If you ever watch the opening scene of Kumar brothers’ cult Hindi movie Chalti ka Naam Gaadi, standing high behind the lead character of a racing car is a statue of King Edward VII on a black horse. Behind the horse, you see the Army & Navy Building, but minus the Westside board you see at the junction today. It is this very statue seen at its original location that lends the name Kala Ghoda to the iconic heritage precinct of South Mumbai.
Now Mumbai’s couture destination, the latest openings at Kala Ghoda are London-based multi-designer platform Aashni + Co; Moonray by Karishma (creative director of the atelier Chanakya International and the Chanakya School of Craft) and Avantika Swali, and Shruti Sancheti.
While today one sees the locality lined by designer boutiques, big and small, Kala Ghoda has always been the art precinct of Mumbai, even before the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. As it is not just home to iconic art venues of the city, such as Jehangir Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), this is also where artists FN Souza, SH Raza, MF Husain, KH Ara, HA Gade, and SK Bakre held the first exhibition as members of the trailblazing Bombay Progressive Artists’ Group (PAG) at Rampart Row in 1948.
The couture influx
While Sabyasachi Mukherjee’s store was the first prominent couture designer to make Kala Ghoda its home, this area and its periphery have seen countless new store openings in the past few years. The list includes Falguni and Shane Peacock (FSP), Shivan & Narresh, Shantnu Nikhil, Kunal Rawal (above the now-shut iconic music store Rhythm House, Gulabo by Abu Sandeep, Ekaya, Payal Singhal, Payal Khandwala, and Anita Dongre. The most recent design and culture space is IF.Be, which is housed in a restored ice factory, that also houses the new retail store Doki Doki.
Other labels and design stores include Kaveri, Curato, Her Story Jewels, Punit Balana and Arjun Khanna, all opened their stores in 2022-23.
The pull of Kala Ghoda
Payal Singhal, whose store replaced that of Shaina NC in April, where she started her career as an intern, has seen her life come full circle in Kala Ghoda. “There has been a complete change. When I was interning with Shaina, Kala Ghoda wasn’t the fashion district it is today. It was just her store (started by her mother Munira Chudasama), called Golden Thimble, and Ensemble (by Tina, Tarun and Sailaja Tahiliani). It was more a destination for food with iconic restaurants like Wayside Inn, Trishna and Khyber,” reminisces Payal.
The area, she says is a pull to designers today as it attracts the affluent SoBo (South Bombay for non Mumbaikars) crowd, but also tourists, NRIs, and brides who specially travel to the city to shop for their trousseau. Delhi’s Mehrauli has always been a one-stop couture shopping destination for brides with most designers having their flagship stores there, Mumbai has always had its stores divided between SoBo and the western suburbs. Payal too has stores in Khar and Altamount Road, but Kala Ghoda was an obvious choice when she wanted to expand, with its newfound shopping hub status.
Falguni Shane Peacock opened a massive store in 2019, just before the pandemic, and say that they chose Kala Ghoda as it provided the luxury of space to house their couture pieces. A sentiment similarly echoed by designer Tarun Tahiliani who is down the road near Ballard Estate. Tarun says he would rather have high ceilings than the most expensive onyx for his floors.
“When we set off to search for a location for our flagship store around 2018-19, our primary objective was to secure a large space either in the western suburbs or South Bombay, a store that could house all our collections. Despite our efforts, we were unable to find such a space in the western suburbs, leading us towards Kala Ghoda. Not only did it meet our size and strategic requirements, but also possessed significant heritage value. We didn’t know that the area would eventually evolve into a thriving fashion hub,” says Shane Peacock.
Designer Anita Dongre has worked with architect Kirtida Unwalla (a heritage specialist) to restore the 200-year-old Sassoon Building into an 8,500 square feet store. It boasts of stained glass windows, high ceilings and a wooden staircase reminiscent of old Mumbai interiors, with the addition of design motifs and techniques that celebrate the designer’s love for Rajasthan. Artisans specialising in the art of pichhwai and Tikri were commissioned from Rajasthan for the store.
Masaba Gupta, who used to share a store (now shut) in Kala Ghoda with designer Nitya Arora of Valliyan, is back in the area again, this time on Shahid Bhagat Singh Marg, also the store address of designers Sonam and Paras Modi of SVA. Another young designer who recently opened her store in the precinct is Shubhika Sharma of Papa Don’t Preach. Inspired by imagery from JRR Tolkien’s Middle-earth, the lavender facade with its round shire-style windows is bound to catch your eye.
“I strongly believe that art and fashion need to coexist and share a common space. I was located in Lower Parel before this and was eagerly seeking a space where both could intersect and interact. Nothing beats Kala Ghoda. There’s so much history here that it automatically makes you feel deeply connected to the city’s heartbeat,” says Shubhika.
To add to the round windows, which are her favourite, they also have a mini door that says ‘Elves of Papa Don’t Preach enter from here’. Fashion is an escape for people and that is what Shubhika wanted her store to be. “The city is so spread out, you have to go to multiple places to experience multiple things. Here there’s food, culture, galleries and the museum. A hub like this is really important in a city like Mumbai, where you lose many hours in traffic. Kala Ghoda’s history and its character are very supportive of luxury, it feels like you’ve arrived at a destination that’s going to be an escape,” she explains.
Immortal love
Chhaya Arya, founded Chetana Craft Centre, which promoted local Indian crafts. This restaurant-art gallery-cultural centre-bookstore was a meeting spot for poets, theatre practitioners and artists. Though the craft centre shut in 2021, the restaurant is still a landmark. Chhaya, who is now in her 80s, says Kala Ghoda was a quiet place compared to the overcrowded locality it is today with even bylanes lined with restaurants and boutiques. “As an artist, I feel the architecture, the old buildings and the history give character to the place, which will always pull in new creative names to Kala Ghoda,” Arya sums up.
