INSPIRED INDIAN HOME DECOR VS HIPPY CLICHE

Ok I'm guilty of it myself. Travelling to a hot exotic climate, stuffing my suitcase full of trinkets bought in a blur of colour and excitement, and then displaying my purchases proudly at home, sort of like the decor equivalent of lugging home a mounted animal head as bounty from a shoot.

Nothing wrong with collecting mementos, but when it comes to Indian design, it's so easy to stick to the shorthand of paisley pattern/mirror work/sari fabric/elephant motif. So far, so blah. I know this makes me sound like a right old judgemental bat, but whenever I read the words "Indian-inspired" in relation to home decor, I can pretty much tell you every element of the room. Yes there's a reason that the same old embroidered cushion covers or random batik scarves are bought so often - it feels like a quick way to get an Indian look. It's also boring as hell and, well, it's just so unstylish to mimic a look rocked by a thousand hippies before you. 

If you're in love with the Goa hippy chic look, though, then ignore me and go to it! As for me, I'd rather mix it up a little, both to make it more contemporary, but also to ensure that there's personality shining through in how it's styled.

The key to this distinctly non-blah look is to take the elements of Indian design and throw in something totally different. The framed Indian images in these images below from Elle Decor look super modern when set against a tomato red (Indian houses tend to have white walls so painting walls in bold colours immediately updates the look). Meanwhile, the room next to it has a definite Indian flavour but it's brought out more in rich Indian colours than in actual product design (though that dude on the cushion is definitely Indian - just check out the 'tache!).

Photo credit: Elle Decor

Polka dots work brilliantly here to off-set the more traditional coffee table and footstools.

Photo credit: Elle Decor

Photo credit: Elle Decor

If you don't love shocking blasts of colour, don't worry, Indian design really doesn't have to be as rainbow-hued as you might think from this blog. In this Calcutta apartment featured in Elle Decor, below, the unfinished plaster walls and ceramic plate display (both of which have a European rather than Indian flavour) merge beautifully with the more Indian vibe of the rest of the room.



Next up is a Bangalore apartment featured on lifestyle blog (one of my all-time favourites), Apartment Therapy. The place really makes my heart skip a happy little beat - it's stunning, Indian, and yet very contemporary at the same time. J'adore.

'NOR BLACK NOR WHITE' SPRING SALE

Ooh I do like a good bargain. Kooky fashion house NorBlack NorWhite have a spring sale on so scoot on over to their online shop right now to snap them up. Some of the super hawt stuff has sold out already, but these pretties below are still in stock. The thing I love most about their stuff is that they're a little mad but very wearable - I have no time for fashion lines that make anyone over 30 look like they've escaped a loony bin.

Green jumpsuit on sale for US$120, was US$240

Orange pantaloons US$160, was US$260

US$80, not technically on sale, but so pretty who cares?

Kimono, US$185

SHIRIN SAHBA

As a rule, I love design that packs a punch. Giant prints seem much more contemporary to me than the slightly old lady-ish delicate patterns. Indian-born painter Shirin Sahba has totally busted my preconceptions with her paintings that are like miniatures blown up. Sahba (who looks like a 1960s film star herself, check out pics of her below) and her husband have lived all over the world, and her art is inspired by places like Morocco, India and China, all of which have a long history of intricately detailed artwork. It's fitting that for her own apartment in Beijing, she commissioned an Indian miniature artist to draw an enormous painting that hangs over her bed. Check out more of her art here, and ogle her apartment here. If you want to buy her paintings, and I guarantee you'll covet most of them when you see them, email Shirin directly.

'Wanderlust grips the Maharani'

 

Shirin Sahba

Sahba's Beijing apartment, featured on Design Sponge.

MAPS BY PLAY CLAN

Indian design geniuses Play Clan created a quirky set of maps of Delhi for the Indian Design ID 2013 symposium held in Delhi last week (15 - 17 Feb). I challenge you to visit Play Clan's site and not want to buy most of their stock that has super hot stylised Indian imagery on it (plus they ship internationally, hurrah!). Even if you don't buy anything, their free e-cards (or as they put it a 'Greeting without Meeting') of Indian city maps are pretty adorable. My favourite is the watercolour vibe of the Kochi map.

PONDICHERRY, TAMIL NADU

KOCHI, KERALA

PUNE, MAHARASHTRA

MY BIG FAT INDIAN WEDDING

Things may get a little bridal on this blog as I'm getting married in July (squeal!). Don't worry, I don't have the bridezilla gene. If I have any virtues, it's that even in extreme pressure, my heart rate rarely goes over 65 (which came in handy when I was a news editor). The other thing is that I can't bring myself to fret over flowers or invitations, or worry about which guests need to be seated far away from another. If grown adults want to act like gimps at family reunions, that's their business as far as I'm concerned. Luckily as it's a small affair of about 100 people (ok, so the title of this post was slightly deceiving, but hey, you need a good headline to hook people in dont'cha?) everyone pretty much knows and loves everyone else.

