On August 6th and 7th a torrential downpour did not dampen the style of fashionistas, models and society gals at the Jewel Box exhibition held in Bandra, Mumbai’s trendiest suburb. Countless mannequins flaunted Tarun Tahiliani’s sumptuous couture bridals, magnificently resplendent within a huge glass box. It magically reminded me of my musical ballerina jewelry box I had treasured as a little girl.
With Tarun Tahliani’s vision, Sumant Jayakrishnan’s (India’s premier installation artist) set design and Glasxperts to execute this marvelously whimsical scheme, the cozy confines of Mehboob Studio was transformed into an avant-garde fairy tale setting.
Created as a glass cuboid 14-feet high (almost the height of a double stored building), the internal and external frameless walls of the main exhibit were made from AIS clear tempered glass with crystal clear clarity for viewing. You could see every delicate bead, Swarovski and sequin gleaming and sparkling within riotous colours. One of the smaller glass boxes, set off to the side, also displaying Tarun’s designs, was constructed out of a unique insulated glass unit that had in built motorized blinds, sandwiched between 2 pieces of fixed glass!
Another innovation by AIS, was ‘The Big Strike’ contest housed in a sound proof booth – talk about a runaway hit! The challenge was to break a glass box using a baseball bat of all things. But of course, the box made from Securityglas ensconcing the prizes (Tarun Tahiliani watches), didn’t so much as make a dent, although I banged on it several deafening times!!
Text by Natalie Pedder-Bajaj
Photographs by Snigdha Hodarkar
