Gauri Khan, whose credentials go far beyond just being the wife of Bollywood’s badshah Shah Rukh Khan, unveiled the newest feather in her creative cap — a new line of saris titled ‘Cocktails and Dreams’ in collaboration with Satya Paul, in Delhi. Settling down for a chat in the midst of a fair amount of chaos and excitement, she talks about her passion for design, her love for architecture, her style choices...
“Design is everywhere. And inspiration for it, too, is all around you no matter where you are,” Gauri points out, as she begins to delve into her design sensibility, and seek things that have most influenced it through the years.
Travel, she says, has been central to the evolution of her creativity.
She explains, “When I travel to any country, everything from its streets to its buildings — such as its beautiful restaurants — have something to offer to my creative process. I can be inspired by absolutely anything, anywhere in the world. Personally, one of the greatest sources of inspiration for my work has been architecture. I’ve had the chance to see so many exquisite structures, whether they are historical monuments or modern commercial premises…”
She continues, “I’ve always been able to connect with them and their nuances. That has definitely fed into my work and my approach to design. In general, though, inspiration can be found anywhere — even in a simple cocktail!”
She adds that her interest in history is another influence on her design process.
“I have studied history and it has always fascinated me. And my fascination makes itself fairly evident in the work I do too — my second collection for Satya Paul, ‘MataHari’, was inspired by the Dutch Courtesan, and even my furniture collection that was recently showcased at Maison&Objet included tables inspired by the Konark Sun Temple in Odisha. In my work, historical elements tend to merge with contemporary forms such as photo printing on furniture or bold sari prints, to create something unique and memorable,” she avers.
Ask her how and where her journey with design first began and she recalls, “I was an art student, and worked on a lot of charcoal sketches and drawings during the course of my education. That was something I always had an avid interest in. Much later, when I started building my own home and had to delve into several other aspects of design, I realised that my interest also lay in working closely with design as a larger creative process.
At that time, whenever I travelled to any place, I picked up artefacts, statement pieces and so on to eventually place in my home as I had visualised it… and I think this is where my passion for design really came into its own. By the time Mannat was completed, I had understood this passion and knew that I wanted to make something more of it.”
What kind of a role have her husband and children played along her design journey so far? “Shah Rukh is extremely supportive of my every design endeavour, and so are my kids. They take keen interest in everything I do and everything I make — every piece and every design. They are very involved and that is the greatest form of support I could have asked for,” she says.
