It’s Diya’s duniya and we’re just living in it

Name: Diya Joukani

Age: 25

Profession: Founder and designer, DiyaDiya Studio

Location: Mumbai, India

Why you should know her: There’s a good chance you’ve spotted Diya on your feed already. Walking a goat in the gullies of Mumbai. Snacking at a local establishment. Cradling a chicken. Riding a horse or a JCB 2DX backhoe loader, depending on the day. All this, in a sick jacket and jeans. Her embroidered casual pieces (think aari, zardozi and cutdana work on jackets, embellishments on selvedge denim) sell out before her reels ever reach you. “I just want to show Indian talent to the rest of the world in a way that’s not been showcased before. Mumbai has the best energy in the world,” she says. “I feel like we’re so slept on, but actually so ahead in terms of fashion and culture. I just want to shed light on what we’re really doing here in my own way.”

She started off as a stylist: “I started off in fashion working the shop floor at vintage designer stores. Customers would tell me, ‘I love the way you blend Indian culture with Western clothing,’ and in general compliment my style. One day, someone asked me to style them, and I was so shy. I was like, ‘Wait, style? I don’t know about that.’ So, I started off really small with just my friends. A lot of them are up and coming artists in the music scene, so I would style album covers and music videos for them while still working retail. But I always knew I wanted to make clothes, so I was like, what if I just made the clothes? I wanted to wear a jacket, so I randomly made a jacket one day—the first piece I ever made—and got so much love on it right away.

I did made-to-order pieces for a year and a half at home and using my friends’ studios. And then it just blew up. It’s been only a month since I launched my website and got my own studio, so it’s all really fresh, really new. I’m just so grateful for all the love people are showing the clothes and how quickly resonated with the world. It’s all I could dream for.”

What she studied at university: “I studied International Relations and Politics in New Zealand because I wanted to work at the UN. I wanted to save the world type shit and I just started making clothes instead. But we still will save the world. We have to, but one thing at a time.”

Her north-star designers: “I’m super inspired by archival and vintage fashion. I look back to what John Galliano, Jean-Paul Gaultier, Rei Kawakubo, and Tom Ford at Gucci did. These are the kind of people who inspire me rather than what’s actually happening in the fashion scene today. But yeah, I would say if someone inspired me the most in the world, it would be Pharrell Williams. After Virgil, it’s just incredible to see where he’s taken LV. He did a green puffer jacket that was heavily embroidered on the hood [spring/summer 2026], and I was like, “Pharrell, low-key, I did that before you. But collective consciousness you know, we tapped in.” It was so sick and really motivating to see something similar to what I’m doing but on such a huge scale.

You gonna see a Louis Vuitton X DiyaDiya collab before you know, just let me cook. A lot of international brands in general are drawing inspiration from India and I’m so here for it.”

On not having a creative ritual: “I’m a very chaotic person, but before I go to sleep I sketch stuff and form a vague opinion about it. I either like it or I hate it. Then, I’ll wake up in the middle of the night, make changes, and decide, okay, this is lit, or this is an absolute flop. And then I come to the studio around 10 in the morning and make it. Sometimes, I’ll make a piece, post a video, and release it the same day. We’re growing very, very fast—there are new people every single day. But I will say I got so lucky because I genuinely have the best team in the world. They’re so patient with me and they’re just like, whatever you need, we’re with you, and we’re doing it. The universe really blessed me.

I literally sketched my website on my iPad on Procreate in 10 minutes flat. I try not to think too deep about what I do and just go off instinct. Obviously, there’s lots of thought behind everything I do, but I feel like if you have an idea, just do it, you know? What are you waiting for? The photos on the website are all shot on my iPhone because I don’t have a massive budget. It’s literally a white chadar, and I’m just taking photos on top of that.”

On her viral reels: “I leave my house in the morning, go drink chai, get my denim fabric, then I take it for washing. In between that I’ll see, like, 20 things happen, so I literally just stop on the road and I film whatever I see. There are goats near my studio, so I take a walk with the goats. No comments on the bulldozer. Some secrets I just gotta keep. But shout-out to the JCB bhaiya—that’s all I’m gonna say. It’s literally just real stuff that’s happening all the time in Bombay. The best part is that people are genuinely just so supportive and show so much love. I’m walking around the neighbourhood and people come up to me like, ‘Let’s make a video, we’ll make a video.’ It’s just very cute and I just find it very natural and easy to do.”

On the best street food in Mumbai: “I’m always running from one place to another, so this is genuinely what I’m eating every single day. The best cutting chai in Bombay is by this auntie near Khar station. She puts extra adrak and that shit just wakes me up. Other than that, I’m obsessed with vada sambar right now. The most annoying thing about my videos is I get comments like ‘You just ate one bite and walked away, finish your food.’ I didn’t know acting was a new concept to so many people—I eat all of it! God forbid a girl just films a little video.”

Her future drops may look different: “I love what I’m known for, but these are early days. There are so many different directions I’m gonna go in. Every season, you’re gonna see something completely new. I just feel it’s important to be able to pivot in fashion and be true to yourself.”

What’s next for DiyaDiya Studio: “There’s gonna be runways, there’s gonna be pop-ups, there’s gonna be stores all over the world. The most important thing for us right now is our community—that’s what’s gonna be at the front of it. You’re gonna be seeing a lot of me everywhere. It’s Diya’s duniya, you know?”