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PROFILE
Richa Kanoi certainly knows a thing or two about early starts. At 27 she’s been there and done that. After stints in advertising in India and abroad, and playing stylist at CNBC for its programmes, she’s now an entrepreneur with her own design labels.
For one, she’s the force behind Bombaim, the designerwear and home accessories store on Beckbagan in Calcutta and, on the other hand, she’s promoting digital prints in home interiors in a huge way. She launched her own line of digital-print home accessories called Masala Works in 2005 much before she got married and shifted base to Calcutta from Mumbai last year.
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Kanoi had studied advertising and archaeology at Boston University. When she launched the Masala Works line of home accessories, it was an extension of her family business, for her brother had a digital printing business. Kanoi’s creativity soon found an outlet in form of digital-printed cushion covers, coasters, place mats and more.
“Digital printing was new to India then and I wanted to experiment with it and see how it could be used in interiors,” she says. Soon Kanoi’s products were flying off the shelves of high profile interior stores in Mumbai such as Contemporary Arts and Crafts, Fusion Access and Palettes.
Kanoi felt that Calcuttans experiment with fashions, colours and interiors. She thought it would be a good city to introduce emerging designers — both fashion and product designers. Thus Bombaim was born in May this year.
Bombaim showcases all that’s new and cutting-edge on the contemporary Indian design scene. On the couture side, Miriam Strehlau shares space with Nachiket Bharve, while the other fashion designers in attendance are Natasha Agarwal and Rashmi Somani, Pratima Gaurav, Rahul Mishra, Sonali Mansingka among others.
There’s more: Bansri Mehta’s jewellery, Parul Parekh’s bags and clutches and home accessories by Vidhi Maheshwari vie for attention at the store. Then there’s Kanoi’s own Masala Works.
Since Bombaim also supports social initiatives, products from the Army Wives’ Welfare Association and Apne Aap Women Worldwide, an initiative to end trafficking of women, occupy pride of place on the racks. “I am all for their cause,” says Kanoi.
From quilts to cushions, unique metal-crafted locks to trinket boxes, Bombaim is a treasure trove for those seeking to add an unusual touch to their homes.
TRENDS
Minimalism is still doing the rounds in Indian interiors, says Kanoi. But it’s being implemented in a different sort of way and starkness is not a design ideal here. The lines are clean, the colours are simple and muted. But a certain warmth in Indian homes is conveyed through accessories like rugs, durries, quilts, cushion, ethnic accent pieces and even in the fabrics that are used for furnishing. One of the biggest trends now is to use natural and often indigenous handloom fabrics like chanderi, silk and soft cotton for furnishing.
Her tip for designing your home’s interiors: “Start with a blank canvas and then go on to dress up the spaces.” Think of muted or white walls, single colours for furniture and accessories that provide the design accent. “The detail should be in the accessories one uses,” says Kanoi. A well-chosen accessory can change the entire mood of a room.
PRODUCTS
There’s a huge range of cushions in Bombaim priced between Rs 600 and Rs 1,200 apiece. Some are digitally printed while others come in muted white, cream and off-white and are decorated with Indian motifs. A set of six chanderi napkins come for Rs 1,000. Digital-printed place-mats cost Rs 800 a pair.
Check out a quirky range of trinket boxes with lids having unique digital prints of Indian miniature paintings. Price is between Rs 500 and Rs 1,200. The store’s metal range — bronze and brass betelnut cutters, paper knives, locks and keys, accent pieces like small kettles, milk cans and more — cost between Rs 700 and Rs 1,200. Then there are tea lights and votives for Rs 250 to Rs 500 apiece.
The icing on the cake is, however, a very affordable set of Raja Ravi Verma prints — framed and mounted on the wall — each for Rs 5,000.
