Payal Jain\’s Journey: From FIDM California to Delhi\’s Fashion Pioneer
Payal Jain is a Delhi-based couture designer who returned to India in the early 1990s, at a time when the country\'s fashion industry had no fashion week circuit or organized retail to support new designers. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in California, she built her atelier from scratch, working directly with weavers and artisans to shape a design philosophy centered on restraint, timelessness, and craft. This piece traces her journey from Delhi to FIDM and back, and how that formative period continues to shape her design approach three decades later.