Takes the Road Less Travelled

She finds beauty in imperfection – the asymmetrical, creased and aged effects, the raw and rough hewn edged entities that signify the transient nature of life. HIMANI GROVER belongs to a growing breed of new jewellery designers who believe in the Romantic era where individualism is celebrated and the past and nature glorified. A traditionalist with her rural-at-heart creativity, Himani is a story teller with a difference. Her collections reflect a unique sense of aestheticism that package age-old wisdom for the new-age woman.

- Shanoo Bijlani

Tell us how you arrive at the name Chicory Chai for your brand? Has it something to do with chicory (root chicory used as a coffee substitute) and chai (tea)?

Coffee and tea! Yes, it is still the first impression and strongest association of the brand, and I guess it will stay on!

Sometime in 2010, I started to blog. It was called ‘Chicory Chai’ for reasons I don’t even remember! Most probably it was because of how they sounded together. The blog was more of a personal diary of all things that I loved or those that inspired me in some way. I started narrating events from the past and over time, realised that these objects were special because of the beautiful memories attached to them; it could be my grandfather’s scarf or an old Walkman or some antique that I’d inherited. I got immense joy in words and I could express myself on many levels. In the process, I also began to discover myself. But most importantly, it gave way to a dormant passion for stories and storytelling. And that is the area that I wanted to tap in my jewellery designs; it was a natural choice.

I wanted to retain the old-world charm of making handcrafted things. The era before industrialisation where mass production wasn’t the order of the day and each man-made object came with a soul of the person who made it. This aspect totally enticed me. The philosophy of Romanticism resonated with what I believed in. I found the root of my design sensibilities there. I wanted the name of my label to reflect that. When I studied the movement further on, I found that ‘Chicory’ is the blue flower that is the symbol for the ‘Romantic art movement’. ‘Chai’ is the quintessential Indianness or its origin. That’s how the name of the blog stayed on to become my design label eventually.