Sweet Treat
AD Architectural Digest India|November 2018

Candy colours and a blue canvas transform expat jewellery designer Marie-Hélène de Taillac’s Jaipur home into a chromatic wonderland.

Dana Thomas
Sweet Treat

French jewellery designer MarieHélène de Taillac discovered the magic of Jaipur and its jewel box of a hotel, Narain Niwas Palace, in 1989 while travelling across the subcontinent with friends. She was charmed by the beauty of the city, with its pink-painted dwellings, as well as its abundant creativity: “There’s a great sense of decoration and craftsmanship here. Even the rickshaws are painted with motifs. People know how to design and make things, and everything is possible.”

It took her a while to realize that she was indeed hooked on Jaipur, but once she did, she committed to it profoundly. In 1995, she sold her apartment in London, and with the proceeds, as well as a loan from her mother’s best friend, she returned to Jaipur and set up her jewellery business, working hand in hand with the late Munnu Kasliwal, owner of the legendary Gem Palace. De Taillac would spend eight months a year in Jaipur, living in a sprawling house outside town and creating Mughal-inspired pieces set with a rainbow of semi-precious stones with Kasliwal and his atelier. At first, she sold only by appointment in her Paris showroom and at high-end boutiques such as Browns in London, Barneys New York and Colette in Paris. But soon, she had her own shops in Paris, Tokyo and New York.

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