Diya Joukani Makes Combining Indian Craft and Streetwear Effortless and Cool

Diya Joukani is a Mumbai-based self-taught designer and the founder of DiyaDiya, a label known for bringing intricate Indian embroidery and embellishment into modern, streetwear-inspired pieces.

It’s easy to see why Diya Joukani has become a fashion girl to watch. Her clothes are bold, her styling is unmistakable, and her videos have the kind of effortless energy that makes you want to know where everything she is wearing came from. But look a little closer at the clothes and there is a more interesting story.

Through her brand, DiyaDiya, Joukani takes Indian craft particularly embroidery, beading and embellishment and works it into oversized silhouettes and casual pieces. The result doesn’t feel like traditional Indian wear recreated for a younger audience. It feels like Indian craft becoming part of modern dressing in its own right, which even makes her work hard to miss.

Joukani’s relationship with fashion started long before her brand DiyaDiya. According to her recent i-D interview, she grew up in a large Sindhi family where getting dressed was almost a competitive sport. Her parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were all stylish, and clothes were a big part of the family’s self-expression.

Joukani developed her own relationship with fashion early, often finding ways to make her clothes different. At school, where uniforms were strictly prescribed, she would alter the rules in small ways. If her skirt was supposed to reach her knees, hers would be shorter. If she was expected to wear blue socks, she would turn up in pink, to the point teachers would ask her: “Do you think this is a fashion show? and she would say: “Yes, actually.”

It is a small story, but it says a lot about the designer she would become. Even as a child, Joukani wasn’t particularly interested in wearing clothes exactly as they were meant to be worn. She wanted to make them her own.

Indian Craft, But Make It Street Wear 

The most interesting thing about DiyaDiya is how naturally Joukani brings Indian craft into clothes that don’t immediately read as traditional Indian wear.

Her designs combine modern streetwear with techniques like Aari and Zardozi, two forms of Indian hand embroidery. Aari uses a specialised hooked needle to create fine chain-stitch patterns, while Zardozi is known for intricate metallic embroidery, traditionally using gold or silver threads alongside other embellishments.

Joukani takes these detailed techniques and places them on relaxed, contemporary silhouettes, creating pieces that can feel just as at home on the streets of Mumbai as they do within a conversation about Indian craftsmanship. The craft is detailed; the clothes are casual and that contrast is central to her appeal.

Instead of treating embroidery and embellishment as something reserved for weddings, celebrations or formal occasions, Joukani places them in the middle of everyday dressing. A heavily worked jacket can be worn with loose trousers. Embroidery can become the focal point of a hoodie, shirt or pair of jeans. The cultural reference doesn’t disappear; it simply exists in a different context.

She Took a Bet on Herself and Learned the Craft From Scratch

Before her brand DiyaDiya, Joukani spent time working in fashion in London, including at Kenzo and vintage stores, where she developed her eye through styling and working with clothes. But eventually, she realised that what she was working with did not fully reflect what she wanted to express. So she left London and returned to Mumbai and started making clothes. That decision eventually led to the birth of her brand DiyaDiya.

Joukani’s interest in clothing eventually moved beyond styling it. She wanted to understand how to make it herself. She began teaching herself the basics of sewing through YouTube tutorials before returning to Mumbai and seeking out masterjis, experienced tailors who could teach her sewing, cutting and pattern-making. It took some persistence. According to an interview she had with i-D, several tailor shops initially laughed her out because they were not used to a young woman from Bandra turning up and asking to learn the trade. Eventually, one masterji agreed to teach her. He later became head of production for DiyaDiya.

That process matters because the finished clothes can look incredibly spontaneous online. They aren’t. The embroidery and embellishment require hours of work, with some pieces taking days to complete. The ease of the final look hides the patience required to make it. And that is perhaps one of the most compelling things about DiyaDiya: the clothes look like something Joukani could casually throw on, even when they have taken days to create.

The Hard Work Behind the Cool Girl Effect

There is an irony to Joukani’s rise. The internet rewards speed. Her clothes demand patience. A TikTok video can make her look like she has casually wandered out of the house in a spectacularly embroidered jacket. But behind that effortless look are days of cutting, sewing, beading and handwork. In an interview with SSENSE, Joukani says “the embroidery alone can take three to five days per piece, while some jackets feature at least 100,000 beads, each individually worked into the fabric”. For some of her more heavily embellished pieces, that number can reach 300,000 to 500,000 beads. The embroidery can take three to five days, followed by about a day for stitching and another half day for buttoning.

Her own learning curve tells the story of that labour. Joukani’s first jacket took her three weeks to make after she taught herself through a YouTube tutorial. With experience, she says she eventually became fast enough to make two jackets in a day. That contrast is what makes DiyaDiya unique. The clothes can look spontaneous and playful on screen, but the craft behind them is anything but. Joukani has figured out how to make painstaking Indian craftsmanship feel like cool-girl dressing without stripping away the labour that gives it meaning.

The Interesting Story Behind Her Rise

What makes DiyaDiya interesting goes beyond the clothes. Joukani shows how looking to where you come from can give you more to work with, not less. She takes Indian craft and reworks it into the kind of modern pieces she actually wants to wear. She also presents them differently. On TikTok, there are no elaborate sets or forced fashion backdrops. She simply wears her clothes around the streets of Mumbai, letting everyday life become part of the story.

With DiyaDiya, Joukani isn’t just bringing Indian craft into modern wear; she’s showing how your roots can become a starting point for creating something distinctly your own.