011: Walking on Air: Jay Jajal on Integrating Art and Fashion, Honing Entrepreneurial Instinct and Mastering Community Engagement
⌛ 6 MINUTES
Given his father’s 27 years-old retail garment business and his mother’s affinity for textiles, Jay Jajal, the creative brain behind the Indian streetwear label Jaywalking, always intended to follow their legacy — albeit in his own way.
Jaycrawling: The Start of Something Big
“I always knew myself to be an art guy.” Jay Jajal had always wanted to build a self-sustained business that allowed him to bring his passion for art to life — and so he did just that. “In a country like India, the best way to monetise art is by putting it on a garment.” What kind of garment? Made-to-measure. “My mom would buy grown-ass man pants and chop them down into half to create the perfect fit for her child and that became my aesthetic. Wearing original garments that no one else had became part of my natural style,” says Jajal.
A dropout from several noteworthy design colleges including Parsons and London College of Fashion, the realisation that he wanted to start something of his own hit Jay quite early on. Even during his time at college, he claims to have learnt more from his peers than the curriculum itself. Instead of devoting years into something he could learn by himself, Jajal decided to employ his instinct for business and follow through on his goal of starting his brand. With access to an abundant force of skilled kaarigars in India and remarkable clarity of vision to boot, Jajal established streetwear brand Jaywalking.
Staying True to His Craft and Being a Customer-Centric Brand
From being featured on ‘HighSnobiety’ to having Ranveer Singh sport his garments within a few months of the brand launch, Jay Jajal has clearly made a mark for himself in the global street-wear scene. Jajal defines streetwear as “everything you wear out of choice— all else is a uniform.”
Jaywalking has seen rapid growth in the one and a half years since its establishment. Being the sole homegrown streetwear brand to be covered by ‘HIGHSNOBIETY’ creates its own set of expectations altogether, and Jajal understands the onus of representing India on a global level. However, he ensures that the ‘Indianness’ does not dilute his sharp design sensibilities and aesthetic; shoving ethnicity into his garments to peddle an “Indian-origin label” doesn’t hold water with a designer who’s more interested in staying true to his craft. Firmly of the belief that collaboration is key, Jajal shares his disgruntlement over the fact that good, groundbreaking fashion collabs hardly materialise in India.
Nonetheless, the response to Jaywalking in India has been heartening. Within a year and a half, Jaywalking has not only built a following amongst street-style enthusiasts but has also gained visible celeb attention with bigwigs bidding for his one-off pieces. While he views celebrities wanting to wear his pieces as an achievement, Jajal follows a strictly no-sourcing policy. He believes that with the modern consumers being a highly savvy and well- informed lot, it takes more than an endorsement from Bollywood to get loyal customers — something he prioritises.
Jay at Work: Bringing the Vision to Life
Jajal confesses that drawing, in the conventional sense, is probably not his strong suit — but his vision and ideas more than compensate for it. At the end of the day, he is able to bring unique, creative ideas to fruition — a characteristic which speaks volumes about his creative prowess.
More of a go-with-the-flow kind of guy, Jajal’s constantly evolving his brand and chooses not to fixate on a particular niche. To him, naming a particular aesthetic would be akin to attaching a forced meaning to it. “Why I drew a lady on the jacket or a dog on my upcoming collection — I won’t have an answer.” Letting his hand flow on paper and make what comes to him in the moment — that’s the only way to be true to himself.
Once Jajal starts work on a garment, he wants it to be finished as soon as possible. “The only way to create original garments is to have an original inspiration.” Tapping into himself as the original source while making his own creations, he lets his natural, creative faculties take over. It’s a bit of a spontaneous process: post sketching out his ideas on paper, Jay proceeds to straight-up pick a fabric for the garment and send it for cutting, constantly drawing all the while until the final product is ready. Over the course, his design methodology has remained consistent, but the techniques have metamorphosed. “My art has matured and sensibilities have evolved, but my mind is the same.”
Jajal consciously keeps his end customer in mind when designing garments. The very idea behind the apparel that Jajal produces is so the consumer feels brand new. “Everytime you go out shopping, a conscious decision to change yourself is involved.” Jajal’s creations are also an extension of his taste. As he puts it, “The only things I make, are ones that I’d want in my own wardrobe. To me, that’s the only way your brand can have a consistent language.”
With his lightning approach, does Jajal face creative blocks? Ever so often. The self-inflicted pressure to constantly create new things can be stifling. At such times, uplifting messages from his loyal community of followers are more than enough to propel him out of any nihilistic clouds.
A Jack of Many Trades
Leading a business as somewhat of a one-man army has not been an easy feat. Jajal is the founder, designer, communication specialist all rolled into one. Jajal especially enjoys working on aspects of community, social messaging and so on. From his experience, it is the engagement more than the products that drives the brand and excites the audience. But despite having a special affinity for it, Jajal understands that staying engaged all the time isn’t a mark of how well you connect with your audience, nor is it realistic: “No one’s going to be thinking of you 24x7, and that’s normal, and that’s fine.”
Jaywalking’s Insta-feed is chicken soup for the street-style lover’s soul. Right from uniform jackets, quirky paint-splattered pieces and bowling shirts to the absolute streetwear essentials, cargo pants— each piece is coloured with Jay’s own vision. Not wanting a face to drive attention away from the apparel, Jajal chooses to go for a no-face style of photography to showcase his garments. Driven by a ‘design and display instantly’ approach, Jajal likes to make his creations public the very same day that he creates them.
Jay mildly counters the belief that a traditional design school route is essential to starting a fashion label; as long as one has the resources and the will and grit to hustle their way up, a design degree is not needed. Maintaining authenticity is imperative to earning respect and scaling up your brand; Jajal recommends taking inspiration from a primary source which is often yourself. Clarity of vision is another big one, and Jay considers himself lucky to have had it from the start. “I had the confidence to be independent from day one.” Having built a solid brand in just one and a half years, Jajal divulges the biggest determinant: “If you take joy in doing something, that’s when you can follow it through to the end.” Any other words of wisdom for those starting out in the business of fashion? Jay says, “You can write a book about it but I think doing and learning is the only answer. It’s about doing. No one can tell you how to start, that’s completely on you.”
An artist and a rapper on top of being a designer, Jay is a man of many talents, and believes that all his abilities have contributed to building what Jaywalking is: “The day you want to do something, all the information gathered consciously, subconsciously, over the years, comes together.” Having recently launched the website, a range of reasonably priced merchandise is next on the cards for Jajal. Now that Jay Jajal has established himself as a whole different brand name, having a piece of his merchandise in their wardrobe is perhaps something most will be looking forward to.
As we reach the end of the episode, we sign off with some rapid 🔥 questions. Get the popcorn and start reading!
