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Does India have anything that can qualify as modern design? For a country that has prided itself on its aesthetics and design practices, the absence of anything approaching a contemporary design practice in the country is a poor commentary on our failure to combine traditional craft and design skills with current technology or even pride in our handcrafted heritage. Thanks largely to the efforts of Rajshree Pathy, we can at least boast of the India Design Forum in Mumbai, but neither Indian designers nor the government have shown an inclination for developing even good - forget great - design in recent years. Which is why our home stores are filled with imported furniture and home accessories, and Indian designers are still struggling at the unsustainable "boutique" level.
To believe that these options are "bespoke" is fooling ourselves. We need to look at mass production for design, which will not only absorb the hundreds of design school grads who emerge from such outfits every year, but create a culture that, while avoiding a throwback to the past, also refrains from speaking in the borrowed language of the West.
Indian attendance at design fairs around the world has tended to be sporadic, whether at Design Miami/Basel, Miami Design Week, London Design Festival, Paris Design Week, NYC x Design, 100% Design, London and the like. Indian designers who've shown at these fairs have rarely been consistent - put off either by the competition or the high cost of participation.
The few who broke the mould have included designer Gunjan Gupta who built an Indian sensibility between heritage and design but works at a bespoke level. Jaipur-based Ayush Kasliwal, who has supplied to The Conran Shop, could have pushed the label but has not risen to greater heights in retail. Abraham & Thakore and Neeru Kumar have contributed their considerable experience to the furnishings scene but fashion has been their mainstay.
It is against this background that one must view the debut at Maison & Objet, Paris, of Raseel Gujral's Casa Paradox. Indian design shops have attempted different distribution strategies in the past, mostly opening stores in different cities, which shut shop a few years down. Star-wives led home stores in Mumbai are powered more by glamour than any distinctive design. And in Delhi, while a few design shops have survived a decade or two, they have struggled to supply large orders, even outsourcing these to match deadlines, with unhappy results on quality. Casa Paradox has a large retail presence in the capital and the two elements that define its collection are quirkiness and opulence. India doesn't do quirky too well, but Gujral has managed it through her Illuminati range of art inspired furniture. But it is Neophile, its 'new palace' range, that it hopes will turn into a money-spinner.
In some sense, Neophile is a throwback to the past - clawed feet for furniture, gargantuan sizes, precious inlay, hand-embroidered textiles and handcrafted finish. It's what you might have found in the chateâux of France, but are now more likely to see in West Asia with its petro-dollar wealth that find designs such as these as eminently suitable as Indian fashion, which it happily patronises. If that opens up a new market, Gujral & Co may have to worry about supply and inventory more than just appreciation. And if that happens, New Delhi might just add its name to those of Paris, Milan, London, New York and now Hong Kong as design centres where the international glitterati come to shop for homes that are beyond the ordinary.
Kishore Singh is a Delhi-based writer and art critic. These views are personal and do not reflect those of the organisation with which he is associated
