Owner8217;s Pride/James Ferreira

James Ferreira abhors anything new, to the extent that he is even suspicious of electricity and prefers oil lamps. quot;I am a total misfit in these times, I have become a recluse and despair when I see what is becoming of the beautiful Bombay that was. I am born 100 years too late.quot; Everything around him, therefore, must belong to a time gone by. All the furniture and glass decanters and chandeliers and chests. quot;The world must have been a perfect place in the era to which this furniture belongs.quot; Since the age of 14 he has combed the Friday markets of Chor Bazaar, buying curious artifacts and antiquities. Hours and days were spent looking for bargains. A peculiar mix of clocks, Japanese boxes, Chinese planters, mirrors, angels in porcelain and glass, owls of various types, old perfume bottles have accumulated to become a part of a quaint collections.

quot;I never know the value of things nor have enough money to consciously acquire art and antiques. I just have an eye.quot; An eye that picked out a carved, colonialscreen on which is hung a Toran8217; 8212; a welcome curtain to an Indian house, made intriguingly out of cigarette cards. Combined with this is a Parsi lace cloth stitched with a collection of age-old postcards and photographs, to form a charmingly, eccentric oddity. But the favourite among his much-loved antiques is his own Portuguese colonial home, a heritage structure. In his family for hundreds of years, it is a blue and white bungalow with Mangalore tiled-roofs, mosaic floors in different designs, old huge fans and dusty, ancient chandeliers. The picturesque village8217; with narrow, interweaving lanes where James8217; house is ensconsed 8212; Chimatpada 8212; is one of the oldest colonies in Mumbai. What he would love, is to actually collect old homes and restore them. quot;I wish we had a living heritage society where old residences were restored and run the way the castles of Europe are 8212; as hotels.quot;

A huge canopy over an altar is another special buy. This adorns the main room, teeming with curios as in an old curiosityshop. It is here that James 8212; who has trained with Zandra Rhodes and Rene8217; Dairy, the French designer 8212; is at his inspirational best, conceptualising magical ensembles for primma donnas of Indian society like Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Tina Munim and Maureen Wadia. And perhaps it is these surrounding that have prompted the designer to end his long sabbatical to host a fashion show at Glitterati, in the first week of July.