Amit Aggarwal’s third flagship store in DLF Emporio in Delhi is an immersive experience, much like poetry, unravelling and unveiling itself in all its delicate nuances. Esoteric and beautifully calm. The designer chats with The Telegraph on the making of the store and more.
The store looks stunning. Let’s get into your mind space through the store...
I think every store becomes an extension of the personality of the brand. The good part is that all three stores have been designed with a different mindset, understanding the different aspects of the brand that we’d like to highlight at every store. With this particular store, I really wanted this to be what we call a playground of limitless possibilities. The whole idea was choosing a colour that almost defines what infinite means to us. For me, black is an infinite space. It doesn’t have seams or edges. So, that’s exactly why I chose something as unconventional as black for a couture retail space. Nonetheless, I also wanted the space to be almost an entry into the mind space of the brand where it could effortlessly amalgamate both retail from the brand, but also have an extended experiential space where there can be larger conversations about the ethos and philosophy and what has inspired me to create a particular collection, which sometimes in the larger picture of retail ends up getting lost. This had to be a fluid structure.
How have you curated the store?
A lot of our ongoing story has been about how we kind of relate birth as the highest epitome of creativity and I think the installations evoke the sense of birth. In the dark void-like space, which I define as the abyss of Amit Aggarwal, there are reflective surfaces where you almost see what the world above would reflect in the deeper layers of the abyss. The furniture is designed like, say, if you are floating in the abyss, you will see a huge whale taking a dip in the water and a part of the whale’s body becomes a furniture piece. A lot of the surfaces are reflective as well as absorb light. There are lots of metaphoric details about life. I think the most important symbol of what I now say the store has is the pod. Technically, the pod is the emblem of birth and in our case, the birth of creativity. That moment where something comes to life connects the endless path that has been with us and the vast, limitless possibilities that the future holds for the thing that has come to life.
With so many new spaces opening up, is retail finally feeling secure?
At the peak of Covid, we opened our Bombay flagship which is a large place in Colaba. DLF was always on the cards. That is one place where everyone looks at luxury shopping. Finding the right place is important. During the pandemic, we all had our doubts about a hundred things, but I think for couture, touch and feel is imperative. And, not just touch and feel, it is an experience. You ultimately will shop for something that just doesn’t look beautiful but also makes you feel beautiful. I think that’s a higher definition of luxury and how I look at things.
The brand is more than a decade old and somewhere in the middle, the DNA changed. How did you recalibrate the way you were thinking?
The DNA was always there. For me, my journey in a day or even now, within hours, moves between thinking creatively to running a business that entails commerce. I have to be fluid between both of them. One also kind of develops a sense of inertia. There are multiple layers that you kind of develop and I think a certain part of you also loses connect with your own self. I think the remarkable change that Covid probably brought about within me was that I really got a lot of time with myself to touch the parts of me that probably got lost in the rigmarole of putting together a business structure and an organisation. I think today, I am far less fearful, very unapologetic and like to do what I like to do, directly from the heart. I don’t think I am so careful of the repercussions. I am pure and honest and that for me, always breeds and shows the right path.
Pre-Covid, we took a lot of things in our life for granted. As a thinking designer, do you now, like a lot of us, not take anything for granted too?
I have never taken anything for granted. No matter how many hours I have, sometimes I might have three or six or eight, I try to give everything that is on my table the best I can do at that particular time. The period of the pandemic made me only go deeper into that.
Tell us what you launched the store with...
This is the prelude to the couture collection. Of course, we’ll introduce it in bits and pieces. The collection speaks of the effortlessness of air.
You hosted Zeenat Aman at the launch. What was it like meeting her?
I was born in the ‘80s and Zeenat Aman was the reigning queen. She leaves a mark that is indelible, her alternative choices being extremely unapologetic, carving a new niche.... Having her at the launch tied the whole concept of eternity which the store speaks of... a personality like her is not bound by time.
What are the next 10 years looking like?
Every brand after 10 years needs to reinvent and the stories need to become larger. The older layers have to be peeled off for new layers to surface for, the freshness. I see myself going deeper into storytelling and marketing the brand beyond clothing.
Amit Aggarwal creations from his new collection ‘Flow’
Pictures, courtesy: Amit Aggarwal