Panther: Wakanda Forever
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
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.