Design is everywhere, says Gauri Khan

Gauri Khan, whose credentials go far beyond just being the wife of Bollywood’s badshah Shah Rukh Khan, recently paid the capital a visit to unveil the newest feather in her creative cap - a new line of saris titled ‘Cocktails and Dreams’ in collaboration with Satya Paul. 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 and more.

“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 out the things around her that have exercised the most influence on how it has shaped up 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’m one of those designers who 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 truly be found anywhere — even in a simple cocktail!”

She goes on to add 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 was called ‘MataHari’ and 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 the work I do, 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 such as space planning and so on, 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 and 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 finally completed, I had acknowledged and 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. Also, we recently styled Shah Rukh’s office at Red Chillies with furniture and pieces from my interior studio — we’ve created tables with his films’ posters on them that are quite interesting,” she shares.

Talking about her favoured colour palette as a designer, Gauri affirms that the concept and tone of the project at hand determines the colour palette ultimately chosen for it, regardless of her own personal preferences.

“When we designed ‘Cocktails and Dreams’, for instance, the first thing we kept in was the occasions we were designing for. These saris are intended as evening wear and keeping that in mind the colours are very deliberately vibrant, with lots of reds, oranges and yellows,” she says and adds, “If you ask me about my chosen colour palette for the clothes I wear myself, I’m usually one for more neutral, subtle shades.”

She concludes by sharing that the colours aside, her garment of choice for this season is, undoubtedly, the sari. “You’ll find me in saris much more now than you did earlier. I have found over the years that they are very comfortable and very feminine. Besides, in general too, comfort is my priority now. My style statement is totally comfort-oriented, so whether it is a party that I’m dressing for or a relaxed day at home, I dress first for comfort and then anything else,” she signs off.