Whenever pals ask about new places in Paris, 19 rue Las Cases rolls off my tongue. Opened by India Mahdavi, the Interior Designer, it’s several doors down from her showroom and also sums up inviting...
Whenever pals ask about new places in Paris, 19 rue Las Cases rolls off my tongue. Opened by India Mahdavi, the interior designer, it’s several doors down from her showroom and also sums up inviting. True, the displayed goodies are smaller in size yet they define everything that warms me to her work meaning colourful, unexpected and apt, actually.
India views her boutique as “a mini bazaar but oriental in style". However, catching sight of Taher Chemérik’s table jewellery and Rupert Shrive’s 3D versions of his crumpled artworks scattered amongst her vases, lamps, throws and unusual flea market findings, I’m reminded of her remark that while “accessories can change a woman’s silhouette, objects can achieve the same in a home". And the highly cosmopolitan India would know. No slouch in her business, her numerous projects include Thoumieux’s restaurant in Paris, the Hotel on Rivington in New York and the Dragon-i club in Hong Kong.
"She pulls off a complicated Lanvin dress and sports bright hues in the same way that chic Parisians wear midnight blue"
Then there’s her personal style. The half Iranian, half British India manages to be boldly feminine. Pulling off a complicated Lanvin dress – being armed with Sophia Loren-type pins helps! – and sporting bright hues in the same way that chic Parisians wear midnight blue. Recently, we had lunch at one of her neighbourhood haunts – La Laiterie Saint-Clotilde on the rue de Bellechasse. India appeared in a grey Bouchra Jarrar coat and dazzling apple green DVF scarf and, as she began to talk, I became transfixed by the fluid elegance of her gestures. The way she pushes her glasses up on her forehead; lightly twists her hair back into a chignon and further articulates with her hands.
Finally, there’s her voice. It’s sensual and, if I can quote Salman Rushdie’s infamous line (coined when he was a poorly paid copywriter) "naughty but nice".
Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni is a Paris-based British writer who covers fashion and lifestyle as well as being the author of Sam Spiegel – The Biography of A Hollywood Legend, Understanding Chic, an essay from the Paris Was Ours anthology, the soon-to-be released Tino Zervudachi - A Portfolio - as well as the Chanel book, for Assouline's fashion series.
Robert Beck is former New Yorker currently based in Paris. Also known as C.J. Rabbitt, he is the author and illustrator of several children's books, including The Tale of Rabbitt in Paradis, Un Lapin à Paris and the soon-to-be-published A Bunny in the Ballet.
