Conversation with Anita Lal of Good Earth
Anita Lal is the founder of the luxury brand, Good Earth that was started in 1996. Lal was a Psychology graduate and a studio potter before launching the brand. Good Earth started as a boutique and has now transformed into one of the most well-known luxury and lifestyle brands from India.
“Sustainability was always the core and the root of Indian culture. We recycled everything. We have never overused heating or cooling. All of these were built into our systems.”
All Images have been taken at the Good Earth Factory and Pottery Workshop outside of Delhi by Sayali Goyal.
S: Yesterday I spent pretty much the whole day looking you up on the internet and reading everything I could get my hands on!
AL: I wonder what! I’ve never checked myself.
S: You don’t need to! Personally speaking, to someone like me who is just starting out, you are so inspiring. In fact, things resonated so much with me that I found myself taking notes yesterday; a lot of the things that I tell myself -- you have said those things -- and done them.
I want to start by first asking about the overall feel and culture of the ‘70s -- in terms of how people looked at art, craft and design -- and now. How much was design awareness a part of people’s daily lives, and how do you think things have moved in the past 40 odd years?
AL: You know, I would say that in the ‘50s, ‘60s and up to the ‘70s, India was just coming to terms with its new identity and its freedom. To a large extent, this identity was based on the Mahatma’s ideas of Swaraj, and those propagated by people like Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. These are only two names. There were so many others who said, “Let us look at our own values, our own fabric.” We were quite inward-looking with regard to what we wore; we wore our own weaves and sarees with pride. But in the home section, there was nothing that was India. We were all looking abroad for things. If I’m not mistaken, the only dinnerware available for us was Hitkari. The designs were all English motifs. In the ‘70s, India was exporting a lot of stuff, but we didn’t have access to those. We didn’t have stores of a certain level -- either in scale or in vision – that could bring a slightly more “international” vibe to the things we used daily at home.
And this was where my interest lay. It wasn’t clothes – it was home. I had been seeing beautiful things in places like San Francisco and London, and thought, let’s do something India. Let’s create something as inspiring and as thoughtfully designed, but unmistakably representative of India -- things that would really connect with who we are as Indians.
An obvious start was to use designs inspired from our own subcontinent. I had a small design team, mostly of people from NID. And when I asked, “What do we most see around us?”, we came up with the word “colour”. Now, in those days, homes were drab; everybody was doing beige and browns and rusts because they thought it was “safe”. We said, “Let’s have colour!” And so it came about that our first design used the motif of chillies!
In those days, books were not so easily available, and there was no internet. We used to go to museums to see things, and to be inspired. I remember taking my team to the National Museum to see a beautiful exhibition of the Badshahnama, which had come from England.
S: What a nice way to look for inspiration.
AL: Isn’t it! I remember we were absolutely blown away by the details of the Mughal miniatures as seen in the Badshahnama. This was our heritage; it had all been done in Agra and Delhi. What colours, what refinement! I told my designers that we would do this -- we would create this in a modern way. That’s how the whole process started.
S: Very interesting.
AL: And then, of course, over the years you learn, you grow; you understand what people want and you understand your market. Our idea was to introduce colour. In those days there was no coloured glass available in India, though a lot of it was being exported out of India. We had to cajole one or two exporters, and it was quite difficult to get them to give us coloured glass. I remember introducing glassware in indigo, deep indigo, aquamarine and red for the first time in India. And that’s what we had always wanted to do – to create our own idiom and our own style. I also had the feeling that at that moment, people in India who were wealthy and sophisticated were completely aping the interior design of English or French homes. I remember wondering, in a hot country like ours, in a culture where we like to curl our feet up, why were we doing stiff chairs and heavy curtains? Why couldn’t we create a new, lighter aesthetic for an Indian home?
