Sureena Chowdhri’s Mayajaal Transforms Velvet Into A Living Story

Some fabrics seem to carry memory. Velvet, for instance, has long been the keeper of ceremonies–regal, traditional, and heavy with meaning. But in Mayajaal, designer Sureena Chowdhri invites us to see it differently. What if velvet could breathe? What if it could move with lightness and tell stories beyond grandeur?

This new collection doesn’t just revisit the textile that has come to define the label; it transforms it. With Mayajaal, Sureena Chowdhri turns velvet into a metaphor for illusion, transformation, and the beauty that lies between what is seen and what is felt.

Over the years, the label has earned national recognition for its signature velvets, worn by celebrities like Alia Bhatt, Kiara Advani, Gauri Khan, Preity Zinta, and Zeenat Aman. 

A Mirage Comes To Life

Set against the endless dunes of Jodhpur, Mayajaal unfolds like a mirage. It is a poetic exploration of the Vedic idea of māyā that symbolises a shifting dance between perception and truth. The campaign imagines a dreamscape where nothing is quite what it seems.

Actor and musician Saba Azad becomes the central figure in this visual fable, a wanderer suspended between the real and the imagined. Dressed in jewel-toned velvets, she drifts through a cinematic desert, encountering echoes of spirits and memory. 

Conceptualised entirely in-house, the campaign’s art direction is both surreal and grounded in Indian symbolism. A handcrafted toy stand, a beaded veil, and a tree adorned with framed portraits—each prop is a familiar emblem of Indian ceremony, reimagined through a modern, dreamlike lens. Filmed entirely at night, the campaign exudes subtle intensity, as moonlight hits the velvet and turns it liquid.

The Cinema Of Craft

For the brand, storytelling isn’t just an aesthetic choice; it’s the language through which fashion finds emotion.

“The Sureena Chowdhri community has grown exponentially over the years, and most of our audience now lives on Instagram,” says Govind Chowdhri, Co-Founder & CEO. “Viewers today engage with fashion the way they do with film; they expect emotion and storytelling. This campaign reflects that shift, and our intent to evolve with it.”

That cinematic language carries through to the collection itself. In Mayajaal, zardozi, often associated with the ornate and ceremonial, takes on a more sculptural form. Threads of soft metallics and gemstone accents pulse gently against velvet’s lush surface. The embroidery feels almost alive–shimmering, but never shouting.

The silhouettes reinterpret Indian classics with a confident restraint. There’s a structured velvet jacket with sharara, kaftans reimagined in fluid cuts, a scalloped saree, lehenga paired with cropped jacket, and anarkali layered under a tailored waistcoat. Some of the pieces take over 500 hours of hand-embroidery, a testament to the label’s commitment to slow, meticulous craftsmanship.

“Mayajaal reflects a moment of clarity for us,” says Sureena Chowdhri, Co-Founder & Creative Director. “We’ve moved from experimenting with velvet to expressing through it—using fabric as a way to tell stories of perception, craft, and continuity.”

Between fashion and feeling

In a landscape where Indian occasion wear often leans on excess, Mayajaal feels lush yet quiet, traditional yet modern. At its heart, it is about perception; how every woman carries her own version of reality, her own mirage.

Through Mayajaal, Sureena Chowdhri once again proves why her work stands apart in India’s evolving design landscape. It’s not fashion chasing trends; it’s fashion in conversation with emotion, identity, and the stories we tell through what we wear. 

In Sureena Chowdhri’s world, fabric is never just fabric. It’s a mirror, a metaphor, and sometimes, a little bit of magic.