Steeling confessions

A new store in Ahmedabad, a fresh collection in Delhi, designer Alex Davis has his plate full for now.

When Alex Davis's new collection opens at Moon River store in Delhi next week, you can be forgiven for wondering why a designer in steel should label it 'My Garden'. Davis shrugs.

For the designer and winner of the Elle Décor International Design Awards in 2003, whether it's orchids, cherry blossoms, ivy creepers and bamboo groves or installations in stainless steel, his "pieces of art" are all about aesthetics.

His creepers and groves are all in stainless steel, though unlike his more usual creations "they don't really serve any functionality".

Davis has grappled with functionality long enough, with ashtrays and table lamps and office accessories; for now, he's content building his "jewellery for spaces". And they'll be priced similarly, starting at Rs 600 (for the cherry blossoms) and scaping upwards at Rs 80,000-90,000.

Expensive? "I'm not really looking at any economic classification,but am addressing a certain customer sensibility," Davis explains. "Since this is a limited edition, the prices are bound to be a tad higher." And then, you can't equate investment in design as you would in, say, manufacturing, he says a little irritatedly: "It doesn't have an input/output equation like a regular industry."

Costs, he explains, can be calculated in terms of his investment in high-tech machines for laser cutting and argon welding. That's besides his time and skill, of course, and a large team that works with him on the wooden, glass and steel furniture, accessories, lighting and interior products that he sells through stores like Transform and Palette in Mumbai, Leela Gallery in Bangalore, and his own stores in Delhi. "The real input in this venture has been time and effort," he says.

His 45-people strong business has a yearly turnover of Rs 1 crore, which Davis admits is very small. "But the perspective is not that of an industry model but as a skill," he explains.

"It's heartening to note that the gap between international and Indian trends seem to be narrowing. In a matter of three years, we will be at par in terms of availability of products," says Davis who exports to Milan in Italy.

All set to open his store in Ahmedabad, Davis talks about other designers such as The Design Store (for furniture, in Mumbai), Manna Studio (for glass, Gurgaon) and Mukul Goel (for metal accessories).

"We can't be competitors," he insists, "because there are so few of us. We need to collaborate rather than compete." But then, what about Vibhor Sogani?