Tarun Tahiliani's magical carpets for Middle East

Tahiliani has always been known for his love of interiors

Probably one of the best-known names in Indian fashion, Tarun Tahiliani started India's first multi-designer fashion store Ensemble in 1987, before launching his own label three years later. With five flagship stores in India and having worked with home decor, hotel and watch sectors, there is no question that he is one of the trailblazers of contemporary Indian fashion. Now, thanks to a collaboration with carpet-maker Obeetee, he is adding a new dimension to his repertoire.
Obeetee, an Indian company, known globally for its carpets (their products grace the floors of both Buckingham Palace and Rashtrapati Bhavan, and the carpet at the latter is made of over a billion knots). The near-century-old carpet maker's collaboration with Tahiliani on a collection titled 'Proud to be Indian' - aimed at an international audience - comes just months after Sabyasachi Mukherjee released a special holiday collection with US brand Pottery Barn. International designers like Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani and Fendi all have their own home ranges and The Rug Company has worked with many fashion designers, including Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood.
Tahiliani has always been known for his love of interiors; his own home and his stores are testimony to that. He has even worked on home interiors for a few select clients, like actor Ram Charan (son of Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi). "For a while before I became a fashion designer, I considered becoming an architect, because I love working with spaces and planning them architecturally," he explains. "But life has its own way and fate decreed that I become a fashion designer. It is natural that I have a pull back. I am deeply interested in the integration of Indian ideas with Western comfort and the use of traditional materials - as opposed to the blind and wholesale import of Italian ideas transplanted onto the Indian landscape," he adds. "I find this increasingly shallow."
Tahiliani will always be known in fashion circles as the man who coined the term 'India Modern', so this venture into carpets is very much a part of his brand's DNA. The carpets were unveiled in Delhi just a couple of weeks ago, and the next launch event is scheduled to take place in New York this month. Of course, the Middle East is on his mind too. The designer makes regular visits to Dubai for fashion retail shows and his clothes are well appreciated in the region. "It is a wonderful melting pot that embraces all kinds of fashion. Where else in the world would Western, Arabic and Indian fashion mingle? I hope I can have a store here very soon," he says of Dubai. With carpets being a part of Indian and UAE cultures, bringing the Obeetee project to one of the design shows in Dubai seems like a no-brainer.
When you think of carpets, you probably think of Iran, Morocco and Turkey, but India is actually the world's largest producer. "The Mughals brought the tradition of carpets to India, which were perhaps more like dhurries (flat woven floor coverings)," says Tahiliani. "It is natural that India should be the largest producer of carpets; these require highly labour-intensive processes and there is no better place than India where one can afford this, since embroidery units and manufacturing factories are all based here."
Tahiliani's carpets have over 150 knots per square inch and are made of the finest wool and silk. A new technique was developed for the Obeetee project and it took the designer over a year to bring his ideas to fruition. "We took it one step further by adding Kasab work for the first time, I believe, out of India. I have seen some carpets in New York that have strings of a metallic gold but not like the Indian Kasab." (Kasab is one of the oldest known forms of ornamentation and was brought to India by the Persians; it uses gold and silver threads.)
These carpets have Tahiliani's distinct 'India Modern' handwriting throughout, starting with the colour palette that includes ivory on ivory, as well as deep jewel tones - all of which are very Indian and very much the colours you associate with his fashion label. There are three different stories that Tahiliani has worked on and it is obvious he is inspired by Mughal paintings as much as by embroidery techniques, such as chikankari, and brocade textiles. "We started this project three-and-a-half years ago when we were working for another collection at the time," he says. "It seemed logical to do a chikankari-inspired collection based on the subtlety of colour and by using different piles to replicate the stitches chikankari is so famous for."
Tahiliani's own home has many carpets, most of which he has inherited from his parents. "They have always been repaired, looked after and treated like heirlooms, ones with which one engages almost every day and gets pleasure from looking at, unlike a piece of jewellery that is locked up in the bank."
Carpets are important as they give a home warmth and, according to this designer, "bind spaces to make them feel more cohesive". Tahiliani acknowledges that using carpets at home is a luxury, not a necessity, and a matter of personal choice. "Carpets give a home a sense of multi-layered luxury," he says. And while he loves his opulence, there is an underlying sense of elegance to his work too. "Every time I went carpet-shopping, I tended to prefer the designs on the reverse side, that were faded and more distressed," he recalls. "This was the basis of my point of departure for the Obeetee project."
Next on his mind are wallpapers. And you can expect his walls to whisper 'India Modern' just as his carpets can floor you with all that is traditional, while walking the talk of contemporary design.
sujata@khaleejtimes.com
 

• Style In The City