Bauble girls

It is,however,not just celebrities who’ve fallen in love with their designs. “It’s a sign of how well our designs have crossed over. It’s not just famous women who’re buying them; a lot of regular people too buy them,” says Radhika. They’re hoping for the same kind of success here,when they will finally make their pieces available to Indian ladies,starting tomorrow. “Indian jewellery will never go out of fashion,of course,” says Gauri,“but Indian women are increasingly looking at jewellery as fashion accessories and not just investment. Isharya combines Indian traditions with a western aesthetics,which makes it perfect for the contemporary Indian woman’s needs. Whether she chooses to wear a sari or a dress,the jewellery will complement her look.” For sometime,the jewellery will only retail at Bungalow 8 in Mumbai,although the Tandons assure us that they’re hoping to retail in other Indian cities soon.

The Tandon ladies had long had a penchant for fashion and jewellery. “Even as a girl,when my mother used to get her jewellery made,I would get totally caught up in the process,” reveals Gauri,“I knew all about the different styles and I would read up a lot about them.” It was a passion shared by her sister-in-law Radhika,who also got her jewellery custom-made in India. “One day the editor of Daily Candy,which is a prominent online fashion newsletter,noticed a ring that I was wearing and said that she wanted to feature it in a spread. I told her to hold on for about four months,because we had to come up with a name and a website,” she recalls. With Radhika handling the business in California and Gauri working from Mumbai,Isharya was finally founded in December 2004.

For the launch tomorrow at Bungalow 8,the duo have brought four of their lines — the popular Druzy collection,using natural druzy agate and set in statement bib necklaces; the Enamel collection which uses Indian Enamel and takes it to the next level,by crafting it into unique shapes; the Coin collection,which is inspired by the coin jewellery of Rajasthan’s Banjara community; and the Floating Brocade collection which is inspired by traditional Gota embroidery.

Isharya manages to stand out in a market where India-inspired jewellery is being created by high profile names like Amrapali and Padma Lakshmi. The brand retails out of spaces like Henri Bendel’s,Harvey Nichols and Harrods,has been featured in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar and was even seen on the New York Fashion Week Spring 2010 runway,where it was presented along with designer Pamella Roland’s outfits. Gauri attributes their success to the fact that they’ve never been blinded by the need to outdo their competitors. “We make what we would love to wear. We’re not the type to see what others are doing and then imitate those trends. We like to set our own trends and benchmarks.”