From the pearliest palace interiors to essentially the most epic couture creations, a brand new residency programme presents a possibility to discover the uppermost echelons of India’s extraordinary artisanal functionality and design expertise. Conceived by inside designer Shalini Misra, the Shakti Design Residency goals to supply a glimpse of what might be attainable, foster new collaborations, and shatter preconceptions all on the similar time.
Raised in India, and now based mostly between Delhi, New York and London, Misra has spent practically three many years looking for out proficient artisans world wide for her inside design initiatives, and her expertise of India’s distinctive craftsmanship and collectible design means she has lengthy been conscious of the potential of opening this market as much as a wider viewers (Misra’s Delhi house is a ‘Made in India’ sanctuary). ‘The timing feels significantly essential now as we witness a worldwide shift in the direction of valuing craftsmanship and innovation,’ she says.
Artisans at work at Shalini Misra’s household retreat in Delhi
(Picture credit score: Images: Suryan Saurabh)
In spring 2024, Misra and her group put out an open name for functions, and from some robust competitors, 5 rising designers from world wide had been chosen, then flown to India, the place they had been every partnered with considered one of 5 revered ateliers: Tarun Tahiliani, Klove Studio, Vikram Goyal, Jaipur Rugs, and the Chanakya Faculty of Craft.
For 4 weeks, underneath the steering of their mentors, the designers had been immersed of their respective heritage crafts and India’s historical past and tradition, concurrently tasked with creating a brand new assortment. The outcomes, displaying at Alcova 2025 throughout Milan Design Week, might be produced in limited-edition runs, in the stores on Misra’s retail platform Curio House, and Primary House, the LA-based digital market based by Design Miami chairman and Shakti panellist Jesse Lee.
The residency has been guided by an advisory panel that includes a cohort of established cultural voices, together with Yves Béhar, Marcin Rusak, Nilufar Gallery founder Nina Yashar, Morphogenesis founder Sonali Rastogi, Benjamin Paulin, ECAL director Alexis Georgacopoulos and The Future Good founder David Alhadeff.
Two weeks into the residency, which happened in Delhi, Jaipur and Mumbai, Wallpaper* joined Misra, Rusak, Georgacopoulos and Alhadeff to test in on the designers’ progress, which included visiting their mentors’ ateliers and being handled to behind-the-scenes excursions of workshops, properties, palaces and galleries as Misra’s community stepped as much as help the initiative.
First fruits of the Shakti Design Residency, as showcased at Alcova 2025
Duyi Han x Tarun Tahiliani
A chandelier (above) and a lamp (under) by Duyi Han x Tarun Tahiliani reference the reducing patterns of conventional Indian wedding ceremony clothes
(Picture credit score: Duyi Han)
(Picture credit score: Duyi Han)
Duyi Han, from China, holds a B Arch from Cornell College. In 2023, he was a Créateurs Design Awards winner, and in 2025 he designed the set for the Curated part on the Collectible Design Honest in Brussels. For Shakti, Han was paired with Tarun Tahiliani, considered one of India’s main couturiers, famend for his pioneering tackle conventional Indian costume and complex, progressive use of wealthy embroidery work and textiles.
Han’s residency expertise was a whirlwind immersion in Indian tradition and craftsmanship from the off. His ensuing assortment features a chandelier, a desk lamp and a chair/bench, every exploring the idea of devotion and storytelling in India’s wedding ceremony traditions. The chandelier attracts from round parts in India’s visible tradition whereas evoking the colourful emotional power paying homage to non secular objects. The lamp references the reducing sample of the choli (shirt) whereas the chair/bench is impressed by the sherwani (groom’s coat). Echoing the visible type of Mughal portray, it depicts an embroiderer at work.
@duyi.han, @taruntahiliani
Kickie Chudikova x Klove Studio
Taking inspiration from India’s ubiquitous arches, Kickie Chudikova x Klove Studio’s ‘Vista’ assortment consists of 5 glass items that includes a novel color gradient
(Picture credit score: Kickie Chudikova)
New York-based, Slovak-born industrial designer Kickie Chudikova has had a powerful profession trajectory, with a rising roster of awards to her title for each her personal collections of furnishings and lighting and business design initiatives. She was matched with Klove Studio, famend for its placing, highly-sought-after handblown chandeliers and glassware.