I don’t use curtains in my drawing rooms, by the way. I am very fortunate; I have plants around and a garden on all sides. I also feel that you don’t really need privacy in the drawing room. Yes, you can have sheers for the sun -- but that’s all you need -- and in the night you need nothing. I would rather light up the gardens at night, so that it becomes a part of my interiors. My daughter Simran has done the same in her drawing room. There are no curtains. You need curtains in England to keep the cold out, to feel cosy. But in India, you don’t need it -- not even in the winters. So I threw away all the curtains -- all the heavy curtains. Next, I felt that our sofas could be more divan-like, so we created that. Slowly we brought in a more indigenous feel. This was different from what people call ethnic, because that’s something which I don’t vibe with. I wanted a more sophisticated feel, so I called it “modern Mughal” instead of using metaphors of rural craft, which was the other big thing that was going on. All these other things were also very charming, but they weren’t what I wanted to do.
S: I can see that you put in a lot of thought. And that you were very clear on what you wanted to create.
AL: Yes, and this awareness slowly started permeating, with Good Earth being one of the thought leaders. Because we had a very colonised past and it had colonised our minds, we were in the habit of looking out rather than inwards, and had to very consciously choose to create our own style of living. Slowly people started understanding that you can start looking within and become more “Indian”.
S: I can see how you were kind of making a mind shift more than anything else at this point! Who were the early adapters? Was it more of friends and family? How did you do the storytelling at that time?
AL: When I opened Good Earth in Kemps corner in 1996, I think people were blown away by the way the space had been designed. It had white marble floors inlaid with yellow Jaisalmer waves, and big white vaults with palms in stucco. I think it was already very exciting for people to see that there could be these completely new ways of doing things. Since our first store was in Bombay, and the city has always been open to a more “international” style of living, I would say that the Bombayites were the early adapters and that they really enjoyed what we were giving them. That’s how it started, and of course after that it permeated everywhere.
S: That’s wonderful. I can sense that you were also trying to create these experiences in storytelling back then, when we didn’t really have this concept.
AL: Back then, when we didn’t have anything, I was still creating themes every year. We had parties to launch all these new themes; this still happens at Good Earth. Things started opening up at the turn of the century. In 1995, when we first started out, India had a closed economy. You could only import medical stuff and such things, and certainly not “frivolous” things for the home. Suddenly, in the year 2000, India was allowing imports -- of things that were not essentials, so to speak.
Suddenly India had opened up and we could simply pay the duty and import things. I remember the first time we went to Thailand, to the Bangkok Fair. We were so excited to see things that we had never seen before that, like fools, we imported all the wrong things! Later when I realised this, it was quite a learning experience!
In the early years of import liberalisation, we brought in a lot of stuff. We thought all of it was wonderful. We imported candles, vases, homeware, furniture, and other household things. But over time we realised that we could do better ourselves, and today we hardly import anything.
S: There must have been a lot of testing and trying.
AL: Absolutely. Today we have almost no imports. Good Earth went from indigenous to imports and back to indigenous. It’s been a hard journey, but very interesting.
S: I really want to touch upon how creating experiences and content have now become like a map that almost every business wants to create. But Good Earth and Paro are exceptions; I go to the Chanakya Mall and to the Paro store just for the jasmine you give to the customers. How important is marketing for your brand? When I think of Good Earth, more than the products, I feel what’s more important is the world that you enter.
AL: I think both for me and my daughter Simran, creating these brands is more from a sense of passion than business. It starts with a need to create, to celebrate, to offer the finest of India, to take pride in our own workmanship and heritage. I didn’t need to do it as a business in any case. But since I have got into it, I don’t think one can do business without making it reasonably profitable. This in itself isn’t a bad thing. You need sustainability, you need people to work with you, and you need to expand and employ more people. You can only do that if you run a business sensibly, in an ethical manner of course, but still with a certain commercial viability. Finally, after 10 years, Good Earth has became slightly viable. But if anyone thinks that we are making huge profits, I am sorry to disappoint you! We spend a lot -- we like to pamper our employees and all. The profit is just enough to keep us floating.
So maybe the reason why you feel this authenticity is because we really are doing it from another place. Of course we want to make it into a viable proposition, but it starts from that different place.
S: I so agree, and the reason I’m here is because of that feeling. I want to go back to what you were saying about “Made in India” and the perception people had about it. Do you think that has shifted today?
