10 May,2026 12:06 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Priyanka Chopra (PR curated image)
For the Gold House Gala in New York City, marking 25 years of Priyanka Chopra Jonas on the global stage, Amit Aggarwal envisioned a custom couture look that honoured heritage through a contemporary lens. Created in collaboration with stylist Ami Patel, the piece emerged from a shared intention to create something deeply personal to Priyanka's roots while reflecting the evolution of Indian craftsmanship on an international platform.
Being from Uttar Pradesh India, it felt deeply meaningful for Priyanka Chopra Jonas to champion a craft intrinsically tied to her origins. The starting point became Chikankari, the historic embroidery tradition native to Lucknow, celebrated for its fragility, translucence and quiet strength. The way light passes through Chikankari feels symbolic of Priyanka herself, someone constantly evolving, transcending boundaries, and carrying Indian identity onto the global stage.
At the heart of the ensemble was a two-decade-old sari, reworked and reimagined into couture through months of intricate craftsmanship. Carrying forward a textile already embedded with memory and history added an emotional depth to the garment, transforming it into something deeply personal and generational.
Over one and a half months, women artisans across generations came together to embroider the textile entirely by hand. The creation is a tribute to the women who continue to preserve and evolve India's textile legacy. Every surface of the garment carried the dedication, precision and lived craftsmanship of the women who brought it to life.
The inspiration bridges heritage, biomimicry and contemporary design through the intricate geometry of Mughal jalis, reinterpreted alongside parametric architecture. Rooted in the spiralling structure of the human DNA helix, the narrative reveals how both historical ornamentation and modern forms emerge from the same natural intelligence embedded within life itself.
At the centre of each embroidered ogee motif, radiating forms unfolded outward like sunrays, creating movement, luminosity, and energy across the garment. The intricate structural embroidery layered onto the soft translucency of Chikankari created a dialogue between delicacy and strength, transforming the textile into something both ethereal and architectural through sculptural corsetry, rubber cord detailing, glass beadwork, and industrial materials.
The ivory palette and radiating embroidery evoked an ethereal sense of luminosity, embodying rarity, resilience, and grace. The fragility of the textile contrasted against strong architectural forms created a powerful dichotomy between softness and strength, mirroring the spirit of both the craft and the women who brought it to life.
It becomes a celebration of craftsmanship and heritage, where tradition is reinterpreted through a contemporary global lens and brought together by Amit Aggarwal as a dialogue between tradition and modernity, softness and structure, memory and innovation. Amit said, "Designing for Priyanka Chopra Jonas on the occasion of Gold Gala, her being honoured for 25 years in cinema was a reflection of creation that has unfolded with purpose and translates it into craft, form and emotion. Her journey is not defined by milestones alone, but the way she has continuously expanded her traditional roots and takes the world over. I felt compelled to translate that spirit into something tactile, where craft becomes language and textile becomes memory. Working with the artisans, every thread of Chikankari carried the weight of tradition, while every materiality and form integrated into a contemporary dialogue. For Priyanka, the translucency of the textile juxtaposed with the strength of structure embodies a dichotomy that exists within all of us, softness and resilience coexisting simultaneously and ultimately creating a truly remarkable ensemble that reflects both her journey and spirit."
