Behind the best dressed homes
Stories play a significant part in Toile Indienne founders Akila Seshasayee and Pankaj Kehr's lives. Launched in September 2017, their textiles play with texture, fabric and colour. Seshasayee says that design conversations are the brand's DNA. "We would talk about design for years, before we finally adapted and translated our vision into Toile Indienne," says the graphic designer. In 1664 the French East India Company brought colourful printed cotton toile (cloth) known as indiennes, from India into France. "These fabrics were so popular that the word indiennes entered the French language, referring not only to the cloth but to garments made from it," says Kehr, who had initially got Seshasayee on board to design the packaging of surgical equipments, his family business.
When we talk about Indian designs, it usually means kitsch or Jaipur bootis. The image of India is stuck somewhere between the two despite having a glorious tradition of textiles. "Our extensive research led us to write the stories behind each of our collections. For instance, the Love and War collection features
