PROFILE

“Would you buy an ill-fitting dress or a pair of shoes? So how can you sleep on a bed that’s not for your body type, shape or comfort?” says Alistair Hughes, managing director, of the London-based brand, Savoir Beds. He’s also quite sure that two people married to each other won’t necessarily have the same preferences in beds or mattresses.

Instead, sleep tighter on a custom-built bed from Savoir Beds that costs Rs 37 lakh. Or opt for the one tagged at Rs 14 lakh. A recent entrant in India, Savoir Beds is armed with great credentials and the experience of designing perfect beds in its London factory.

The company, set up in 1905, was bought over by Savoy Hotel, London, in the 1930s. “The Savoir No. 2 or The Savoy, as it came to be known, created the most luxurious bed for the most luxurious hotel in 1905,” says Hughes. This continues to be a popular bed, even though the company became independent of the Savoy Hotel in 1997. And if you are to pick up a Savoir bed, you’ll be sleeping the sleep of celebrity singers including Madonna, Kylie Minogue and Elton John who own beds from the brand.

But what makes it so special — besides the prices that begin at Rs 6 lakh — are four standardised frames, Savoir No. 1, 2, 3 and 4, which form the core of the bed. The beds are customised as per differences in weight, height, body shapes and spine shapes. It takes 10 weeks to 11 weeks to make a bed and ship it to India from London, while the headboard and design can be customised to your liking.

Any design can be executed on the four frames. Some of the fast moving designs include the dynamic metallic Aero frame, which resembles an aeroplane. And if Batman happens to be your favourite superhero, the fluid lines of the black Bat bed would surely catch your fancy.

But what ensures that the bed is out-and-out comfortable? Akshay Shetty, director, Golden Leaves Leisure, which brought Savoir Beds to India, says natural raw materials, like horse hair, lamb wool and cotton, are key in making extra-comfortable beds and mattresses.

To select the right mattress, says Hughes, lie down for a bit, change your posture, shift to a position that you normally sleep in — and then decide. The Savoir Beds showroom in the plush Gallery Mall on MG Road in Delhi offers an exclusive private area where customers can do just that.

Trends

“There is an aspirational quality to the way homes are being done up,” says Shetty. He adds that people have realised that a good bed is a long term investment. When people bought beds earlier, it was only about the beautiful frame and headboard. Now thought goes into picking up mattress too.

He adds: “There’s a move away from the standardised traditional foam and cotton wool mattresses, towards ones which are customised to a person’s comfort levels.”

PROducts

The pièce de résistance in the Savoir Beds design books is its iconic frame — the Savoir No. 1, with a mindboggling price tag of Rs 37 lakh. Completely upholstered in suede, its wooden frame is invisible. It uses cashmere as the top layer of the mattress for its super luxurious feel. The frame is of hard beechwood fitted with dovetail joints.

The showstopper, Savoir No. 2, or The Savoy comes in a redwood frame. This bed takes a total of 60 hours to make. The price tag — Rs 14 lakh. On the other hand, the Savoir No. 3 interior too has a redwood frame while the mattress has loose cattletail hair, cotton and wool as filling. It’s priced approximately at Rs 9.5 lakh.

The Savoir No. 4 bed was originally designed for top hotels. Again, with a redwood frame, it takes over 20 hours to make and is priced between Rs 6 lakh and Rs 7 lakh.