The Romanian Gypsy

Was reading an article on Romanian Gypsies." The women of the house never leave the house". And  I thought that they may be cooking all the time in their kitchens. But the most fascinating thing is that their so called kitchens are the show corners in their contrasting, colorful, high ceiling, gypsy abode showcasing some tastefully hand picked show crockery that they never use. And cooking? They do it outdoors. In open.

The house wall colors are always bright and contrasting. The kind of color we would think twice to put on our walls. The motifs are antique and flowery. The houses are spik and span. These colors remind me of the color palette I use to create with my crayons. When no one would tell me what color to put where. It was just what I liked and how aesthetically it appealed my eyes.
I have also put bright contrasting colors on my walls but have been able to muster courage to team them up with bright upholstery.  In fact i have muted them down with beige and white combination with some highlights of gold and browns.
Though I do have an experimentative streak in me, I have never been able to go the typical gypsy way. Full of Kitch and colors and prints and textures.I like harmony of colors and textures. What do you like?

Go Convertible!

One thing and many ways to use it! I have always been fascinated to explore many ways of using the same thing over and over again but in different way. You may call it my quest of exploring an alternative usage of this. Every new trial gave such satisfaction to my creative skills. I tried this most on my wardrobe. Many times I have mixed n matched the same garment with different kinds of accessories and created a new look every time. 

 

As a child I loved to use my mom's saris and wrap them around in different folds. I found amusement in wrapping the 6 yard cloth and make shift dresses out of them. And called them my Pin Up Dress collection as they would be pinned up to hold on to the shape. 

I was amazed to see how Sari has taken its shape on the Red Carpet when I saw Pussy Cat Dolls, all in black, gorgeous innovation sari and sari inspired dresses. A Sari converted into a beautiful gorgeous outfits.

Recently what has been fascinating me are these convertible dresses and tops. One Garment and many ways to wear it. I have recently bought an automatic black bolero that can be worn in 8 different ways. And I have also been eying upon this Victoria's secrets convertible purple dress that gives you different looks from 11 am Brunch, 3 PM Lunch , 9 PM cocktail and a 11 PM "Let you hair down" party.

And what more do you need apart from some good mix of accessories. Some gold and some contrast colors will make your same dress look drastically new.

So go on! Get convertibles! 

The Regal Touch

I have lived in my Versova house for 3 years now and believe you me, I have never loved it as much as I do it now as it just acquired my touch. "The Regal Touch" of warm earthy Indian colors and alot of gold. Bling of Gold gives me immense ccomfort. Quite strange but I am very particular about my Golds as well. The right shade and the right bling and the right warmth of it.

I have now brought two of my inspirations together and this is how my love pad looks like. First is the love for marigold colors and second is of course, the BLING

I started with my favorite deep marigold colors on the walls about an year ago. Putting together the right accessories one-by-one here I am and i guess its enough for a little pocket house of mine.

One of my walls is in deep wine color and other three are sunset yellow. (How is love this color on my walls!). It has always been a challenge for me to pick colors of upholstery and accessories. I put together a mix of whites, to mute the brightness of my room, browns to bring warmth, wine and mauve cushions to richness and of course bronze gold for add my REGAL TOUCH. Wood in my room is a mix of dark and brown hence didn't stick of one particular shade to make it a match much. The lamp and show peices are in moss green (earthy) color to break the match much of the room.

I also added my personal touch by placing this beautiful Tressorie bag, gifted by my husband as he knows how crazy I am about Indian Royalties, on the chest as a show piece along with some flowers and an antique key box on the wall. I covered the ugly looking switch board with the bronze handmade paper with manuscript and embellished it with golden lace.

With these colors, light plays a very important role. Too bright light would burn out all the bling and too low makes it look dark. Hence i would need to add some lamps to highlight the corners.

How I feel a part of the fairytale I always wishes to live. The fairytale of belong to the Indian Royal families. Aah! And I guess that's how I am trying to keep it close to my heart. I do want to change the theme of the house soon and I know I will not like it for long it if it is a new contemporary or an arbitrary abstract decor.

I also remember what fuss I created when the shade of wine went wrong and I want standing at the store trying to mix the already bought color with deeper hues to get what I had visualized just to get my REGAL TOUCH to the house.

But there is more to do!

The lost legacy

I want to be born again. Born not in future but many years behind to live what will never come again and what shall be remembered till eternity. Indian heritage and legacy is by far the most richest one that i know of. And I am really proud of it. But it gives me immense pain to see this heritage trapped only in books and fading from our memories (only if we have some left).

I would really want a re-run telecast of yester years to experience the richness of our culture and royalty. With the loss of RAJ we lost what we stood for and imbibed the new. The regal mansions, places, the royal sawaari are all nothing but fairy tales that we all visualize differently. The monochromatic images of royal India are just the worn out pages of our history books.

I have been fascinated by this fairy tale. A tale that I would like to live once, only to be able to see "The Maharaja of Patiala, Maharaja Yadwindra Singh adorning this exquisite piece on his neck. The Grand Necklace of the Maharaja of Patiala. This is one of the most precious possessions that India had. This opulent piece was made especially for the Maharaja in 1920s and is encrusted with 2930 diamonds in platinum chains. The centerpiece in this necklace is the famous De Beers diamond, a cushion-cut pale yellow diamond weighing 234.69 carats that is said to be the seventh largest polished diamond in the world and is nearly as big as a golf ball. The Maharaja was often seen wearing this neck piece for his photo shoots, paintings and his royal ceremonies. This beautiful piece can now be seen only in historic photographs. We Lost It.

