Designed by Mitali Ahram of Crafted Spaces seamlessly blends tradition with a modern aesthetic
Mrunalini Rao’s eponymous label was established in 2014. Her clothing line follows a timeless aesthetic creating pieces that are at once contemporary but also worth cherishing for ages. Each design is a well-defined silhouette, made with fluid fabrics in seasonal colours and unique embellishments. Crafted Spaces design team was thrilled to design the store as they were well versed with her brand and much like their company’s motto, Mrunalini also weaves tradition blended with a modern aesthetic.
The second exciting part of taking up this project was the site itself, it was an old house situated just off a busy main road. It was originally constructed as a residence but later on, served as rental stores and office spaces over the years. The site had a couple of big mango trees and seemed cut off despite being off the main road, old houses have a charm that the team at Crafted Spaces absolutely love and they wanted to retain that old world charm in the design as well.
Colonial style
The client wanted the design to be inspired by a Colonial-style which fit perfectly with the old building waiting to be transformed with a facelift. The most important part of designing a luxury clothing Retail Space is letting the client’s clothing shine and take the front seat. Practicing restraint in design was crucial and it was important to identify areas where the team could add design elements where the clothes wouldn’t lose focus.
“The Building had an old external staircase to access the first floor, but we wanted to create a new internal staircase connecting the two levels creating a beautiful transition space devoid of clothing and serving as the Reception area and feature element for the facade“, Mitali Aharam explains.
The Marquetry pattern at the entrance and the double-height jali is evolved from Mrunalini’s first collection. All the design elements have some personal significance to her and bring in the colonial aesthetic she wanted. The white rafters in the ceiling are a representation of her ancestral village home wooden rafters. The colonial charm was brought in with the arched windows, louvers, white and black chequered flooring, terrazzo tiles, rustic pots, and artifacts.
A huge collage of embroideries and patchworks was framed at the entrance to represent her work through the years and it is the last thing you see before you exit the store. Another special piece was the handprints of all her kaarigars and team framed on the staircase wall.
A few more design elements all symbolic to the client and curated for her were the wooden handcrafted birds on the wall in the Pret line room, the Tree of life near the waiting area, the Sanskrit Shloka in brass on the stone wall in the bridal room, craftwork and embroideries to go on to the furniture.
There is a subtle inscription of a saying that means a lot to her by Ruskin Bond just behind the reception counter.
Location: Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, India
Area: 325 sqm
Design Firm: Crafted Spaces
Interior Designer: Mitali Aharam
PMC: Spacekrafts Designs, Riyaz Ahmed
Lighting: Beyond Home Solutions, Mayank Minda
