Having the opportunity to collaborate with the only woman of colour to have won an Academy Award for Best Costume Design is indeed a moment of pride, and more so when it is for a Hollywood project. Trust couturier JJ Valaya for doing complete justice while designing costumes for Queen Ramonda in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever where he collaborated with Hollywood costume designer Ruth Carter. Valaya calls it a joint process where the design element of the east came from him and the west came from Carter. While speaking to The Times of India, JJ Valaya shares his experience on collaborating for this big Hollywood blockbuster. Here's an excerpt.
1. Tell us about the collaboration, how did it materialise?
JJ Valaya: The association started a few years back when Ruth Carter's team sort of were looking for a partner in India who could you know work with them on creating clothes for Coming to America which was an Eddie Murphy starrer. They finally discovered us and that's how we got to work together. This is our second project in Hollywood and with Ruth Carter and this one of course is extremely special in more ways than one. We started work on this collection for nearly eight months, but it involved a lot of to and fro and a lot of R&D. We were working very closely with Ruth's Studio in Los Angeles and creating specialized fabrics, specialized techniques, design, prints and to make sure that the palette of the look and feel is very similar to the look and feel Ruth had in mind for the entire film.
2. Kindly share a bit more of insight around the selection process.
JJ Valaya: Well, you know, essentially, Black Panther is a movie where the only opportunity where one really gets to create the kind of clothes we do is for Queen Ramonda. The rest of the look is fairly futuristic or semi casual, But when it comes to Queen Ramonda, and especially in Wakanda Forever, where she is now the queen and she has to appear authoritative and take hardstands, it was very important to kind of reflect the character in that way. So we worked on 70 per cent of all of Queen Ramonda's looks in the film. The simpler pieces, I think there were two or three casual/ simpler pieces, were handled by Ruth herself out of LA. But we actually sat down and kind of worked in extreme detail on how to create the aura that the Queen needs when she's taking control of the kingdom.
3. What was the brief given to you, while creating Ramonda's pieces?
JJ Valaya: This was the joint process, the east came from us and west came from Ruth, it was a blissful harmony that the two of us could relate, respond and create something wonderful together. She is an absolutely fabulous costume designer, obviously she has won Oscars for this, she has her own star and walk of fame in LA, this itself speaks volume about her talent. But what surprising was as to how respectful she is, for me that makes a very big difference. She had a clear vision, clearly she has to follow the director, producer and the storyline of the film and then visualise everything, I mean putting together the number of costumes as she did is no easy task and then to trust me to kind of deliver on perhaps the most special outfits from the film, that in itself was very much humbling. The signature well, if JJ Valaya is involved in something obviously our signature gets carried forward and I think that's the signature that attracter her in the first place, so I don't think that we had to change too much from who we were and what we do but simply we had to adapt to a complete new world which is Wakanda to a fictional sort of journey which truly was a magnum opus.
How much time did it take for you to create all the looks?
JJ Valaya: Well, you know, Ruth Carter, besides being an extremely talented individual and obviously an Academy Award kind of validates that is also very warm, extremely welcoming and very respectful of the partner she chooses to work with. And as you know, unlike coming to America, she worked with several partners from across the world. But in Wakanda Forever, she's worked with only three design houses. And the other two, which is Iris Van Herpen and Airway Leisure, absolutely accomplished global brands, who I deeply respect. So we were very humbled to be included as a third brand. So the brief fashion design, costume design is a big difference because in fashion, we are preparing clothes for individuals and making them kind of feel good about their whole look. But when it comes to movies and costume design, you're talking about taking forward the vision of a director which then gets channelized into the costume designer and who then channelizes that into her partners who are working on them with her. So the initial brief and sketches and the look and feel, the mood boards came from LA. We then spend time studying them and developing textures, fabrics, colors which would be in sync with what she had in mind. And then, of course, prints came in and that required another study because we had to be culturally, historically and correct to some extent. Of course, it's fictional, but still, eventually, of course, we had to develop the craft. So it was a process by process driven, sort of initiative which took its time and sort of obviously, the results, I think, for all to see.
Did you get a chance to visit the sets and see the star cast of the movie?
Yes, all the clothes were made in our studios and factories and we started right from pattern making and then getting down to making the muslins an toiles which were then sent to LA for fittings. We got feedback, they were tweaked. We then start parallely developing the fabrics and the prints which again, there was a lot of to and fro involved. Eventually it came down to the craft where we used several processes but we made sure that every single product of ours is made in house so that we can maintain the quality parameters that one expects from us. Filming, of course, happened at various places and I don't think I'm the right person to comment on that but no, I was not there on set. Ruth's team handled everything.
