Kalyani Saha Chawla: I was very fortunate to be part of the movement of luxury brands coming into India

We’re inside Kalyani Saha Chawla’s beautifully decorated drawing room, filled with soft natural light, books and art from all stages of life, where she sits in a beautiful green satin dress. Her bookshelf is a reader’s delight and a strong hark back to her roots — PG Wodehouse hobnobs with a Haruki Murakami, a Jamini Roy lies next to a Gaganendranath Tagore.

A black-and-white photograph of her on her wedding day is displayed next to a ‘World History of Art’ coffee table book – “It’s photographed by Steve Mc Curry, that’s the only reason it’s on display!”, she laughingly adds. A photograph with Prince Charles, a well-read copy of George Orwell’s 1984, vintage Nataraja bronze all jostle for space in her elegant living room, jigsaw pieces of a life well-travelled and a certain joie de vivre.

The founder of a luxury silverware company – Rezon Luxury Silverware, she is no stranger to luxury. Many recognise her on the streets now from her hit Netflix show Fabulous Lives vs Bollywood Wives which she says she had a lark shooting, but she’s been a name in the luxury and fashion industry for decades before that.

Former VP Marketing and Communications, and Brand Ambassador of Dior for India, she was key in orchestrating the legacy brand’s inroads into the country. But if you ask her to recap her adventures, she heads straight to her childhood and a different time altogether, of years spent reading, or going to the club to swim, fashion conversations with her grandmother and her early experiments with style. “Honestly, my parents forced me to read. We used to have these table discussions during dinner. So I couldn’t really cheat. I enjoyed reading, and what I didn’t understand became a discussion. It may sound like a kind of forced intellectualism, but no, it was a lack of anything else to do. It was always about not wasting your time. And waste your time doing what?” Kalyani is a vociferous Bengali and her home is a reflection of how closely she values her heritage and her Calcutta upbringing. “It was a certain way of life, the world of books, art and music, and the meaning of growing up buried in that universe and its value systems.” She justifies her parent’s choices for her, “There was a lot of exposure and taste developed as a result of the exposure they gave me. I appreciate art because I was exposed to it. I appreciate books because I was forced to read.”

And then, there was fashion. She remembers her grandmother fondly as her enabler in her fashion adventures. “For my 16th birthday, I remember I wore one of my mother’s Benarasi sarees like a dhoti, I got a white Nehru Jacket stitched by our in-house tailor and wore a turban made out of Benarasi fabric. This is my 16th birthday. My grandmother was my biggest cheerleader, who took her middle name ‘Rani’ very seriously, and understood my need for fashion. She was a frequent traveller, who, apart from getting me my first bikini from Italy, also got me the latest fashion magazines from her travels. Our excellent tailor would replicate outfits from some of the magazine cutouts. Thakuma would go, “… uff bhishon bhalo, bhishon bhalo … this is very nice”.  We were both indulging each other. It was really cute. These are little things that I appreciate and look back at with so much nostalgia! We didn’t overthink it, it was just fun.”

Ruing the loss of casual elegance in everyday life in India, she wishes the country would embrace its cultural heritage a little more — from the kanjeevarams to the mallipoo in the hair, “Style needs to be individual. Your personality needs to come out.”

She feels as personal style gets erased, the pressure to be on trend increases, fuelled by the social media circus. Not all of social media is to be rejected, however, if you ask her. Content building is a gift in current times, and Kalyani believes it should be utilised to build one’s personal brand and voice. “Firstly, it costs nothing. It is the best free advertisement. If you’re good at content building, if you can keep up with algorithms, then nothing like it. Having a face to whatever you’re trying to sell is very important.”

In the age of social media, conversations around a brand are also tagged to the personalities of entrepreneurs. She brings this understanding to her own brand Rezon Luxury Silverware, and is the face of it. “A personal story, a personal journey or even a personal interaction with your client over social media works wonderfully.”

Instagram vs Reality

While Instagram gets a bad rap for being a showreel for most of its followers, Kalyani believes it’s not all bad. And it’s always a choice. “I try and keep it real. There are these women who are following me, towards whom I feel a sense of responsibility. Today if I have a voice to make a difference in someone’s life, in whatever manner, I take that seriously. ”

Luxury has always been a part of her life, from her first job at Oberoi Hotels in sales and marketing under the guidance of PRS Oberoi, to running four lifestyle magazines for Indian Express, going on to exporting fashion accessories to some of the best international brands, starting an art gallery Montage Arts with her late mother, launching an e-commerce fashion brand, to becoming the first ambassador of Dior in India, to founding Rezon Luxury Silverware and Koi Communications, an agency for strategic marketing and branding consultancy for international brands entering the Indian market.

Life at Dior

Dior came calling suddenly in the midst of a personal turning point. Whilst running her export business, she chanced upon a meeting with the GM of Middle East and India at Dior, who was preparing for the Maison’s entry into India with their first store in New Delhi.. “John Galliano had been on my mood board for a while, inspiring every other collection of mine. He is a creative genius. It took me almost seven months to decide if I wanted this job, even as I  struggled with running a succesful export business while bringing up a young daughter single-handedly.”

She eventually did meet the then CEO of Christian Dior, Sidney Toledano, “I had bought a black bar jacket by Dior and went running to my dear friend Tarun Tahiliani, who made me a beautiful pencil skirt to match. She counts fashion designer Tarun Tahiliani as her mentor and guide. “He is one of the brightest minds I can think of. Tarun has always been part of the most special occasions of my life, be it my Dior outfit, or making my trousseau.”

During her interview with Toledano, Kalyani was shown into the atelier, “Sidney very proudly showed me the couture collection that had just ended. It was such a thrill to see up, close and personal, these absolutely stunning couture dresses by John Galliano. As he was pointing to the embroidery I did tell him, ‘this doesn’t impress me as much, coming from India but the construction is genius.’”

Kalyani recalls her tenure at Dior, “I was very fortunate to be part of the movement of luxury brands coming into India. Dior was Bernard Arnault’s  (CEO of LVMH) favourite couture brand. It was a very special time not only with the management of Dior which was changing internally at the time, but also an ecosystem developing for an emerging market.” She recalls working with Pia Singh, one of the Directors of DLF for Dior’s store at DLF Emporio, the first luxury mall in India, “I changed the geography of the ground floor, with Dior’s positioning where it stands, but also advising on all the other brands around.” For almost four years, the Dior office was at her factory. She recalls her first collaboration with Sonam Kapoor and Rhea Kapoor’s directorial debut, “Aisha was almost like a Dior ad, making the Lady Dior bag which Sonam carried throughout a sellout.” She credits her experience at Dior for the innate understanding of luxury retail and how it works, learnt how to do events, visual merchandising, among other things that make up the industry. “Dior was a life-altering experience. I have learnt so much there.” Today, as she runs her luxury brand Rezon Silverware, she implements that learning into her current business.

Kalyani conjectures that there are so many aspects to luxury. “An understanding of luxury truly comes from being a consumer, honestly. India is shining right now, more than ever on the global arena. It’s an exciting time for us. I’m glad I helmed this movement and continue to be a part of it.