For a brand that began in a small garage with one machine and two tailors, a third store marks a veritable milestone.
The attention to detail in the exquisite display of product stories, messaging and visual merchandising help reassure a visitor of the brand’s commitment to craftsmanship and quality.
Tulips is a leading home furnishings brand known for crafting beautiful curtains and linen. After venturing into Pune and Bengaluru, the third store at Defence Colony, New Delhi promises to enhance customer experiences further.
Just like its namesake flowers, Tulips conjures up images of vibrancy and colour. This is what strikes a visitor on entering the 5000 square feet studio. The store is built in an architecturally modified standalone space and is spread over two levels.
When brands open multiple stores, they look to unify them architecturally. However, the interior design of this brand’s Delhi store is distinctly different from the clean, opulent and western look of the Bengaluru and Pune ones.
“Based on learnings from our previous stores, I think we have now progressed to a model which we would like to roll out across the country. The layout is planned to facilitate a consultative engagement, distinctly differentiated from a transactional one offered by other players,” explains Raajkumarri Mutha, Founder and Managing Director of Tulips.
Tulips conjures up images of vibrancy and colour.
Perhaps this statement is best illustrated by the discussion table located right in the centre of the store. It creates an atelier-like atmosphere where architects, clients and designers come together to bounce ideas off of each other, hash out details, and co-create. It is from this lens, that one should look at the store décor.
The very concept of the studio is anchored in experiential service. “There are two sensory leitmotifs that you would come across in our store – visual and tactile. Right from the time the clients walks through the front door to the time they exit, they carry with them a firm understanding of our products and services and a certainty that what they ‘felt’ and ‘saw’ in our store is exactly what they will receive.
With bolts of fabrics, surface ornamentation, technique swatches, and retail products all around, our clients can imagine the kind of ‘look’ and ‘feel’ our soft furnishings will conjure when they bring them home,” says Mutha.
The vibrant hub of colours, crafts and possibilities, expresses much through the use of textiles and is an assault on the senses. Each nook, corner, alcove, and crevice of the store has a story to tell, as if it is talking about the glorious partnership of needle and thread!
There are several ‘statement making’ areas in the store. Take for instance, the handloom that takes inspiration from ancient Egyptian looms. It forms a striking tableau of table-top looms, frame looms, trunks revealing flamboyant colours, and weaver’s paraphernalia – taking us back in time to pharaonic Egypt when the weavers worked on the looms to create freshly woven linen.
Three walls become a canvas for expression. The frames and images on these are connected by a common thread – Delhi. The first showcases two diverse fabric ornamentation techniques – digital printing and embroidery with Purani Dilli as a theme. The second is a painstakingly hand-embroidered scene that pays homage to Delhi’s celebrated architecture. It took 900 hours, 2000 meters of threads, and unyielding focus to create this intricate artwork on cotton duck, with the use of techniques like hand embroidery, machine embroidery, appliqué, cutwork, and zardosi.
Each nook, corner, alcove, and crevice of the store has a story to tell.
The third wall celebrates the spirit of the impeccable planning of Central Delhi by Sir Edward Lutyens using the textile art of appliqué or fabric patchwork. Another wall has a creative display of scissors – one of the most important tools for designers.
The attention to detail in the exquisite display of product stories, messaging and visual merchandising in the store helps reassure a visitor of the brand’s commitment to craftsmanship and quality in this very differentiated and aspirational environment. When one comes out of the store, it is with a feeling of having experienced something bespoke…something that words fail to convey, but maybe threads do!
Text By Dhanishta Shah
Photographs Courtesy Deepak Aggarwal
Contact
Web: www.tulipsindia.com
