaped by places, philosophies, and the passage of time.

When asked what has remained sacred through three decades of design, he doesn’t hesitate, “Authenticity. Quality. And a deep commitment to Indian craft.” This, for Valaya, is not performative patriotism but a sacred responsibility. “As an Indian designer, I feel it’s my duty to celebrate our craft. It’s who we are.”

On Trends, Timelessness, and Building a Legacy

In a cultural moment where many luxury houses flirt with Indian motifs sometimes without nuance or rootedness, Valaya’s voice remains steady. “You don’t need to have lived a particular time to recreate it,” he says. “But you do need to do the research. To sit with your inspiration. To ask yourself what you’re being true to.”

The distinction between aesthetic and authentic, he insists, is not binary. “It’s not either-or. The perfect balance of the two is what truly works.” And that balance between the romantic and the rigorous, the opulent and the edited is what Valaya has spent decades perfecting.

“We’re very clear that we’re a luxury brand. And the brand must outlive the man.” There’s both humility and ambition in that line, a quiet, unwavering belief in legacy. “Trends help keep the buzz alive,” he acknowledges, “but when you’re doing couture, you have to balance that with timelessness. You cannot build luxury on trends alone.”

The Nomadic Spirit Endures

If EAST was a finale to the couture week, it was also a declaration: that heritage, when reinterpreted with rigour and imagination, can become futuristic. That couture is not a relic, but a living, breathing art form. “I’m a nomad at heart,” he says, echoing the show’s central emotion. “What excites me is the rediscovery of lost treasures and reinventing them for now.”

And as the lights dim on yet another season of India Couture Week, one thing is clear: JJ Valaya’s world is not built on nostalgia it’s built on memory. Curated, constructed, and carried forward, one thread at a time.

Swati Chaturvedi

Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl…Read More

Swati Chaturvedi, a seasoned media and journalism aficionado with over 10 years of expertise, is not just a storyteller; she’s a weaver of wit and wisdom in the digital landscape. As a key figure in News18 Engl… Read More

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