Over the years we’d travelled to many places as a family, and now living in the UAE, it was on a trip to Jaipur in Rajasthan where Pink City Living came to life.
With a business degree behind me and over a decade working in Mayfair, London, in the luxury goods industry, I’d always enjoyed being busy and loved the buzz of city life. I met my husband during this time, and it was only when we started planning our family that we realized this 24/7 working lifestyle, wasn’t going to work for us both. I really wanted to give everything to motherhood and be the mum that did the school run; be the one that was there for those critical years of our children’s growth and development, and so it was time to adjust our priorities.
I’ve always loved fabrics, colours, patterns, anything to do with homes and we’d successfully completed four renovations and house moves along the way. So it was then that I decided to study a diploma in furniture upholstery, whilst expecting my eldest son, and finally I was able to follow my dream of working with fabrics, soft furnishings and interiors. I did some upholstery commission work over that time, which was great, giving new life to old furniture, but a ‘mum-to-three’ has kept me pretty occupied for the past few years. And so, as my youngest now starts her journey into pre-school to join her brothers, I felt it was time to create something of my own.
After years of being surrounded by the fine Georgian townhouses of Mayfair, Savile Row tailors, exquisite designer jewelers on Bond Street and Burlington Arcade, working with gourmet, Michelin-starred chefs and exclusive, World-famous hotels, I now wanted to use all the experience that my years in London had given me. With my appreciation and understanding of luxury-lifestyle, fine homes, interiors and beautiful objects, I wanted to bring my own little slice of fabulousness to people’s homes.
Over the years I’d travelled to Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Barbados, India, Mauritius, the US, all through Europe, and now living in the UAE as a family, it was on a trip to Jaipur in Rajasthan, where Pink City Living came to life. When we moved to Dubai, I was set on visiting the fabric capital of the world, to see the fine linens, the beautiful cottons and it was there that I discovered the wonderful art of block printing.
I fell in love with the patterns and the endless possibilities to create truly anything you wanted for the home on cotton, linen or blended fabrics. It’s a miraculous journey, starting with a simple block of sheesham wood….a pattern is intricately carved with chisels, the dyes are mixed, the cotton is laid out and the creations take place, as the patterns are painstakingly printed by hand, onto oceans of fabric.
For me, India just has a magic that is hard not to fall in love with. I was so inspired by the artisans, making these wonderful hand-crafted items, using skills passed down through the generations, often an entire village running the block printing process, each family completing a separate stage of the production process. These were people I wanted to work with. I wanted to help keep this heritage craft alive.
On my last trip to Jaipur, I made time for some business meetings with fabric wholesalers to discuss patterns, fabric finishes and my new collection, which really got the creative juices flowing.
My personal style is based around a neutral palate, mixing natural textures, different tones of white, greys, dusky pinks, mizzle greens, softer muted tones, that blend in with any décor. I love the big, bold colours that epitomize India, and I wanted to take these hues and dilute them so that they worked seamlessly within the modern home. I’ve loved curating the collections for Pink City Living, playing around with how the patterns and colours can be applied to all sorts of home furnishings and things for ‘living’ and I hope you love them as much as we do!
You can read about a more recent trip I took to Jaipur, in my journal entry A long weekend in the Pink City, Jaipur.
Jess
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