Winning by design

As a steaming pot of coffee is being placed on her black-top desk,Nagpal explains,“The store revolves around a shopper’s experience. You can sit in the discussion area,go through more than 200 catalogues,check out wall papers,all the furniture pieces and even get design support complimentary from the store. You can pretty much put your home together here and I had to design the store in such a manner as to make the shopper comfortable enough to do that,” she says,and adds,“Every detail is looked into. Even that aroma of coffee beans as you enter is deliberate.”

Nagpal has been an interior designer for more than 14 years through her company Interno Moda. Atelier was started in 2008. “I felt that a designer can do nothing without material. I wanted a place that would be a designer’s delight,” she says. Whether it’s retail space or residential,a lot gets lost in between the conceptualisation and the carpenter’s understanding of it. “I wanted a place that could offer over-the-top furniture. The furniture accessories here are picked from around the world and we even have a tie-up with a factory to make unique pieces. See,I only pick pieces that make me go ‘Wow’. If I look at something and just say,‘Hmm,it’s nice,’ then I don’t touch it.”

Design today is everything,she feels,especially for a retail outfit. “Your designer can create spaces for you,” she says as she shows pictures of two city-based fashion boutiques designed by her – Enaya and Neo Couture. “For fashion boutiques,the décor should be such that it doesn’t overshadow the garments,” she says,“Visual buying is visual merchandising. Look at Louis Vuitton stores. They follow a beige-brown concept,no loud colours so that the product catches the eye.”

In the last five years,the mindset of people has changed. “There was a time when people would say: ‘Why do I need a designer? The sutar will do it.’ But today,they realise the value of what they’re getting. And they are willing to pay more for it,” she says. “A high-end store is called so because it is designed that way and can thus have vases that cost Rs 80,000. A mall on the other hand is for the masses and that’s what comes out through its design.”

Atelier can easily fall into the high-end bracket. “But you can come even in your bathroom chappals to shop. I wanted that raw,warehouse look for it,an upmarket warehouse,to be more precise.”