A 3-storey ode to weaves, crafts, art and artisans of India, nestled in the Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad. Designer Gaurang Shah has created a living museum over 22,000 square feet, where you will find the most exquisite, rare and precious weaves and textiles of India in creative combinations that are both traditional and modern, seamlessly weaving the timeless past with today's innovations.
Let us begin at the beginning. The boundary wall is a particularly patchy shade of red, the ingenuous designer mixed kumkum with cement, a flourish of artistry that sets the tone for what's to come. Then there is blending indigo with cement for the façade and haldi with yellow paint to achieve colour and consistency seen only in natural dyes.
Gaurang Shah at the newly opened store
The outer wall has an elegant black-on-white Tree of Life, something that appears often in Gaurang's creations. Building a museum like this has been a long-cherished dream for the part revivalist, part alchemist, who has used it as a canvas and stage to celebrate textiles spanning technique, tradition and geography across India.
Each floor has a museum space that has wall art and textiles which change every month. It was Kalamkari last month, Patola currently and Jamdani next. This leads you to the boutique area to indulge in retail therapy.
"Most museums showcase the works of the past, but I want to celebrate the present too. I was keen to show the beauty of what's happening right now around us."
The most striking piece in the entire showcase, the piece de resistance, is a Kalamkari panel that is 57 feet by 12 feet, and drapes over two full walls. This was made by a single artisan in the designer's Tirupati cluster and took over two years to make.
Depicting scenes from Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagavatham, it is a stunning tapestry of natural dyes: flowers in startling reds and blues, Ganeshas in the most natural hues of Indigo and scrolling vines, all neatly juxtaposed with the precision of a miniature painting. Interwoven with these scenes are delicate inscriptions in Telugu making the artistry timeless and transcendental.
"It was made more than ten years ago and happily forgotten in a warehouse. When the architect asked for something that depicts the character of the place, it felt like the right time and fit," says Gaurang.
What is interesting is that none of the delicate-looking exquisite piece is showcased in glass. You can touch and feel them. "Nothing will happen to them. I want people to experience the texture without a barrier," he says.
On the first floor, 26 saris hang from a height of nine feet. Many of them look like paintings, rather murals. You will be surprised to find your eyes playing games with you, the weaves, the colour shades, the designs, the creations give you the illusion of an elaborate endless canvas.
Small touches enhance the sensorial experience: Kadapa flooring interjected with hand painted tiles from Jaipur, the black walls making perfect backdrops for canvases bursting with colour and even the lighting, quietly subservient to the hero of the story, the textiles.
Each level is distinctly themed around a single art form. If the first level displays saris and pays homage to Kalamkari, the walls and artwork come alive with dancing Gods and flowing rivers in natural dyes. The retail area is divided into cabins to give clients privacy. The partitions are adorned in shades of cream decked up in embroidery styles ranging from marodi work to jamdani.
The second floor, dedicated to ready-to-wear womenswear, pays tribute to embroidery. The walls are jostling with different techniques, think petit point from Kerala, Mochi stitch from Gujarat, Phulkaris from Punjab and katha work from Bengal making a vivid collage of India's needlework traditions.
Third floor consists of menswear and home decor honouring different types of Jamdani, not bound to Bengal alone but showcasing the dexterity of the weaves from Kashmir to Andhra. The motifs of the art on display recall Mughal arches, temple carvings and birds in mid-flight, while showcasing the delicate beauty of the weave.
Gaurang insists, "These crafts are not relics but living languages. I am interpreting them so that the immersive techniques of our country that are hidden in plain sight can find a fresh lease of life".
Even the staircases are flanked with eye popping pieces of art: frames bursting with scenes of Sreenathji in Raas Leela done up in techniques as diverse as Paton Patola, Patachitra and Tanjore to aari embroidery, ensuring that even movement up the space is accompanied by a sense of wonderment.
Jesting that everything is up for sale, because he wants the treasures to be showcased in homes across the country and abroad, Gaurang points to unique combinations: a Ganesha canvas done in mirror work from Ahmedabad or a wall panel interlocked in three different textures (moga silk, organza and Mughal architecture) commenting that art can be endlessly interpretative.
A heady confluence of art and textile, the museum is an Alladin's cave filled with Indian treasures. Even the crockery is handmade and painted with motifs like the lotus. There is an unerring eye for both beauty and detail.
From a small matching centre in Hyderabad to a beautiful museum that showcases the pride of India, working on weaves from Uppada and Ventakagiri to Parsi Gara and Paithani, working with 7000 artisan families, Gaurang Shah has woven a timeless magic that the country can take pride in.