house that is, unsurprisingly, a feast of pattern, textiles and beautiful bold hues
TEXT GABBY DEEMING | PHOTOGRAPHS PAUL MASSEY
Divan-style sofas and a chaise longue in a floral print by Good Earth are positioned in the centre of the main sitting area, creating an inviting social space. The cushions arranged on them are covered in fabrics from the company’s collection
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lthough the name might mean nothing to most Europeans, ask any style-conscious Indian and they will tell you that the Good Earth stores are an essential port of call for lovers of design, colour and pattern. The shops feature floor upon floor of beautifully crafted Indian ceramics, hand-block-printed and woven textiles, and cool cafes serving up fresh and inventive dishes. To the company’s owner Anita Lal, after almost 20 years of business, 10 shops and a steadily expanding empire, this success appears to have come as rather a surprise.
The seeds of Good Earth were sown in the late Seventies, when
‘accidental entrepreneur’ Anita, a trained studio potter who had two young children at that time, began working with rural arti-sans to make their designs more contemporary. ‘Modern inter-pretations of traditional designs didn’t really exist back then,’
she explains. ‘If you wanted colourful and interesting patterned pieces, you had to import them.’
This brings us to the present day and from India to London, where Good Earth is sponsoring the Victoria and Albert Museum’s autumn exhibition, The Fabric of India, a major show exploring the world of handmade Indian textiles from the third century to the present day. The exhibition includes more than 200 pieces, many on display for the first time, including a stunning selection of historic clothes, heirloom fabrics and cutting-edge fashion.
Walking round Anita’s house in Delhi, it is easy to see why Good Earth is a natural partner for such an event. Pretty patterned textiles and bright colours – the hallmarks of Good Earth – punctuate every space. The feeling is contemporary, but each of the designs is drawn from and celebrates the remarkable textile heritage of India and the Silk Road.
The house was built in the Sixties by Austrian architect Karl Malte von Heinz as a modern haveli (a typical Indian courtyard house) for Anita’s father-in-law. Anita and her husband moved in 2010 and the house has been gently evolving since. Considering her eye for design, Anita is not precious when it comes to the house and, for the most part, the decoration is modest and family oriented. The dragonfly voile at the dining-room windows is from the very first Good Earth collection in 1996 and the cushions on the sitting-room sofas are a combination of old designs and pieces from last season’s Silk Road-inspired Samarqand
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THIS PAGE FROM TOP Framed by one of the white arches in the sitting room, eclectic artwork hangs above a sofa, creating a quieter place to sit away from the main seating area in the centre of the room. An Anglo-Indian pedestal table sits at the centre of the entrance hall; facing this is the dining room and the arches lead into the sitting room on the left and outside on the right.
OPPOSITE Inspired by the kalamkari tent of Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore in the eighteenth century, the dining room has dramatic dark chintz fabric on the walls designed by Anita's team, which is currently on display at the V&A
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collection. The furniture is a mix of inherited, new and ‘I’m not quite sure where that came from’. Anita’s five grandchildren
‘own the space’ in the large sitting room. ‘If something breaks, it breaks,’ she says with a mild shrug.
The most striking room in the house is the dining room.
Inspired by the exquisite kalamkari tent of Tipu Sultan, the king of Mysore in the eighteenth century (which is included in the V&A exhibition), it has a dramatically coloured chintz-design fabric battened onto the walls to create a tent-like effect. The fabric was designed by Anita’s team and, as Anita is keen to point out, printed onto a very inexpensive cloth.
The main sitting room has a certain grandeur, positioned within cool white arches that mark the centre of the house. It was originally intended to have an open roof, as a haveli would, but practical thinking rained off this idea and the double-height ceil-ing remained closed. When you look up, it is still decorated in the original soft pinkish-red paint that Anita’s father-in-law chose 50 years ago. Anita loves this detail, and while we are on the subject of colour, she is very particular about the soft blue that she chose for the walls. ‘This colour never comes out properly in photo-graphs,’ she says. ‘It always looks too blue.’ We have been warned!
The room is arranged for convivial gatherings with inviting divan-style sofas piled with cushions. Doors at both ends open onto the garden where, on this hottest of days, frangipani and bougain-villea are growing in abundance. Although Anita, frowning at a monkey who watches us from the wall, assures us with the pride of a keen gardener that winter is when it is at its most beautiful.
The relaxed atmosphere continues up the marble staircase, where old family photographs tell a story of generations. At the top is a charming blue sitting room with light printed voile curtains and tall french windows that open onto the balcony. Just beyond it, Anita’s bedroom – her ‘sanctuary’ – is shared in equal parts by the bed and the computer, a reminder that her role as creative head of Good Earth is her work and also her rest.
India is not famous for big interiors brands, particularly not one almost entirely run by women. Anita cuts a maternal figure, and it is clear her staff adore her. Her daughter Simran is behind the collaboration with the V&A and, as CEO, is in charge of bringing the company to an international market – although it already ships worldwide through its website. New fans can get a more hands-on introduction to Anita’s style at a pop-up shop in London that is set to open this autumn. Good Earth is definitely one to watch 첸
Good Earth: goodearth.in. ‘The Fabric of India’ is at the Victoria and Albert Museum, SW7, until January 10, 2016;
vam.ac.uk/fabricofindia
THIS PAGE FROM TOP The marble staircase to the first floor is lined with family photographs. A spare room has a quilt and curtain in traditional poppy prints. OPPOSITE CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT The walls, sofa and decorative plates in the upstairs sitting room share a blue palette. French windows open on to the garden from the sitting room downstairs, with another set above to the first-floor balcony. A bench with Good Earth embroidered and printed cushions makes a comfortable seating spot in the garden, while cane chairs and an Anglo-Indian table create another outdoor seating area (bottom left)
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