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We feel that good taste isn’t confined inside the realms of one medium. If someone creates beautiful art, for instance, there’s a good chance that their fine sense of taste will also reflect in their sartorial choices. For designer Anushree Reddy, her design sensibilities recently extended beyond fashion, and into the world of interiors and wedding décor. Additionally, having launched a new store in Delhi for her clothing line recently, Anushree’s penchant for decor found its way into the new space. In a chat with Manifest, designer Anushree Reddy talks about her new store in Delhi, her foray into decor, her top bridal trends of the season, and more.
Manifest: Tell us about the interiors of your new store. How did you bring this to life?
Anushree: We have different brands—we have a wedding decor company, and we recently got into home decor as well. My taste has organically changed over the years. I’m at a stage in my design journey where I'm loving anything muted or subtle. This store gave me the space to play with everything I like. My store in Emporio is a very small space, so there isn’t really much you can do. But this gives me a huge canvas to work with.
I’ve treated it with muted colors and slightly more mature art. There’s a lot more maturity in me today, and that's how I've designed the space. I love arches, and I wanted to incorporate them into the space. However, they eat up a lot of space. Sometimes my interior designer would be like, "You put arches everywhere! How are you going to have rack space?” (laughs).
I think I've always loved the concept of arches, and it roots from where I come from. In Hyderabad, we have monuments like the Golconda Fort, which is full of arches. I wanted to get a little bit of that. Whereas some of the art—like some horses in the store—are from Kerala. I wanted to bring a little bit of the South as well and infuse it into the store, and create something which is truly an expression of where I'm at in my design journey. I think I'm at that cusp where the slight childishness has gone away, and now the brand is moving towards something more serious. Like previously I used to love pop colors, but now I like more subtle, finer things, I think that's where I am today. I think the store is a reflection of that.
M: This year also marks your foray into wedding decor. Tell us about that.
AR: Yes, we got into wedding decor this year, where we do wedding-centric events—we don’t do events like birthday parties. We cover mehendis, engagements, cocktails…all of that. My process is that we create a theme, and work around it. Additionally, I do a lot of print, so I incorporate that as well. We do printed cushions and drape the ceilings in custom prints. We do a lot of drapes, prints, and canopies. We do wedding gifts as well.
And every wedding has a different theme. This one time we did an engagement which was centered around Hyderabad and winter feels, and for another event, the theme was "Jaipur afternoon”, where everything was inspired by Jaipur. For wedding decor, the inspiration changes based on who we’re dealing with and what it is that they want.
For my home line, I’ve started with just three products—upholstery, wallpapers, and crockery. So I’ve started with three kinds of products, and we’re gradually going to pick from there.
M: What are your favourite details at the new store?
AR: I have always loved bridal wear as a designer. So I personally love the bridal segment, which is essentially just a room which has trial rooms in it. So the bride comes out in her outfit, her family sits there, she has a look in the mirror, and all her options for the lehengas are just hanging there. It’s quite a private space. And it's also really fun because when they come with their families, it's very interesting to see their reactions.They’re either ripped apart or they're judged. There’s so much that happens. So I decided, we might as well put them in their own nook to have those conversations (laughs).
M: How have you evolved as a designer over the years, ever since the brand’s inception?
AR: Honestly, I haven't studied fashion design, so I was a BA graduate. And I just started not knowing anything. I started because it just felt like it's the easiest thing to start—and no investment, you just need a tailor and a machine.
Fashion wasn't even a really serious business at that point of time. At the most, you could make a collection, go to a couple of exhibitions, and that was that. But it's become like a really serious business now. But once you cross those initial hurdles and you get the hang of what you're doing, it’s easier.
I think fashion for me, now, has become more serious. I don't think like a designer, I think like a typical Baniya entrepreneur (laughs). So the methods have changed a lot. When we scaled up, it became a little bit more business-centric. That's the big change I see in myself. Previously, I used to do certain collections on my whim, without thinking if it’s for somebody? But now, the way in which I work has changed quite a bit.
M: After 15 years in the industry, what do you feel is the one thing that you wish you knew when you first started out?
AR: I wish I knew the power of delegation. For a long period in my life, I always felt it works best if you do it yourself. But I think that slowed my pace a lot. I probably would have grown five years faster otherwise. So I think the entire concept of not letting go, being hands-on, and trying to do everything yourself—from marketing to Instagram—does not work. I just wanted to do everything! But there's only so much you can do, and your growth does get shackled along the way. So that's one thing I have learnt over the years. It’s important to build teams, delegate, and focus your energy on what you’re really good at. For me, designing is what I'm good at. But I was probably doing a hundred other things apart from designing. It would have been a faster and an easier journey if I just stuck to that.
M: Who is the Anushree Reddy bride?
AR: I think the Anushree Reddy bride is essentially someone who loves color, someone who's willing to not be exceptionally traditional at their wedding. Because my clothes are not like that. For example, you won't find any velvets in my collections. Even my reds are sort of red, but I don't go deeper. I'll never do a maroon. The Anushree Reddy bride is someone who's a little more modern, and who's willing to keep it easy at her wedding also. While I am a bridal designer, I always say that I'm a lighter and an easier version of a bridal designer. So I think that's what my bride would be like.
M: What are your top trends for brides this season?
AR: I think ombré is really big in the bridal wear space right now.
Additionally, I think coral is a great colour for brides this season. Traditionally, you’re either a red bride, or an ivory bride, or a pink bride. But I think now corals have become another color which people are really experimenting with. So coral is the new bridal trend that's that I would recommend to try. Elaborate veils are another thing to try this season. It’s something that I've introduced this year. For each lehenga, we can customize an elaborate veil with elaborate personal details on it. Like a lot of people like to have their wedding dates inscribed on the veils, or their names, or their dog's initials.