That Cool Girl from India
How Diya Joukani, a self-taught streetwear designer from Mumbai, is providing a new global blueprint.
- Written by: Shona Sanzgiri
- Photography by: Simone Gandhi
If you’ve spent any time on Instagram in the last few months, you’ve almost certainly seen her: a young, stylish, slightly detached young Indian woman with waist-length black hair making quick work of a cup of chai or a steel plate of food before getting up to dap a rickshaw driver and stroll down the middle of a busy Mumbai street in a matching embroidered vest and denim, all to the sounds of Frank Ocean’s “Nights.”
Or maybe the video you saw has her leading a goat down an alleyway to Esdeekid, drinking out of a coconut, dismounting to skateboard while being pulled by a rickshaw, or, somewhat alarmingly, climbing inside a forklift — like a model on a makeshift runway, except the runways are the sidewalks of stylish neighborhoods of Bandra and crowded local trains, and she’s also the one making the clothing.
That’s 25-year-old Diya Joukani, a self-taught streetwear designer whose street-style videos have become a fixture on social media and centered India, however fleetingly, in a global fashion conversation. The videos have spawned legions of imitators — the cool girl from Egypt, the cool girl from Kazakhstan, the cool boy in Brazil — each offering their own spin on Joukani’s digital postcard: a voyeuristic glimpse of daily life that doubles as a new grammar of place.
Not everyone is convinced. The contrast between Joukani’s clothes — most priced between $150 and $400 — and the working-class Mumbai that gives her videos their texture has drawn criticism that daily life is being aestheticized as marketing collateral. It’s a fair read. But the point obscures an uglier current: the reflexive xenophobia directed at South Asians online, where "authenticity" policing and outright contempt have a way of arriving together.
Seeing India in this way, unvarnished even if mediated through fashion and commerce comes as something of a surprise, especially to washed diasporic Indian Americans like me. And the sold-out collections, recent Nike collaboration, and co-sign from Rihanna suggest she’s tapping into something. Just what? We asked.
Shona Sanzgiri
Diya Joukani
You said you always wanted to make clothes—what finally pushed you to start?
There were so many clothes that I thought should be in the world, but they weren’t there yet. I kept talking to my friends like, should I do this? And they were like, girl, just fucking do it. So I woke up one morning and started watching YouTube videos about pattern making and the whole process behind clothes. I literally made my first jacket off a tutorial and loved it straight away.
How long did that first jacket take?
Three weeks — which is insane to think about now, because I could knock out two jackets in a day if I really tried. That first one, I did completely on my own. I used my friend’s sewing machine, but that was it.
Your work has such a strong lineage—embroidery that evokes the Mughal era. Do you see yourself as part of that tradition, or are you doing something different?
More than anything, the reason I use traditional embroidery and Indian artisanal techniques is because there’s so much talent in my city and my country. My whole team is just so incredibly skilled, and there’s so much knowledge here that the rest of the world doesn’t know about. In terms of making and designing clothes, we’re actually so far ahead — and we always have been. I just want to shine a light on that in my own way.
Can you talk about some of those specific techniques?
All my fabrics, except for a little Japanese velvet denim, are spun here in India. Beyond embroidery, we use block printing, and the sewing techniques are all local — including methods from the fishermen’s villages in Bombay. The knots, the ties, everything. It’s all very rooted in place.
We’ve gotta talk about the videos. But let’s thread the needle with the clothes a bit. They show the studio, the people at work. As the brand scales, how do you make sure the people making the clothes stay visible?
I have them all kitted out and with me. It’s really just not about me — they’re the coolest people I’ve ever met in my whole life. My platform is about showing love to my city and my people and bringing everyone up with me. That’s the intention, that’s the goal.
You were born and raised in Mumbai. How does the city manifest in the clothes?
We are very loud people. The culture is loud. The clothes are loud. Everything we do is shiny, everything is glamorous. I took the best parts of that. Mumbai is all about the energy — it’s the City of Dreams. I wanted to take the loudness of traditional Indian clothes, all the shine and the diamonds, and put that energy into my work. Capture the whole feel of the city within the clothes, and then walk around wearing it.
What’s the reaction been like on the streets?
The way the videos really started was I was filming a regular fit check — my phone was up, I was doing a spin — and people just came out asking what I was doing. I’d say I’m filming a video, I made these clothes. And they’d ask if they could be in the next one. So I’d say of course, come through. People here are just so forthcoming and so warm. Every time I’m walking down the street, people come up and say they love what I’m doing. It feels really natural. I don’t know any other city where the energy is what it is here.
What is it about Mumbai specifically that creates that energy?
India is the most hospitable country in the world. You meet someone, you go to their house — people offer you water, food. We just take care of each other. The city runs in total chaos — the whole city’s under construction, there are cars broken down everywhere — but there are always just people helping each other. That’s at the core of what this city is.
What is the fashion scene like in Mumbai right now? Are there other designers making interesting work?
