India By Design

India by Design: Colonial History and Cultural Display maps for the first time a series of historical events—from the Raj in the mid-nineteenth century up to the present day—through which India was made fashionable to Western audiences within the popular cultural arenas of the imperial metropole. Situated at the convergence of discussions in anthropology, art history, museum studies, and postcolonial criticism, this dynamic study investigates with vivid historical detail how Indian objects, bodies, images, and narratives circulated through metropolitan space and acquired meaning in an emergent nineteenth-century consumer economy. Through an examination of India as represented in department stores, museums, exhibitions, painting, and picture postcards of the era, the book carefully confronts the problems and politics of postcolonial display and offers an original and provocative account of the implications of colonial practices for visual production in our contemporary world.

Between 2000-2008 India's economic and political ascendancy were charted in the worlds press. This period of dynamism ushered in an increased sense of confidence, aspiration and pride in being Indian. This book is about the response of the design community to India's changing environment. It focuses on fashion, graphic and interior design as metaphors of the complex networks that constitute globalisation within key metropolitan centres of India. Examined within the context of their production and consumption, and through their economic, social, political and cultural underpinnings, a picture emerges which conveys how designers grapple with issues of identity and globalisation, nationhood and modernity, ethics and commerce.

A coherent and insightful view of the growing Global Luxury & Fashion Brands market in India, India by Design - The Pursuit of Luxury and Fashion unveils this culturally complex and dynamic market via a series of interviews with global Luxury and Fashion Experts. India has more consumers for luxury goods than the adult population of several countries. For international luxury brands, India is no longer a testing ground, but a lucrative market. India By Design looks at India as more than just an emerging luxury market with high growth potential, but scrutinizes it as a country rediscovering its luxury heritage and bringing it into the present and future in a uniquely Indian way. The authors' sense of detail balanced with their ability to see the big picture bring sense to the kaleidoscope of cultures, businesses and technology which is India today.

DEKHO is an anthology of inspirational conversations with designers in India, probing their stories for cues to the development of design in India and highlighting approaches that are unique to designing for India. -- publisher website.

More than three hundred full-color illustrations and photographs complement a fascinating look at the best of Indian interior design and decorative art, capturing the unique architectural details, innovative patterns and motifs, furniture, wall decorations, textiles, and colors of India.

Intricate and inventive, these 30 full-page designs are drawn from the vibrant patterns that have adorned Indian clothing and decorative objects for centuries. Motifs include birds and animals, folkloric characters, abstract florals, paisley patterns, and other bold designs. Colorists of all ages will thrill to the challenge of bringing these black-and-white patterns to vivid life.

Based equally in the archives of firms such as Louis Vuitton, Boucheron, Chaumet and Hermès, and in palace and private collections, this book explores the role of maharajas in an age of high spending and fashion. It brings together original designs with surviving objects, exploring for the first time the creative dialogue between Indian princes and the skilled tradesmen who produced wonders for their delectation. Married to the objects themselves are the absorbing and often humourous accounts of how maharajas indulged their tastes with unparalleled extravagance and aplomb.