Thigh’s the limit

A Valliyan presentation and performance show by Nitya Arora; (right) Thighlets seen at the Valliyan show

There is something called the Valliyan wink and a nod. When you are wearing a piece by jewellery designer Nitya Arora, you get recognised by other members of her community. Actually, you get recognised by pretty much everybody in the room or on the street. Enormous, unisex handmade pieces crafted from materials like acrylic, glass, semi-precious stones, copper and brass are equal parts disruptive and ballad of expression promoting inclusive values. This is activism on the body.

"Your jewellery is so camp, girl. We love it!" is constant feedback that Arora says she gets from the queer community. "Drag has always been a pastiche of mainstream contemporary culture. Drag is an expression on acid; it gives you a chance to transform yourself to whoever you want to be, where your emotions mutate into any shape and form. This larger-than-life spirit resonates with my jewellery."

Drag performer Glorious Luna wears Valliyan jewellery

So, it was only natural for Arora to pay homage to the community with her show called Valliyan 5.0 on day 3 of Lakmē Fashion Week x FDCI on Friday. She collaborated with Dragalactiq, a collective of queer performing artists, and drag performer Glorious Luna while excerpts from RuPaul's Drag Race (an American reality competition TV series featuring drag queens) played in the background at her conceptual presentation-cum-performance show.

The idea behind the jewellery range, she explains, was really to find a balance between nature and technology by looking to entomological creatures as its main character energy. Bees, beetles and butterflies have influenced figurative jewellery for well over a century. But not since the nature-obsessed Victorian-era - and the Art Nouveau period that followed it - have jewellery designers expressed curious interest in the tiny beings that crawl, fly and slither around us. "They might be tiny and insignificant but they are a large part of our ecosystem. They are an incredible, totemic species, full of beautiful and transformational energy… no insect represents metamorphosis better than the butterfly!" Arora tells mid-day.

Valliyan jewellery by Nitya Arora

But how exactly is your jewellery to perform this feat of transmutation, you ask? By going alt - in the sense of a challenge to the traditional, sometimes twee, aesthetic that tends to be default. "Thin, dainty jewellery is lost on me," admits Arora. Apart from her usual suspects including cuffs, bracelets, rings, earrings, necklaces and chokers, she introduced two new segments this season: thighlets or thigh chain jewellery, and headpieces. "If you are looking for a simple gold chain, I am probably not the designer for you as my jewellery is big, bold abstract pieces of art. Instead, I decided to challenge myself and came up with thighlets; thin gold, pearl-encrusted chains. Short shorts and minis are in fashion, and wearing thighlets is kind of cute, don't you think?"