As I write this, I'm slightly mopey about the fact that just a couple of days ago, I was in Bombay with my sister at the tail end of a chaotic holiday to shop for my wedding dress, and go to a cousin's wedding in Bangalore. A week later, and I've got my dress and matching jewellery tucked up at home. What's more, I snagged a boatload of jaw-droppingly gorgeous silk fabric from Crawford Market in South Mumbai to decorate my venue with. A word on Crawford Market - don't even dream about setting foot near it unless you have the stamina of an ox, and enough patience to withstand people waving all manner of crap in your face in the hope that you'll buy the towels/calendars/underwear/rattles/guitars they are selling. Once you've made it through, and trust me, you'll feel like you've broken into Mordor, there are endless stalls selling fabric so pretty and so ridiculously cheap (about $3 a metre), you'll go nuts. Well we did, anyway, and it took several vodka cocktails to recover. My cousin's wedding in Bangalore, on the other hand, really WAS a big fat Indian wedding, and I'll write about that asap as my brain is still processing the five day shindig with 5000 guests.

I'll post pics of all these goodies very soon, but for now, they're still sitting in Bangalore waiting for my Dad to cart them back for me. In the meantime, feast your eyeballs on the stuff by a sweet little online company called Zarbaft sold only through their Facebook site. It's got a lovely vintage 1970s vibe, very Zeenat Aman, and pretty reasonably priced too.

Zeenat, in all her 1970s glory.

Love this shade of green, plus the style hides batwings (ie, flubby triceps) too; Image: Zarbaft

Price on enquiry at Zarbaft

Rs 40,000 or about UK£500; Zarbaft

DESIGN MATTERS: INDIA DESIGN FORUM 2013

India's top architects, interior designers, and product designers are getting together with international artists and designers at the 2013 India Design Forum (IDF) this March in Mumbai to pow-wow about the latest trends in design. The speaker line-up looks pretty stellar so far, with Christopher Frayling, Christian Louboutin, and Anoushka Hempel. These heavyweights clearly need no introduction, but they are just a few of the tremendously talented bunch of people speaking at the event.

I have totally fallen for furniture by Nipa Doshi and Jonathan Levien of London-based design firm Doshi Levien who merge Indian and global design sensibilities to come up with stuff that is sheer genius in both being Indian but nothing like anything you've seen before.

Plus, if you're anything like me and love a sneak peek into the homes of designers and artists, check out their apartment/studio.

 

 

DISHOOM: A BIG DESIGN HIT FROM OLD BOMBAY

Long lost cousins? Clue is in the moustache...

Eating out in Indian restaurants in London is something I said goodbye to a long time ago. My family are such geniuses with a curry (and samosas, idlis, dosas....) that it seems madness to hand over cash for food that's just so-so. And it's not just the food. Trading the old maroon flocked-wallpaper of the traditional curry houses for the bland contemporary styling of the new breed of pricy Indian restaurants doesn't fill me with joy either.

Then Dishoom burst on the scene. Based in London's Covent Garden but styled as a vintage Bombay cafe, it pays homage to an era when Iranian immigrants to Mumbai opened up cafes dishing out chilli cheese toast (spicy, melty bits of breaded goodness), red-hot chai, minty lamb chops and kulfi for dessert. These cafes are fast fading to become a mere footnote in Bombay's history, replaced by temples to American fast food like pizza and fried chicken. But the old cafes weren't just memorable for the food, but for a distinctive air that inside, time stood still. Fans whirred slowly overhead, people hung out for ages over a single cup of tea, and all around was quiet vintage decoration.

Dishoom Shoreditch (I'm desperate for one of those chairs)

Dishoom's attempt to preserve some of the old Bombay charm has gone down such a storm in London, it's opening a new branch in Shoreditch, East London in October. Dishoom's kitchens produce some phenomenally tasty food but it's not just that - they do everything with a big fat sense of humour. Whether it's serving a gin and tonic with a drop of angostura bitters in a vintage brown glass "medicine bottle", sepia portraits on the pale blue walls, or the retro Indian cosmetics in the loos.

The 'rulebook' at Dishoom Shoreditch

Air-con at Dishoom Shoreditch

Dishoom Chowpatty Beach, the summer pop-up on London's South Bank

On its own, this styling would feel like a cunning marketing ploy to tap into our current love affair with all things retro driven by a nostalgic yearning for anything vintage. But Dishoom is full of celebration - whether it's Holi (the Indian festival of colour) or its own tongue-in-cheek take on Valentine's day (Velan-Times Day).  When good design is infused with integrity - now that's when it really flies. Whatever the Dishoom-wallahs do, they seem to do with love. For food, for India, and for immigrants everywhere. 

Tastes every bit as good as it looks...

I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts. Dishoom, Covent Garden

All photo credits: Dishoom