The Indian fashion scene is incredible, especially Bandra—I’d compare it to Soho or Hackney in East London. There’s a growing thrift and vintage scene, which I personally love. I draw a lot of my inspiration from vintage archive fashion, so it’s cool to see people tapping into that. There used to be a real stigma in India around secondhand clothes, but my generation is tearing that down. And there are so many boutiques, so many little brands — every single one has people supporting them. The economy of it is really moving here.
The amount of craft in these pieces isn’t always obvious from the videos. What do you want people to understand about the work that goes into them?
In the videos you see the clothes so quickly, but there’s so much detail and thought behind every single piece. There are at minimum 100,000 beads on every jacket — and that’s a minimum. Each bead: you take it, put it on the needle, push the needle through the fabric. 100,000 times. That’s really what’s going on here. It’s slow, it’s intentional, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. Stitching a jacket I can do in a day, but embroidery is three to five days per piece.
What’s your design process like?
There’s really no one else involved. I’ll literally wake up in the middle of the night and think, I want to make this jacket, and then I make it. I feel like so many designers have this long formal design process — I just don’t do that. It’s completely instinct-based.
How is the line expanding? What’s coming next?
There’s going to be a lot of collections this year, a lot of pop-ups, runways. We’re going to take India to the rest of the world and bring the rest of the world to India. And today I can give you a little sneak peek — jackets, bags, belts, shoes. All of it coming very soon.
That first video blew up — the rickshaw video. Were you shocked?
I knew it was going to blow up. As soon as we made it I was like, yeah, this is dope. I didn’t expect it to blow up quite as much as it did, but I knew something was coming. What actually shocked me was how little people knew about India. That was the most surprising part. I’ve had the best kind of trajectory a brand could hope for in such a short amount of time.
How did you decide what to include in the videos?
I don’t decide — I quite literally just go outside. I’m going about my day, going from place to place, and what you’re seeing is what’s literally happening right in front of me. I’m just inserting myself into it. It’s the coolest city in the world.
Have any of those businesses blown up? Like the chai spot?
Oh my god, yes. I can’t even really go to the chai place anymore, there are always people filming there. But shout out Auntie G and Uncle G — they make the best chai, and now they’re popping. A few places have blown up: the Gandhi juice stall, that sugar cane juice. There’s a tiny dhaba where I always eat at the start of one video — I can’t film there anymore either. But that’s what it’s really about. It’s more than just the clothes; it’s the whole community. We all go up together.
How do you feel about all the imitation videos — the cool girl in Beirut, the cool girl in Kingston?
Valid. We’ve got cool girls all over the world. I love seeing what’s going on everywhere — every culture is on display. That’s truly all I could ever hope for. The whole world is being educated on everyone else’s culture just because I made some clothes and decided to walk around in them. That’s insane. I’m just so grateful.
Pharrell did that embroidered hoodie for Louis Vuitton and you commented on it, saying it was collective consciousness. Do you feel like you need to protect your vision?
Just because I have an idea doesn’t mean Pharrell can’t have the same idea. It actually just made me feel good — like me and Pharrell are really tapped in. And look, you guys can try, but you will never be me. Above the influence — Nike said it already.
You said Mumbai is slept on. What does the world keep getting wrong about it?
People outside India probably just think: yoga, food, music, saris. Not much deeper thought than that. But we’ve got really cool cities out here. There’s a lot going on. Everyone should know about it. Come to India, man.
What do you want people who grew up in Mumbai to feel when they see your work?
Proud. That’s it. And they are — I feel like I’ve got my whole city and my whole country standing behind me. My heart is too full, man.
Where do you draw inspiration from outside of India?
Music is my next love after fashion. A lot of my inspiration comes from there. And vintage archive fashion — a lot of European fashion from way back. Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Tom Ford for Gucci. Those are my main ones. For younger designers, Pharrell at Louis is absolutely incredible. I love Martine Rose, Wales Bonner — they’re bringing something really fresh.
Music is such a central part of the videos too. Can you talk about what you’re listening to?
Everyone’s tapped in here, man. You don’t have to be in New York or London to be doing all that anymore. Indian hip-hop is going crazy right now — Divine, AP Dhillon, Diljit Dosanjh. They’ve got massive international audiences. And yeah, I’m ready for collaborations. Those are my people.
Social media seems pretty central to how you work — you met your manager through Instagram. Could you imagine doing this without it?
I’m happy we have the Internet, but I’d still be okay without it. What I love about it is that before, you had to live in one of the fashion capitals — New York, London, Paris, Milan. You don’t need to do that anymore. As long as you’ve got vision and you stay true to what you’re doing and come to yourself for inspiration rather than looking outside too much, you can have a brand from anywhere.
What do your parents make of all of this?
They’re really proud, really happy for me, and so supportive. I’d be nervous to post something sometimes and my parents would be like, come on girl, do your thing. I’m really blessed that they’re that way.
Shona Sanzgiri is a writer, editor, and photographer in L.A. He is the author of “A Time of Gifts,” a newsletter loosely about travel and living well.
- Written by: Shona Sanzgiri
- Photography by: Simone Gandhi
- Date: April 29, 2026
