New Delhi, Aug. 1 -- Over 10 people sat cross-legged, almost like props, on the stairs built into the grand set of JJ Valaya's show, which closed the India couture week on 30 July in Delhi. Models and celebrities, including Rasha Thadani, Ibrahim Ali Khan and cricketer Abhishek Sharma, sashayed in front of them, and the guests, wearing elaborate lehngas, sherwanis and kurtas. Not once in those 30 minutes did those individuals, dressed in plain saffron saris and monastic robes, open their eyes. They sat there in what seemed to be a meditative state.

For those whose eyes were open, those 30 minutes were moments of sensory overload-varieties of red, floor-sweeping hair braids and multi-tiered gowns, veils that ended at the chin​​...