A DREAM MERCHANT MEETS A DREAM GIRL MANISH MALHOTRA AND KIARA ADVANI

‘I love serenity, I do not like too much bling in my personal spaces. I love fresh flowers, I love white, I love mirrors, and how they contrast with wooden textures. I like the space to breathe, be fragrant’
— Manish Malhotra

‘It’s my first HELLO! cover ever. I think it has come at a very special time in my life, and it’s in your home, Manish, so it’s with someone who is very, very close to me’
— Kiara Advani

We arrive at Manish Malhotra’s very private spaces, taking in a motley assembly of artworks that range from larger-than-life Tanjores to MF Husain reproductions, to a lot of paintings that may have crossed his path on his travels around the world. That Manish has a keen artistic sense, is hardly surprising. A little bird close to the designer shares that he loves to paint in his own study, and the colours for his delightful ensembles often come together in a colour storyboard, first born in his art. However, he keeps all his paintings hidden from public view. Perhaps one day, he may choose to change that stance but for now, we can only imagine him applying a rich palette of his celebrated biscuit and beige hues, his flirtatious pastels, on canvas, and then seeing those hues on hangers in subsequent collections.

In a city that packs a punch into every square metre (and into every minute), the luxury of Manish’s home is the sheer openness and old-world