A bride once sat across from me in my studio and said, very firmly, I want something quiet. No big embroidery, nothing loud, just elegant. Three weeks later I watched her stand in front of a mirror at an Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla trial wearing a cream chikankari lehenga so layered with threadwork it practically had its own weather system, and she cried. Not because it was loud. Because it was hers, and she had not known, until that moment, that more could actually feel like more her.
That is the pull of this house, and why I keep a standing invitation open to any bride who tells me minimal is not really working for her, she just does not know it yet.
The House That Refuses to Apologize
Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla started working together in 1986, and from the beginning they built their name on a single, unfashionable idea: minimalism is sterile, and more is more. In an industry that periodically falls back in love with restraint, that philosophy has aged into something closer to a mission statement. Their atelier does not do quiet luxury. It does layered, cinematic, story told in thread luxury, the kind that assumes a wedding is a once in a lifetime production and dresses accordingly.
I love them for brides who have spent their whole engagement being told to keep it simple, tasteful, understated, and who are quietly exhausted by the advice. Not every bride wants restraint. Some want drama, and AJSK gives it to them without ever tipping into costume.
The Aesthetic: Chikankari as the Headline, Not the Afterthought
The piece of their story I bring up most with clients is the chikankari. In the early nineties, Abu and Sandeep spent close to two years in Lucknow relearning and reviving nearly twenty one traditional stitches, then moved the craft off everyday cotton kurtas and onto chiffon, georgette and silk, fabrics it had never really lived on before. That decision is, to my mind, one of the quiet turning points of Indian couture. It took a technique associated with daily wear and gave it a couture address.
What that means for a bride today is a lehenga or saree where the embroidery does not sit on top of the fabric, it becomes the fabric. Paired with their mirror work, zardozi and the occasional Ajrak print in their more fusion pieces, the overall effect reads rich without ever reading heavy. It is maximalism that still breathes, which is a harder trick than it sounds.
The Stylist's Touch: Wearing Maximalism Without Looking Costumed
The risk with a house built on more is more is obvious. A bride can end up looking dressed by the outfit instead of the other way around. My rule with AJSK is to let one element lead. If the lehenga is doing the talking through layered chikankari, the jewelry goes quieter: a single statement piece, perhaps her mother's jhumkas and a simple maang tikka, instead of a full set. If she is wearing one of their more sculpted silhouettes, I will often skip the heavy dupatta drape altogether and let the garment's own architecture carry the moment.
Hair and makeup follow the same logic. A face this generously dressed does not need a bold lip and a bold eye both competing for attention. I usually push my brides toward a soft, luminous base and let the outfit be the loudest thing in the room, the way it was built to be.
Beyond the Flagship: How to Actually Shop This House
A lot of brides assume a designer at this level of craft is simply out of reach, and for the flagship couture line, the investment is real. But AJSK has built out sub labels, Gulabo, Mard and ASAL, that carry the same hand and the same standard of finishing at a far more accessible price point. I send brides there for the smaller functions: the sangeet outfit, the mehendi look, sometimes even trousseau pieces, while we save the big couture moment for the wedding day itself. It is how I get a bride the AJSK world across her entire wedding week without asking her to spend her whole budget on one lehenga.
Who She Is
This house tends to suit the bride who is not afraid of being looked at. If her colour story already leans toward this season's dustier, more layered palette (think deep sage or champagne gold rather than straight red) AJSK's embroidery sits beautifully against those tones, catching light instead of competing with it. Midnight blue, which is having a real moment this wedding season for evening ceremonies, is another shade I have seen their chikankari handle with real elegance, the thread picking up candlelight in a way that photographs beautifully.
A few things I tell every bride before she walks into that first AJSK trial.
Go in with your wedding week mapped out, not just the one big outfit, so you know where to spend on the flagship line and where Gulabo or ASAL can carry a function.
Let one craft element lead the whole look. Do not layer heavy jewelry on top of heavy embroidery.
Try pieces in both daylight and evening light before deciding. Thread catches light very differently under a mandap canopy than it does at a sangeet.
Ask about the fabric base before you fall for the embroidery. Chiffon and georgette move and photograph differently than a structured silk.
Budget your trousseau separately from your couture piece so one does not quietly eat into the other.
What I keep coming back to with Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla is that their whole philosophy is permission. Permission to want more, to be seen, to let a wedding outfit actually look like the occasion it is marking. My job as a stylist is never to talk a bride out of that instinct. It is to help her wear it well, so the drama reads as intention instead of excess.
If you are standing at the start of your own wardrobe planning and keep telling yourself you want something simple, I would gently ask you to sit with that a little longer before you decide. Sometimes the simple answer and the true answer are not the same thing, and that is exactly the kind of conversation I love having in a first consultation.
With love and style,
Shreya Gupta Kedia
Founder, SGK Styles
