Last year, they did a stint at London’s prime store, Selfridges, showcasing their designs to great effect. For the past ten years, they have been retailing at And, in London’s up-market Knightsbridge area. Their garments sell briskly, as ever, at the bastion of luxury, Harrods and at Motoyama, in Japan. Why then, have Mumbai’s premier designing duo, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, never shown their work at India Fashion Week, until now, questions Shirin Mehta.

Sandeep Khosla and Abu Jani: first timers at India Fashion Week.

Abu Jani (43) and Sandeep Khosla (45), Mumbai’s high-stepping designing duo, favourites of film stars and fashionistas, were scheduled to show their collection for the first time at India Fashion Week, marking it as a landmark event of sorts since the city’s fashion fraternity have always felt inadequately represented, creating a Mumbai-Delhi designer divide. More noteworthy is the fact that for the first time in their careers as kings of embellishment, they would present an entirely solid line without any of their trademark embroidery. On the other hand, the collection harks back to the whites that they introduced, 18 years ago,

Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla: revelling in their differences.

imbibing the catwalk this time around, with an almost retro feel, a re-visitation of their earlier lines.

At India Fashion Week, 20 models were expected to strut in 60 garments, as the duo put in a request for the largest number of models possible.Abu is the artist and the large oil painting of two traditional belles hanging behind me, bears colourful witness to the fact. He is an inveterate doodler, constantly drawing, drafting, putting pattern and form to paper. He outlines the intricacy of embroidery, the nuances of shape and curve finding their way, almost invariably onto their garments, though he admits to being the victim of creative blocks, as well. He wears a white linen shirt open at the neck to reveal a heavy cross on a chain. Unlike the Navratan bracelet that he also sports, the cross is of his own creation and no, he says, he has no plans for getting into designing jewellery. He loves to wear it though. "Abu is a born-again Maharaja," states his partner. The virtuoso, at the moment, holds a very large mug of very mild tea. Just the way he likes it. I wonder if they have personalised mugs, too.