There are some things that are just so uniquely Pondicherry — like hot croissants and filter coffee by the beach, no matter the time of day, or sipping a glass of wine listening to live jazz on the promenade. I am reminded of this as I walk up the wooden stairs of Le Dupleix, the 18th century house-turned-boutique hotel on Caserne street, to see a French girl, her Tamil heart worn proudly on her organic cotton sleeve (and on her Twitter handle), sitting on a wooden swing.
Kalki Koechlin is in town as much to get away from the hectic roller coaster that is Mumbai as to introduce the new Kalki x Hidesign line of handbags. Over a bowl of papaya, we chat about plans to visit the Kallialay Surf School and go bareback riding at a nearby riding school, while she recommends a visit to Bread and Chocolate for those buttery croissants. Then the smart tan backpack perched next to her steers us back to the reason I am here. The multi-hyphenated star recalls how apprehensive she was when Hidesign’s founder-CEO, Dilip Kapur, first called her. “Thoughts of hand drawing and designing crossed my mind; I don’t know anything about bag design,” she exclaims, adding, “But he reassured me he only wanted my ideas and personality.”
The new staple
So they began by going through her bag collection (“I have everything from a jhola from Goa, to bling Guccis and classic Diors), understanding her audience (“my eight lakh followers are mostly women between 15 and 35 years, older men and gays”) and poring over innumerable photographs on Pinterest to get a feel of her varied tastes. After a year of Skype calls, mailed swatches and factory visits, 30 designs evolved.
“All the mothers I know own a Hidesign bag. I wanted to break that image and give this line a younger vibe,” she says, picking up a few to show me what she means. The Freedom duffel with black bands comes in her favourite lobster orange, and the fun silhouette is “ideal to rough around with”; the circular Infinite sling in a trendy snakeskin nude is for a night out with the girls; and the Uptown evening bag brings in some bling. She explains each name evolved out of discussions on what is valuable to her. “One of my favourites is the Stardust tote in a lovely silver-gold metallic leather. It came from a conversation on David Bowie, my love of music, and the iconic song, Ziggy Stardust . It’s a unisex bag you can throw half your life into.”
- Kapur has a lot planned for 2018, including introducing bespoke bags. “We visited (French fashion house) Louis Vuitton and learned how they offer shapes, leathers and fittings, and design bags for clients with the help of a stylist. That’s the direction we are looking at,” he says, adding that the service will be launched at their flagship store in Pondicherry first. Also in the pipeline are experiments with leather. “We’ve used exotics like ostrich and deer, but we are now in talks with the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, which is experimenting with leather grown in labs.” We can also look out for an edgy new collection, in collaboration with designer-stylist José Lévy, the former artistic director of Emanuel Ungaro, in the next month or so.
Celebs and clean lines
We continue the conversation at the Hidesign factory just outside town in Villanur, where Koechlin greets the women cutting vegetable-tanned leather and making bronze-cast buckles in Tamil, asking about their day. Kapur joins us, elaborating why he roped her in. “Hidesign has never looked to Bollywood, and with 75% of our turnover coming from India, that was not acceptable. However, we didn’t just want a celebrity, but someone we could learn from. And Kalki is that rare person who embodies it all — she is from our Aurovillean heritage, has this incredibly strong social conscience, believes in strong, independent women, clean lines and living... all ideals we hold dear.”
In fact, as we walk around, the 34-year-old artiste proves how involved she is in the project— as she observes leather scraps being discarded, she tells Kapur she will get back with ideas to repurpose them. Koechlin is in town for a few more days, and says she will be putting her bags to good use, slinging on her trusty tan Human backpack when she cycles around Auroville and carrying the Evolve business bag when the Hidesign CEO calls her in for meetings.
The bags, from ₹2,395 onwards, are available across Hidesign stores now.
The alternate life
Back home, Koechlin wants to switch off and recharge, read books and work on a new monologue perhaps. “I usually get my ideas while travelling or working, but when I want to discipline them and give them structure, I like to come here,” shares the actress, who is working on Gully Boy with Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt. What are her thoughts on Auroville turning 50? “I don’t think there is such a thing as ideal Utopia. Auroville has gone through its struggles, but as a way of sustainable living, it is very relevant,” says Koechlin, whose earliest memories are sitting in the basket of her mum’s cycle, and playing with her Tamil friends in the gullis of Periyamudaliyar Kuppam. “As a community, it is stuck in between what it wants, which is to stay protected, and what it needs, which is to grow. We are still struggling to find that balance. The first generation came here after having lived their lives, so they didn’t mind giving it all up. But my generation, we were born into this. So we rebelled — we dissipated, went everywhere. But the new generation, they are pragmatic. They know they need to make money and protect the environment. I am encouraged to see that.”
surya.kumar@thehindu.co.in
