Changing meaning of luxury in an era of globalisation
The first session at TLL, called “Old Meets New In Design and Architecture”, had the following speakers: Dinara Dultaeva , founder of Dinara and Co. publishing house and chief editor of Visit Uzbekistan magazine; Pradeep Sachdeva, architect and urban Designer; and Ayush Kasliwal, designer thinker and advocate for artisans.
The session had the speakers discussing India and Uzbekistan’s definition of luxury, about which Dinara Dultaeva said, “In my opinion, for both India and Uzbekistan, luxury in culture is not a way of living, rather a way of representing our rich heritage. It is an outlet through which we can try to do justice to our history and culture and everything they have to offer. It is a source of inspiration that lets us maintain our heritage, incorporate it into our modern lives and make decisions for our future. Luxury is time. It is hundreds of hours of labour-intensive work. It is techniques and methods that—yes—can mostly be replaced by technology now. However, no technology can ever replace caring human hands that knit a carpet for several months and even years. Hands that embroider a suzani stitch by stitch, knot by knot. A lot of patience and dedication is needed to produce just a few metres of ikat material. Gentle brush strokes embellishing a traditional drinking bowl—piala, where every piala turns out unique and feels like has its own soul and spirit. There is a true luxury in that. The greatest value that can only be brought by time and hard work.”
Elaborating further, she said, “Uzbek people have great amounts of love and admiration for their motherland and are known as a very hospitable and generous nation. It is true to say that we love sharing our uniqueness with the world, and it fills our hearts with pride when fruits of our heritage are recognised on an international scale. Uzbek textiles are very popular among international designers. For example, the famous Oscar de la Renta ikat collection from 2005, which not only represented this beautiful material in clothing, but also in accessories and furniture. The collection was created in collaboration with Rasuljon Mirzaakhmedov, mastercraftsman from Margilan in Ferghana Valley.”
Pradeep Sachdeva talked about his architecture projects across Delhi. “We have such a modest line of work, with projects like Dilli Haat and the Garden of Five Senses we have developed designer streets for walkability and we have a current project where we are revamping Chandni Chowk. We do luxurious, over the top work of course and the other work we do is traditional palaces converted to hotels. We make them Indian and contextual, always inspired by the region.”
Ayush Kasliwal talked about his work aimed at making crafts relevant again. In the changing context of Indian and world luxury, what we have to strive towards is what the session concluded with.