Pic by Norman Jean Roy

Who is Waris Ahluwalia and why is he so famous? Is it for being one of the few men in the world who isn’t afraid to wear pink suede shoes? Or is it for playing a bit role in Wes Anderson’s situational comedy The Darjeeling Limited? Or could it be for being the New York socialite who, as he puts it, “designs jewellery as a passion,” for the international smart set?

The way Waris tells it, the jewellery is almost a sideline. He’s more likely to talk about his acting. And in New York he’s more famous for just being famous than for the jewellery that he creates.

That’s why Waris — the surname is almost expendable in the chic circles he moves in — has accumulated a string of different monikers in New York’s super-lively social scene. He has been dubbed everything from ‘le chic Sikh’, to ‘punk maharajah’, and even the ‘Indiana Jones of Jewellery’.

He says: “The world likes to put people in boxes. I understand it makes things easier. However, I consider myself a storyteller first and foremost. It’s from there that everything begins.”

Pix by Grace Kelsey

To get an idea of his celebrity status take a look at the numerous accolades he has received for being nattily turned out. In 2010 he made it to Vanity Fair’s Best Dressed List and was even declared British GQ’s 2nd best dressed man internationally. In addition, he found himself in Vogue’s list of the 10 Most Impactful people of 2010.

“I find the best craftsmen all over the world. I know the cobbler who makes my shoes in California, the tailor who makes my suits and shirts in London and the people who make my jeans in Paris,” says Waris.

“In fact one of my favourite tailors is in Jaipur from East West Designers,” he insists. Nevertheless, despite his professed love for tailored clothes, he’s often attired in designer stuff from Timo Weiland and George Esquivel (the much-talked about pink suede shoes are by Esquivel).

If you have a nagging feeling that you’ve seen him somewhere, it’s quite likely you aren’t wrong. Waris played the stern and unsmiling chief steward in the The Darjeeling Limited where he shared screen space with actors Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody.

He made his movie debut back in 2004 in an earlier Anderson film, The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, and most recently he was in an Oscar-nominated movie I am Love. He has played everything from a cameraman and a bank hostage to a Republican and a hypochondriac. Says Waris who has had no formal training in acting: “The start was alarmingly simple, Wes asked me to be in his movie. It’s been an incredible adventure since then.”

Waris insists that jewellery too happened to him accidentally. A salesgirl at the Los Angeles super-luxury jewellery store, Maxfield, spotted two elaborate diamond rings he was wearing and asked for more. Soon he sent his first consignment to Maxfield and that kickstarted the House of Waris in 2002. Last year he was inducted as a member of the Council of Fashion Designers of America.

Waris with actress and friend Chloe Sevigny Pix by Billy Farrell, BFAnyc.com

Today his gem-laden pieces are sold at the smartest boutiques in the world such as Maxfield in Los Angeles, Barneys in New York and Beverly Hills, Dover Street Market in London, Ikram in Chicago and Colette in Paris to name a few.

He has also crafted a special silver enamel series called Waris Loves You for online sale on only one portal called yoox.com. But if you want to meet him at his New York-based studio of House of Waris, it would — needless to say — have to be strictly by appointment.

His jewellery pieces are startling and inevitably, every piece from the House of Waris drips exclusivity. He creates diamond-studded birds, arachnids and skeletal hands, the prices of which start at $2,000 and can touch anywhere up to $75,000.

But Waris insists there’s more to it than just precious metals. “I create with gold that holds history, diamonds that see the future, and rubies that long for love. There’s a story in each stone — I’ll leave it for you to find them on your own,” he says enigmatically.

To add to the exclusivity, every collection (he designs two a year) is accompanied by a letter written by the designer and his linen-bound lookbooks come with hand-drawn sketches. Each piece of jewellery comes in a hand-made wooden box emblazoned with the House of Waris logo.

