Luxury lifestyle boutique Taj Khazana at St. James’ Court, Taj Hotel, London is introducing four exclusive new collections by fashion designers Urvashi Kaur, Neishaa Gharat’s House of Gharats, Tomomi Yamamoto as well as a range of fragrances from Pell Wall this month. This includes a signature St. James’ Court scent inspired by the history and heritage of this English Classic, reinvented in its new avatar as A Taj Hotel.
Taj Khazana is a group of luxurious and indulgent Indian lifestyle boutiques. Committed to providing sustainable market access to craftsmen across India, Taj Khazana works closely with over 50 artisans and weavers, helping to protect their heritage, skills and crafts by showcasing and selling their exquisite artefacts. The focus for Taj Khazana is on handmade, quality products and developing initiatives to help build livelihoods. To date, Taj Khazana has helped a large number of craftsmen throughout India including the handloom weavers in Varanasi who were facing extinction.
The London boutique, opened in July 2012, is the first and only international Taj Khazana. While celebrating and supporting the creative talent of Indian artisans, Taj Khazana in London unleashes the vivacity and vibrancy of South Asia with handmade items from Rajasthan, Central India and the South. The latest London collection with four new designers characterises the distinctiveness each of the existing dozen Taj Khazana stores offer, adding a unique local flavour to a range of superb ethnic objets d’art, traditional shawls, stoles, throws and jewellery.
Urvashi Kaur
Awarded the ‘The Young Innovative Designer Award’ by the JD Institute of Fashion Technology, Urvashi Kaur’s designs are the result of her exposure to a myriad cultures, her work for fashion moguls like Issey Miyake and Marcel Marongiu, and the vision of an economically sustainable and culturally influential label. The designs are global in construction but defiantly Indian in their sensibility, embracing heritage hand-woven, organic textiles and natural dyes with a design philosophy defined by a revival of indigenous Indian weaves and age-old techniques. Urvashi Kaur is associated with weavers and artisans from several NGOs such as Khamir from Kutch, Malkha from Andhra Pradesh and Sutra from Kolkata.
House of Gharats
The London based designer, Neishaa Gharat’s collections echo interweaving of cultures, social changes and the juxtaposition between tradition and modernity. Her British-Indian apparel and accessory brand ‘House of Gharats’ specialises in limited edition exclusive designs for both men and women. The collection creates a bridge between art, textile crafts and fashion. House of Gharats is passionate about sourcing the most beautiful hand printed and woven Indian textiles. Its aim is to give the aesthete an opportunity to understand the depth of Indian arts and textile crafts, while creating a wearable product.
Tomomi Yamamoto
Japanese designer Tomomi Yamamoto’s collection is inspired by nature and the interaction between old and new – the cycle of life and rebirth. Each Tomomi Yamamoto bag is a unique design, cut from vintage Japanese Kimono and obi fabrics with handcrafted brass frames. Her bags stand true to the literal meaning of “kimono”, a “thing to wear”, while being objects of beauty. Tomomi’s concept thus utilises vintage fabrics and lends them new form – transforming kimonos into bags, granting them an alternative life yet allowing them to fulfil their original role.
Pell Wall
The 10 fine fragrances from Pell Wall now available at Taj Khazana are all designed and handmade in Shropshire, England. They draw on a range of influences from the St. James’ Court signature scent inspired by the charm of this discreet Victorian masterpiece to the coronation oil used to anoint British monarchs that inspired the two 1953 fragrances (one each for gentlemen and ladies). Other references in the range include the traditional plants of English gardens that provide the heart of Artemis and Pretty in Pink and the fragrance Sticky Leather Sky, produced in response to a poem, opening with light, familiar notes of bergamot, with a slight metallic edge and a light woody background representing an orchestra while jasmine and orris recall the opulence of the Opéra de Paris.
These new collections will add to the traditional range of handcrafted jewellery, traditional textiles, bidriware, ikat weaving, and cashmere pashminas featured at Taj Khazana with upcoming additions including Barbara Rihl handbags and purses as well as a range of bespoke London memorabilia.
