Dj Kayan: ‘This performance, this visual story, is me’

Kayan’s figure-hugging outfits have become a staple of her performances

For Ambika Nayak aka Kayan, there is much more to a live performance than just soulful vocals. "The experience that I'm giving my audience," she says, "is not just my song, it's everything - it's the fashion, the lighting, the visuals."

Kayan, known for her smooth, genre-defying music, views her style as inextricable from her stage persona, but is always sure to allow room for evolution. Her current on-stage aesthetic - often characterised by black knee-high boots and custom-made outfits she describes as "figure hugging," is remarkably different from her previous style. "I have been performing on stage since 2018," she explains. "Before I became Kayan, I had a band called Kimochi Youkai. Back then, I was obsessed with Japanese culture and I used to perform in kimonos." Kayan later formed another band called Nothing Anonymous, and moved on from the Japanese-inspired look, choosing to dress in streetwear for her performances. She says, "I had a thing for wearing sports bras with tracks and boots."

However, when she began her solo career, she decided it was time for another rebrand. This style evolution can be traced back to 2021: her first performance as Kayan at NH7 in Pune. Divya Gursahani, Kayan's lead stylist for this event, says, "We wanted to do something that symbolised her rebirth as an artiste, so the outfit was inspired by Michelangelo's iconic painting of the Creation of Adam, which illustrates the Biblical creation narrative in which God gives life to Adam." The bodysuit, conceptualised by Gursahani and artist Sachin Bhatt, is embossed with a design of two hands reaching out towards each other. The ‘Cool Kids' singer says about her debut, "I wanted to do it in the best possible way. So that was the first time we had an outfit custom-made." Two years later, her custom-made fits are a staple of both her social media presence and her live performances.

The star also details the often chaotic process backstage of her live shows, describing how designer Kineri Shah was stitching her Lollapalooza outfit mere moments before the performance. "At Lollapalooza, Divya and Kineri had designed the outfits, and Kineri was stitching them. At one point, Kineri was stitching the outfits while they were literally on my body."

Shah, a self-taught fashion designer, often bases her ideas for Kayan's looks on "whether the performance is during the day or in the night". She says, "The first time I worked with her, it was for an indoor, night-time performance. I designed a corset with rhinestones, because we wanted the shimmer of her costume to bounce off the walls of the venue." Describing the impressive process behind hand-stitching this look, Shah adds, "There were 5000 rhinestones on that outfit, and I had five days to do it. My partner and I stayed up all night, stitching, taking measurements, sampling, and making the underwire for the corset."

Despite considering comfort and aesthetics as essential factors in designing her onstage looks, Kayan emphasises that her outfits are, first and foremost, a way of her communicating with her audience. She tells mid-day, "I know that I can sing the same songs in a T-shirt and jeans and people will love it nonetheless, but I don't want to settle for that. Maybe someday I'll want to strip everything back and it will just be me performing with a guitar. But right now, I'm in a phase where this performance, this visual story, is me."