It was last seen in 1948 during the lost of RAJ. It disappeared. The splendor of Maharaja was also dissolving. Nobody had an account of where the neck piece had gone.

Later in 1998, some one came up with the remnants of the piece in second hand market in London. All the sparkling stones were gone. Cartier acquired the remain of it and took 4 yrs restoring it and re-created it, replacing the stones with new ones. The estimated cost of this necklace, today is $25 Million.

So exquisite was the piece that it had to seek permission from Maharaja to exhibit it. India's legacy is now the re-created pride of some body else. The piece has been replicated but it's royalty could never be. Only if I could be re-born many years ago, to see it and feel pride to have it in our own country adorned by The Maharaja of Patiala

Fashionable whiffing !!

When it comes to fashion, no one can beat French. And I literally mean it. Lovers of art, with the finest taste definitely bring out fashion in everything. Their clothes, shoes, bags, accessories and attitude, all make a fine bold statement. But what surprised me was this chocolate inhaler for all the chocolate lovers who are worried about their calorie intake or feel extremely guilty after once sinful round of indulgence. Here is "Le Whif", A chocolate inhaler. A Chocolate without Calorie. And as the name suggests it's the chocolate whiff you inhale from a Lipstick looking packaging and the chocolate powder covers your entire mouth with the sinful flavor.

This brilliant concept is created by David A. Edwards, professor at Harvard University with help from art and science college students.With the mix of culinary art and aerosol science they together rediscovered the art of eating chocolate and called it "whiffing".

So keep one handy in your bag and kill the sweet craving with just a whiff, anytime and as many times a day, still flauting your thin, maintained waist. And the packaging is so stylish that you would always want to flash it out in a middle of a crowd with people turning around and wowing on this new concept.

I think it's a brilliant idea to make Joy of chocolate eating, guilt-free and more fashionable now. Isn't it?

So, Happy Whiffing!!

Juicy Sun and Warm Marigold

Red, color of "hot", "Chilly". Color of passion, rage, anger, aggression. And orange, color of energy & warmth. Together Red and Orange for me is the Color of SUN. The Color of Sunrise and the Sunset. Bright orange with red tint submerged in blue sky looks so juicy at those time of the day that I almost get a taste of it on my tongue when I tell this. Like an orange candy or a tangerine and strawberry sorbet. For some strange reasons that is the only time of the day when i don't fear the hot SUN. All I feel is to place it on my tongue and just suck on it.

This color has fascinated me since childhood. The combination of fire colors minus blue and violet, has always excited me. I always wanted my wedding outfit to be in the combination of ripe Tomato Red, tangy tangerine and Sun at 2:00 pm yellow until this color hit the Bollywood chart of colors for the bride in films. Juhi chawala, Raveena Tondon and many more in late 90's have worn clothes on screen in this color palette.

For the lovers of bright hot energy hues, you can do up your home in these colors but use these wisely cause too much of Red might have an effect on your personality as per science of colors. Red may not be the color for many as it make you very aggressive hence it is advisable to tone it down to deeper shades like maroon and crimson.

What I have done for my living room is taken the color inspiration from the MARIGOLD flowers (Maroon and Sunrise Yellow) to get the warmth in the room. Most people found it too bright to live in but I was like waiting to get this done. As I love a lot of richness in my choice of colors, I am also planning to give the room some highlights of dull gold. Which is work-in-progress.

If there is a meditation room, an austere setting is best : solid, calm, subdued colors, with no patterns. Subtle and deep shades of yellow, or red will encourage deep concentration and thoughts.

In Clothes, try teaming the red Kurta with a tangy orange color stole and orange and red accessories. The basic bright Kurta and stole with dull blue denims with balance the color and the look. Do not over do it by matching it with you bag and slippers. You may want to pick Browns to stick to the warmth in the color palette.

My favorite trick for color play in my clothes is to break the monotony of one color from top to toe with single contrast color accessories. What is yours?

Easy-on-pocket fashion

As I believe fashion does not exist in dresses, I also believe that fashion does not exist in showrooms and fashion boutiques ONLY. Today I witnessed the Fashion that is "IN" and "Light" on your pocket. All the gurlz in my office, are busy sharing there shopping trips that they had to make for today's dress code "one piece dress from store-around-the-corner" and I sense the pride of "cheap fashion" in the air for the first time. Fashion that is easy on you, can be worn for one season or once in lifetime and be replaced with the new trend without a guilt of spending a bomb and discarding it after one wear. Another strange pattern I noticed in today's dress code was that all were color coordinated from head-to-toe. For last couple of years as I remember contrast and mixed 'n' matched looks are encouraged to break the monotony and bring in a bit of spice and a so called 'break', however these gurlz didn't seem to have followed that rule and have gone back to basics. A powder blue strappy, easy dress, with dull gold and grey busy print, and embellished border, with powder blue plain shrug, biege stockings and plain powder blue shoes. Well the rule of breaking the color is replaced here by breaking the busy print with plain accessories. The over all look is very soft despite of very very busy print. If the same coordination of colors was done in all darks, might not have worked that well. Above all that the pride of sporting the cheap fashion from shop-around-the- corner had a sparkling reflection on her attitude along with satisfaction cause that is the best look today, so far. Being very much in trend and in fashion does not mean to follow marketed merchandise as it is. Rules are dictated to be played around with and not follow it as it is. Yes being in tandem with what's around is a must but for sure you would not want to be a part of the herd where everyone is identical.