Waris Ahluwalia in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou; (below) the actor in the Owen Wilson-starrer, The Darjeeling Limited

His latest spring/summer collection has just been showcased at the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at the Museum of Art and Design in February this year. “Raphael. Virgil. Octavian. Spero. Roma. And Liberté. These are the characters of my latest story in the collection, Omnia Vincit Amor (‘Love Conquers all’). The jewellery, that was inspired by etchings of birds on the bathroom tiles at The Raphael, has been crafted using old world Indian techniques on enamel, diamonds, gold and silver,” says Waris, referring to his stay at The Raphael, a super-smart hotel in the ritzy 16th arrondisement of Paris.

But Waris is constantly innovating and giving the gossip publications something to talk about. He has just launched a line of naughty underwear for yoox.com under the label Waris Loves You. The new, cheeky line has knickers with the word ‘more’ in big letters and bathrobes emblazoned with the words ‘Waris Loves You. Dirty’.

And if sexy underwear isn’t enough to break the mould, the actor-designer-artist-socialite-style icon has also launched his first collection of scarves. “It’s on the same lines as my jewellery — they are crafted by hand using the finest materials such as cashmere, silk and cotton-silk blends and come from artisans who are specialists in embroidery, batik or block printing,” says Waris.

Also, moving in a completely different direction, Waris for a few weeks last October opened what’s called a pop-up (it’s something temporary) tea room in a space that was once part of an elevated subway line. Says Waris: “To do just jewellery would have been under-utilisation of the space, so I decided it was a great time to introduce House of Waris tea. It was a soft launch for the tea (straight from the Himalayas) as we are still in the product development phase.”

Pix by Grace Kelsey

Interestingly, Waris has had no training in jewellery design. He schooled himself at his workshops in Rome and Jaipur (he makes about three to six trips to India every year and his stones are always cut in Jaipur). He says: “Sitting with my craftsmen day in and day out, six days a week for about six months a year, I had two tasks, to watch and to learn. I sat and watched. I sat and directed. I sat and asked questions. I learned. Not to make pieces myself but to know what it takes to create a piece of fine jewellery.”

It, however, took a few false starts before he hit the big time in the jewellery business. He studied political science at a New York college and made false starts in a string of businesses like opening an eatery, compiling a book, then attempting to produce an album and even co-producing a movie — all while he was still in his 20s.

Waris reckons his keen sense of adventure comes from his father who was a linguistics professor at Guru Nanak Dev University in India and who moved to the US where he worked in the country’s Census Bureau.

“I was born in Amritsar and lived there till I was five. My mother, Darshan Kaur, had studied in New York, but my father, Paramjit Singh, had never been to the ‘New World’. So when my mother came back from NY to get married, my father was still yearning for a grand adventure. I guess that’s where I get it from, and that’s how we moved to Bay Ridge in Brooklyn,” he adds.

He may be the son of an executive in the Census Bureau but for Waris making the leap into high society came naturally. He’s an avid partygoer and has a huge circle of friends from the crème de la crème of society. He describes it as part of a life that revolves around the arts. “Without it I’m lost. I watch a lot of movies, go to galleries and spend time in my favourite restaurants around the city. I think I spend most of my life sleeping, eating and being on a plane,” he adds.

So if he is spotted regularly at cool hangouts such as the Beatrice Inn and the Boom Boom Room, he also counts musician Paul Sevigny and graffiti artist André Saraiva among his circle of close friends. He deems them a big part of his life. He says: “They inspire me with their work and their commitment to their craft. That’s why I love collaborating with my friends on projects and surround myself with other people who want to create. To build. To grow.”

And while he lives it up in a glamorous whirl, putting up in Manhattan’s tony West Village, travelling to exotic destinations like Bangkok, Bali, Jamaica, Los Angeles and Hawaii, Waris emphasises the need to give back. To that effort he published a book called To India with Love in 2009 in response to the 2008 Mumbai attack.

Says Waris: “It sold really well everywhere and the proceeds go to the Taj Memorial Public Service Welfare Trust — which is aiding families that suffered through the attacks. For my next project, I’m working with a few organisations to raise funds for Japan. We are all here for what is a spark of a moment. If I can bring some beauty, hope and joy to the world around me in my little time here I shall have served my purpose.”