When two untrained men decide fashion school is optional, the results are either a catastrophe or a Chikankari revolution. In the case of Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla, it was very much the latter and forty years later, India is still recovering from the glamour of it all.

Let's rewind, 1986 in Bombay, a South Mumbai boy with a childhood spent sketching through undiagnosed dyslexia meets a Punjab-born force of nature who wandered in from Kapurthala with more chutzpah than a wedding baraat.

Neither of them had a design degree. As the duo themselves love to say, because we are not trained, anything is possible which, frankly, should be embroidered onto a cushion and sold at full retail.

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Mata Hari, the first boutique

Their first boutique, Mata Hari, opened in 1986 and was an instant hit. By 1989 they'd skipped the ‘humble beginnings, small local following’ montage entirely and gone straight to Harvey Nichols, Harrods, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman.

Three years in, global department stores, some designers wait a lifetime for a single rack at Bergdorf's; AJSK basically strolled in like they owned the floor.

Not content with dressing people, they decided to dress buildings too, 1993 saw them enter luxury interiors, eventually creative-directing Mumbai airport.

The Chikankari renaissance

In 1994, after two years of what can only be described as textile archaeology, the duo launched their debut Chikan collection and published ‘Classic Chikan’, documenting how they resurrected a craft that was circling the drain.

This was two designers single-handedly hauling a centuries-old Lucknawi tradition back from the brink and handing it a couture-level comeback tour.

The global circuit because why stop at India

By 1999, Dame Judi Dench was wearing AJSK to the Oscars and BAFTAs, and Sophie Marceau was doing the same in a Bond film, because nothing says Indian craftsmanship has arrived like showing up next to 007.

2003 brought a National Award for ‘Devdas’ and a public-vote win on British TV's ‘Design Wars’, where they were up against actual architects and still walked away winners.

2007 gave the world Abu Sandeep, their occasion wear label, and Sarah Brown, then the British PM's better half wore AJSK for her entire India visit, bringing international press coverage.

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Muses, monoliths and mood

2012's silver jubilee arrived with ‘India Fantastique’, launched by Mr. Amitabh Bachchan in Mumbai, with Dame Judi Dench flying the flag at Sotheby's London.

The years that followed brought widening of the house's world, Beyoncé in AJSK for Coldplay's Hymn for the Weekend, Gwen Stefani at the Grammys, and in 2016, the launch of Asal, their contemporary occasion wear label.

Gulabo, their pret-à-porter line, followed in 2018, launched, out of a bungalow boutique in Goa.

In 2022, Reliance Brands Limited acquired a 51 percent stake in the label for a house on handwork. A year later, they returned to the runway in Mumbai for a showcase supporting the Cancer Patients Aid Association, presented archival pieces at the inaugural exhibition of the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre, opened new stores, and released The Return of the Muse, a documentary tracing their journey.

2024 brought Aikyam, a new logo on unity, balance and evolution and Jogi, a visual tribute to their lifelong relationship with music.

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2025 opened a museum-like flagship at Jio World Plaza designed by The Wonder Room because by now, shopping AJSK is practically a gallery visit with a billing counter.

Mubarak Baug celebrating with 40 candles

And so it happened. Forty years, two untrained visionaries, one revived craft, several Dames, a Beyoncé cameo, and enough zardozi to outfit a small kingdom, all converging last night at Mubarak Baug for an evening that delivered grandeur without an ounce of subtlety (and honestly, why start now).

Friends, collaborators, muses, believers, everyone who's ever slipped into an AJSK creation and felt thirty percent more legendary. It was the closest thing Indian fashion has seen to a coronation.

Forty years down. Judging by last night, the house of AJSK is nowhere near done.