The capital’s first luxury space is international all right…but the footfalls are all local.
Anonymous shopper #1, overhead in swank glass lift: “I dislike all the foreign brands on the lower floors, they look so boring.” Anonymous shopper #2, using the facilities of a swank washroom: “Oh god, the outlets of the Indian designers look like CTC Plaza with ribbons on!”
A year and a half late in the making, Emporio is everything that was promised (and for some, much more). Even though its formal launch has coincided with a retail meltdown and laments of excessively high lease rents, the tone at Emporio is celebratory, something the whining of drills cannot take away from it. At the main entrance, right next to the Louis Vuitton window where a battery of lights are trained on this season’s “it” bag, workers are polishing the fountain that is intended for the Delhi Fashion Week (which gets over today).
But a fountain of water is gushing inside; the autumn light streams through an entrance with a stained glass ceiling reminiscent of the grand ballroom in the celluloid Titanic. The palms are a ditzy idea in the atrium cafeteria, but wood and gold and flung textiles like unfurling buntings add to the sense of joy anyway. The party is on.
Built over 3.2 lakh square feet over four levels, Emporio has everything India’s five-star shoppers have wanted but not got — an overwhelming sense of space, easy signages and intra-store accessibility, excellent street furniture for resting with your shopping or for gossip with friends, and even though it’s funny because it’s so transparently false, a sense of faltering welcomes and greetings from everyone from maintenance to security staff.
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Anonymous shopper #3, sprawled across an armchair, surrounded by shopping bags, speaking into her mobile: “Mummy, it’s just like a five-star hotel!” Anonymous shopper #4, looking faintly disapproving: “It could be anywhere in the world, it doesn’t feel like it’s in India.”
For what was touted by the promoters DLF as India’s first luxury mall (they’ve been beaten to it in both Mumbai and Bangalore), the choice of Mohit Gujral as architect and Chandu Chadha as interiors specialist were appropriate. Work on the interiors is currently ongoing, but the inspiration is clearly luxury-hotel ethos, and is not misplaced at that.
Besides international high-premium brands and Indian (mostly) couturists, soon on the cards will be a fine dining restaurant of 400 covers (there were rumours, swiftly squashed, of a Nobu possibility, but the latest buzz has it that the restaurant may have different sections for different specialities), a terrace al fresco diner, a spa and even a members-only club — clearly enough to keep people engaged through the large part of a day. Any wonder the ambience reflects this?
What is commendable is the manner in which it has been achieved: a sense of space interspersed with cosy, intimate sections. The walkarounds for the stores are easy and there’s enough public space outside the stores not to cramp anyone’s style. The fittings are imported marble, dark woods, brass and wrought iron fixtures, and lighting that is both discreet as well as flamboyant depending on the space and need.
What is a little disconcerting are the escalators that tend to arrive to dead-ends (actually the washrooms), so that visitors have to walk around or away, which in a retail ambience translates into a lost opportunity. More importantly, arriving at a space that does not immediately open up can be a little dismaying, one reason why shoppers might prefer the elevators over the escalators.
Where the architect has not stinted is in the high ceilings (so it’s not claustrophobic) and in large display windows (so merchandise and brands are easily distinguished). The play of different designers for the stores (every brand has worked with its own team) has resulted in different looks behind those windows, and while it’s true that Indian brands have been more adventurous, the consistency of the international brands is commendable, and something that should be emulated because of their ability to highlight their merchandise, rather than play to the merely exotic.
A piazza between Emporio and another mall, Promenade, also developed by DLF and soon to open (in the premium category), will become a common space for such events as the Delhi Fashion Week, creating a link between the buildings. In between and all around, landscaping has been handled by Bennitt & Mitchell, the lighting by Kaplan Gehring McCarrol, and the water features by Fluidity Design Consultants. For the signages, the credit goes to Selbert Perkins.
The shopping might be expensive, but with parking for 2,800 cars, you know you won’t be crowded, though at Rs 130 a pop, the pickings come ripe and easy. Just concentrate on the flowers…
Anonymous shopper #5, bitching: “I don’t know what the big deal is, it’s just like Singapore airport.” Anonymous shopper #6, calling a friend on her mobile: “Helloji, reminding you of my kitty party ji, I’m having it at Emporio ji…”