The finer details
Jewellery ads featuring film stars and celebrities are a sign of revival for an industry that has weathered a difficult storm of excise duty, demonetization and GST.
A fearless crop of jewellery designers is changing the way Indians and Indophiles adorn themselves, using craft-based intricacies and unlikely materials. I spoke to six enterprising bauble creators.
It is dark and the first sight we see is the gold bust of a fat woman. At the base lie jars of hair removal creams, tweezers and razors, along with flowers and candles. It is an altar for a Venus statue discovered several thousand years ago. The sight appalls and shocks you momentarily. Venus, fat? The death of hair removal?
It is easy to fall in love with Eina Ahluwalia when you meet her. The conceptual jewellery artist is warm, down-to-earth and good-humoured.
So the thing is, I have a fetish for rings. Any kind of rings will do. Gold, silver, platinum, mixed metals, fashion jewellery – even creative plastic. But my favourite rings are invariably those with memories attached to them like silent price tags.
Whatever your political stance, private values or public choices, freedom has an intensely personal connotation for all of us. We speak to Indian women from different walks of life and from all across India on what freedom means to them.
The world over, SMEs drive economies – those mom-and-pop stores are the ones keeping the market alive. But in India, small startups faces huge blocks – from logistics to infrastructure to red tape and bureaucratic egos – that discourage their very existence. No surprise they contribute only 17 per cent to GDP.
CORALESQUE 