Drawing inspiration from the ever present arches in Indian structure, her assortment includes 5 sculptural furnishings and lighting items, every capturing a fragile however placing steadiness of graphical parts and architectural perspective. Chudikova selected a symbolic color gradient for each bit, evoking a deeper connection to cultural, religious and pure parts.
@kickie.chudikova, @klove.studio
Luca Gruber x Vikram Goyal
Certainly one of Luca Gruber x Vikram Goyal’s tables, impressed by the chakras
(Picture credit score: Luca Gruber)
Since graduating with a complicated masters diploma in design for luxurious and craftsmanship from ECAL, Luca Gruber has collaborated with the likes of Carl Auböck V, Lobmeyr, Ini Archibong and Bodo Sperlein. For Shakti, the German-born designer was positioned with Vikram Goyal, whose work utilizing extraordinarily expert metalwork and treasured stone inlays interprets India’s wealthy legacy of craft excellence into trendy collectible designs that resonate globally.
Taking a cue from Goyal’s personal method, in addition to the religious philosophy of the seven chakras, Gruber’s set of three tables are designed as a mirrored image of the physique’s energetic move. Fusing materials and that means, the set options seven tabletops, every akin to a chakra, with its semi-precious stone inlay chosen to embody the essence of every power centre – grounding reds for muladhara, luminous violets for sahasrara, and so forth. Undulating brass legs mimic the nadis, the very important power channels that hyperlink the chakras.
@_lucagruber_, @vikramgoyalstudio
Helena Bajaj Larsen x Jaipur Rugs
Helena Bajaj Larsen x Jaipur Rugs’ design seen as a piece in progress
(Picture credit score: Helena Bajaj Larsen)
(Picture credit score: Helena Bajaj Larsen)
Interdisciplinary textile designer Helena Bajaj Larsen is predicated between France, India and Dubai, and her follow spans artwork and interiors, with a powerful deal with collaboration with craft communities throughout the worldwide south. A graduate of New York’s Parsons Faculty of Design and Milan’s SDA Bocconi Faculty of Administration, Larsen is of Indian and Norwegian heritage and is the one resident with prior expertise of creating in India.
For Shakti, she was paired with Jaipur Rugs, whose hand-knotting legacy allowed her to additional discover the summary hand-painted silk work that has change into her private signature. Her sequence of rugs, anchored in a continuation of her analysis referring to maps, veins and roots, had been developed by way of hand drawing, initially constructing the linework that may ultimately flip into the skeleton used for the CAD.
Intensive dye and embroidery exams and experimentation adopted, earlier than high-resolution pictures of Larsen’s silk works had been fed into a pc to interrupt down colors by pixel for materials matching. The result’s an amalgamation of the technical pixel-like nature of rug picture constructing and the free-flowing nature of summary imagery.
@helenablarsen, @jaipurrugs
Aya Kawabata x Chanakya Faculty of Craft
Japanese designer Aya Kawabata specialises in textiles and graphic works that reimagine conventional patterns, amulets and cultural tales. Having frolicked residing in New York and Europe, her artistic philosophy is knowledgeable by an involvement in Japanese tradition that’s influenced by layered international experiences.
For Shakti, she partnered with the Chanakya Faculty of Craft, a non-profit basis devoted to craft, tradition and creating new autonomy for girls. It teaches greater than 300 hand embroidery strategies by way of a holistic curriculum. The collaboration between Chanakya and Kawabata reimagines Indian cultural symbolism in an embroidered wall hanging that pulls from the designer’s heritage and expansive horizons. Her piece channels the power of the dawn, evoking purification, creativity and boundless risk.
@aya_kawabata_design, @chanakya.faculty
The title Shakti comes from a Sanskrit phrase that means power, power or energy. The exhibition in Milan will definitely show to be a spotlight, however the actual legacy of the design residency lies within the power of the brand new connections made, the power of the views shifted, and the facility of the data exchanged. For individuals who skilled it firsthand, it’s clear that one thing greater than a residency has been set in movement.
The residents’ initiatives are on present from 7-13 April 2025 at Alcova, Milan, alcova.xyz, @shakti.residency
Supply: Wallpaper
