It comes as no surprise that Anita Lal, 73, fondly known by her initials, AL, is Christie’s tastemaker for a Spring sale this week. After all, the founder of Good Earth, the home goods and apparel company that celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, has led many craft interventions. The brand was behind interior restorations like the Rajmahal Palace in Jaipur, a partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fabric of India exhibition) and, more recently, the Heirloom Project, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It marked a decade of the museum’s Islamic wing. This month, as tastemaker for Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Lal created an edit of personal favourites from the sale and has curated digital vignettes with Good Earth products, objects she has “cherished over the years”.
While this is the first time Christie’s has worked with a tastemaker based in India, past tastemakers include Aerin Lauder (of luxury US brand Aerin) and British interior designers Rita Konig and Kit Kemp. Meanwhile, at the headquarters of Christie’s in central London, three-room vignettes have been recreated using personally-chosen pieces from Good Earth by Lal. They will be showcased alongside the approximately 211 lots dating from the 9th to the 19th century. More from the founder and creative director of Good Earth:
What draws you to the Islamic design vocabulary and which of Good Earth’s collections reflects this best?
As a design house out of India, we celebrate every cultural aspect of the subcontinent [including Vedic, Buddhist, Persian and Mughal influences, and from lands across the Silk Road]. Islamic culture is deeply integrated within the Indian subcontinent, and it shows in the way we dress, our music, our food, our language, and in our decorative patterns.
Over the years we have created numerous design collections based on some aspect of Islamic design, including vintage shawls. One of my favourites was Farah Baksh, a Persian/Urdu term which translates as ‘Bestower of Delight’ inspired by the Persian paradise gardens Charbagh that were created in Kashmir by the Mughals.
What did you enjoy working with the most?
If I had to pick one item from the sale, it would be the Tabriz carpet. Van Vaibhav means ‘splendour of the forest’ and is a leitmotif at Good Earth. Blossoming trees with birds and animals is a recurring theme in our designs interpreted so exquisitely in this carpet.
You mention that you consider visual and emotional appeal superior to the monetary value of an artifact.
I treasure things from the smallest handmade ceramic vase to a grand sculpture or an antique chair and I mix them all together. My home is a relaxed mix of everything that I love and that includes some priceless inherited antiques and Agra jail carpets along with studio pottery that I have been collecting and a lot of Indian art that my husband has bought over the years. Our furniture is also a mix of modern pieces that sit alongside vintage furniture from the family’s ancestral home in Hisar.
A tastemaker who sets the bar with grand dinners and entertaining at home?
Bim Bissel [wife of Fabindia’s founder, the late John Bissell] is the first person who comes to mind as a tastemaker. Her stylish home reflects her warm personality and she entertains in an easy, informal style, mixing interesting people of all age groups with diverse interests. The Bissel Christmas brunch is legendary.
Open for viewing till March 30. Auction on King Street, London, on March 31. Details at christies.com
