It was Daphne Ghesquiere’s interest in the unknown that led her to India. So, even as a majority of the students enrolled in Asian Studies in her university in Paris took up Chinese or Japanese, Daphne opted for Thai and Indonesian languages. “I knew nothing about the language and the culture and that’s what attracted me to it. Many words in Thai come from Sanskrit, which encouraged me to learn Sanskrit. If I wanted to know anything about South East Asian architecture, I realised I have to know about the structure of a Hindu temple,” says Daphne sitting in her plush house in Sundar Nagar.
The house, sprinkled with exquisite artefacts picked up from various South East Asian countries, testifies to Daphne’s admiration and fondness for the region’s culture and heritage. And the fascination was so strongly embedded in her mind that she purposely chose Asian Studies to be a focus in her five-year degree course in International Relations so that she could be a diplomat in Asia.
But then she didn’t become a diplomat. She even dabbled in journalism a bit and joined the Wall Street Journal Asia in Bangkok. During her tenure as the head of corporate communications, Asia, with Dow Jones in Hong Kong, she along with Oliver Mueller — who is now her husband — spent two vacations in India.
At the time, Mueller was working for German newspaper Handelsblatt. “I pressurised him to convince his bosses to transfer him to India and he got it. We finally arrived here in 2003. In 2005, we had a Christian wedding in Delhi and later a Hindu wedding ceremony,” says Daphne who is expecting her second child shortly.
Luxury business
Daphne took a plunge in the luxury business. Probably, she realised the growth potential in the country whose economy had just started flexing its muscles. Several in-house and consultancy stints with Louis Vuitton, Hermes, the latest being Forest Essentials, followed. And this triggered Daphne’s passion for writing on fashion and luxury which has been published in several magazines.
Daphne is now starting her blog on India fashion which has been consciously timed with Wills Lifestyle India Fashion Week starting today. “I realised there’s lot of fashion happening but not enough writing on it. You got to tell people what’s the inspiration behind the design,” explains Daphne.
During these six years in India, Daphne has had a gamut of experiences, something she feels she wouldn’t have been able to get back home in France. “I was a good student. I would have gone to the best universities and joined the foreign service just like many of my friends. But I would have been bored. There is a sense of freedom to do things here and especially being a foreigner, you are not expected to follow the norms. So, in a way, I feel privileged. But the struggle too to achieve whatever we have in a new country was not easy. We have done everything on our own,” says Daphne.
