‘A Farah Khan bride makes her own rules’

‘A Farah Khan bride makes her own rules’

Farah Khan believes that her jewellery is an artistic statement of who she is. In the industry for almost 25 years, the celebrity jewellery designer and gemologist has created a name for herself. Her line of jewellery has graced the red carpet at international events like the Academy Awards, Golden Globe, the Grammys, and the Emmys and is being flaunted by celebrities like Beyonce, Serena Williams, Kareena Kapoor Khan and others. But she believes that, no matter how opulent and ornate her jewellery might be, it should fit its wearer like a glove.

Farah is set to showcase her latest collection at the Vogue Wedding Show, to be held at Taj Palace, New Delhi from August 3-5 2018. In its sixth year, actress Kangana Ranaut is the face of the event, which will also showcase the works of Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi, Tarun Tahiliani, Anita Dongre, Shantanu & Nikhil, Gaurav Gupta, Rahul Mishra and so on. Excerpts: 

Can you tell us about your collection at the Vogue Wedding Show?
My collection is an opulent mix of exotic, glamorous haute couture bejewelled pieces and striking pret collections with an edge. Along with jewellery, this is the first time I will also be unveiling a lifestyle collection that focuses more on wedding and gifting line. I feel there is a huge gap in this sector for luxurious products with great design and packaging.

From scented soy wax candles to fine bone china crockery, to scarves and scarf accessories and stationery, all our products have been especially designed and created keeping the Farah Khan Brand inspirations and monogram motif in mind.

This season, our bridal jewellery collection takes inspiration from a glorious bygone era of Indian Royalty, its myriad colours and richness of forms and textures to create and craft ornate bridal masterpieces. 

Precious carved and faceted gemstones, in quixotic colour palettes set in 18kt gold, all handcrafted by master craftsmen in a variety of bridal necklaces, chokers, earrings and bridal accessories, will be showcased.

What is the inspiration behind the designs?
There are four pillars of inspiration for my brand — Nature, Architecture, Love and Ethics — that are represented by my brand’s monogram motif ‘Aayat’. Nature and Architecture rooted in a bygone glorious era form majority of my inspirations in design and I am constantly drawn to shapes that are fluid in form and also those that have royal motifs in design. Love forms the core of my work because it’s the passion to create that drives me to design. Ethics is an extremely important pillar of my inspiration because I believe in doing everything right in everything I do, even ethically sourcing gemstones.

What kind of jewelleries do Indian brides prefer? Are they open to experimentation?
Every bride on her wedding day wants to look like a royal princess because as a young girl she has always envisioned a prince who will be her paramour. Today’s bride is no different. She wants to look her best and wants to be the cynosure of all eyes. The only difference in today’s bride and the brides in the past is that she is more aware of what she wants and how she wants to look. She knows what suits her and what doesn’t. She wants an opinion but that does not mean she will take it. She wants a classic design, yet wants it to be different than other brides, so in that sense, she wants uniqueness in design. 

She is open to experimenting with colours and different forms as long as it looks good on her. She also wants to wear her jewellery more often, rather than keep it locked away in the safe. I see a lot of brides today opting for chokers over necklaces on their main day. Most of them also like to style their jewellery differently.

How would you describe the Farah Khan style?
I celebrate the indomitable spirit of a woman who loves to live her life and lives to love herself so that she can spread happiness and love. A Farah Khan bride is unapologetic about who she is and makes her own rules. She is feminine yet fierce, fabulous yet feisty. She is comfortable in her own skin and believes in expressing herself freely on her special day in exquisite jewels that are as unique as she is. She wears the jewels, she doesn’t let the jewels wear her.

How do you balance being inspired by something very unconventional with the practicality of designing wearable jewellery?
As I am a free soul, wearability forms a very important aspect in my design process. A bride, during her wedding ceremonies, wears jewellery for very long periods. It’s important to make sure that the jewellery created for her doesn’t weigh her down but adds to the sparkle in her eyes. 

When you move, the jewellery you wear should interact with you and the light so that it comes alive and enhances the beauty of the bride. I take special pride in the craftsmanship of our necklaces.

You come from a well-known Bollywood family. Did it add more responsibility on you or it worked in your favour?
My competition would like to believe that being from a Bollywood family was advantageous to my career but this year, I complete 25 years as a jewellery designer and have built a strong brand due to my talent and sheer hard work. Being an outsider in the business of gems and jewellery was tough and the trade is not a welcoming one. 

All that I am today, I achieved on my own. So in that sense, both my successes and failures have been mine alone. I’ve seen many ups and downs in my career, but the downs always drove me to succeed. Being from a famous family may bring curious people through your door, but if you aren’t good at what you do, they will never return. 

Also, the fact that I hailed from a Bollywood family worked to my disadvantage as it gave my competition a reason to tell clients that I would be terribly expensive which actually I’m not. Those who walk through my door and make a purchase are always surprised to find out that I am not as overpriced as they had heard.

I don’t love to design, I live to design and somewhere that passion is very apparent in my work. There is still so much I want to do and achieve, and I know I will eventually because I’m grateful for everything I have earned.

What are some of the trends that we can look forward to this wedding season?
I believe that coloured jewellery will be big this season. It will make you feel brighter and will make more of a statement. Hair accessories are also going to be very popular as well as versions of the haath phool and baju bandh. Lots of unusual cut carvings in gemstones matched with translucent and transparent textures. Weddings are going to get more and more “unique” and so will jewellery. Design will make all the difference and brides will go for unusual statement pieces.

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