Mridula Sharma: Rewarding the ex-mill workers' sweat

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Rewarding the ex-mill workers' sweat

RAJIV SAINI TURNS AROUND YET ANOTHER MILL

I remember the first time I set my eyes on the ruins of Laxmi Mills in Mumbai...the tall grey roofless walls with banyan roots playing hide and seek. It is probably the strongest surreal vision in my memory bank. The walls still stand straight and firm.

Who would have thought that the smokey chimneys, bleak windows, clanking of machines being run by forlorn workers of the erstwhile money spinning Mills, would one day have such an avatar. It wouldn't be too off the mark to say that the metamorphosis of these mills was the beginning of the recent design movement. It was exciting to see splashes of colour (before colour became commonplace) generously splattered across these huge wall expanses of refurbished mills as new offices or studios. And that went on for a while.....

...last month, my friend architect designer Rajiv Saini, who has done some fabulous interiors and architecture, www.rajivsaini.com and also has a stool selling by his name with Moroso, www.moroso.it, sent these pictures of a fashion store that he recently completed at Parel, Mumbai. Minimalist as his style is, he brings in enough drama that a fashion store need have, without it being in your face...just what we have loved his works for!
Rajiv has maintained the industrial look with foundry work and prettied it with black glass beads. Shades of white across a range of surfaces make it a very interesting study in monochrome. I love the drama created in the center of the store supported by very plain and simple pillars. But the best, saved for the last detail, are the safety pins used as a fringe on the carpet in the trial room. The look is very international and this store could be anywhere in Milan or Paris....