AL: Today there has been a slight shift, yes. You will be surprised to know that at Good Earth itself, we have sold over a hundred thousand of these mugs with the elephant design. Almost everyone in the world seems to have one of these mugs. This huge sales figure points to this shift. Nowadays when people see something from India, from an Indian brand, they look at it with certain expectations regarding the quality and the design. The perception about “Made in India” has indeed changed for the better, especially now that we are creating world-class products in various sectors, including automobiles and especially two-wheelers.
S: Also, so many different museums and publications are talking about “Made in India”. I’m thinking about your “Fabrics of India” exhibition also, at this point.
AL: There are so many young Indians doing exquisite work nowadays -- world-class work -- in 11.11/Eleven Eleven, Pero, Raw Mango, Sabyasachi. So yes, people are looking at “Made in India” differently. I think two very important things are our textile heritage, and the philosophical heritage we have of meditation, Ayurveda and yoga. I think people are now seeing that there is a lot more depth to India than they had imagined. India is coming into its own, which actually was one of the things that I had envisaged and hoped for, in my own very small way.
S: I read somewhere that you are doing Paro Himalaya. It’s amazing how people are combining design, travel, publications, etc.
AL: We also do these amazing books for children.
S: Oh, I didn’t know!
AL: Yes, we make these beautiful books for children. You must see them. Our first book was the story of Babur, based on the Baburnama; it is written beautifully and illustrated in the most magical way. Simran had felt that in India, if you want to read books to your children, you either have completely European books, or the slightly tackily-done Indian ones, where the language is too ponderous, nor are the visuals exciting. So we started doing books for children. We have done stories on Krishnadeva Raya and on Tansen, as well as these little detective stories on nature and animals.
We do so many things that get lost. And now Paro Himalaya is ready; we are putting the finishing touches on the lighting and the furniture. It’s a 10-room retreat above Manali, with a beautiful spa building which also has a and yogashala overlooking the snowy mountains. We have planted thousands of trees and plants and flowers; it’s very exciting. Paro Himalaya will be based on the aesthetic of Paro, and in that sense, will be an extension of it. We plan to have philosophers and Vedantic scholars-in-residence, so that guests can have opportunities for a one-to- one discussion or even group discussions. For the spa, our focus is on Tibetan treatments and advanced aromatherapy. Even our food is going to have a lot of local Himachali cuisine. And the views are absolutely spectacular.
S: When is it going live?
AL: We are planning to do a soft opening in April 2020.
S: So is there a role of textile and design?
AL: Of course. With help from my designer, I have specially created patterns that are inspired by Himalayan flowers. There are multitudes of such flowers across the property.
S: Oh, before I forget, I do want to congratulate you on the men’s shirt line in Paro. I bought myself two shirts from that range.
AL: Yes, it’s like unisex; the men–women boundaries are now getting a little blurred. But I am going to do a separate clothes line for men too.
S: Paro is doing excellently. Your workshops, the concepts, the photo shoots – everything speaks to me.
AL: Yes. Good Earth has always celebrated the design heritage of India. But then, at this stage, at my age, I wanted to celebrate more than just that. I want to celebrate the ethos, the philosophy, the culture, all these things which are in our soul, all the things that come to us through our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers. We know about “upvas” or “savan”, but we don’t do those anymore. The idea is to not let it get lost, to bring back all these things. We also want to share and learn from both sides. That is why we have the workshops – to share special things -- whether it is about women’s sexuality, or similar aspects. In the West, “wellness” is almost about becoming monastic; in India, we have never been like that. Here, wellbeing actually means being sensuous, having desires – it means understanding, being in touch with, and living those desires. It doesn’t mean that it has to be vulgar or obscene. We are talking about human nature and its inherent sexuality that has always been celebrated in India. We started seeing it as not appropriate because our minds got colonised. We want to retrieve all of this.
S: There is this fluid feminist energy…
AL: Yes, we want to bring all of that back. Celebrate your body, celebrate your soul, celebrate your spirit. That’s Paro. It’s not just a bland yoga-wellness kind of place. The West just speaks of one aspect, and then they package it and make it into an exercise-based thing. We wanted to change that and go much deeper.
S: I was reading about how travel has inspired you. Are there any particular journeys or regions that speak to you the most, or that you are looking at now?
AL: When you move out of your own environment, you learn, you grow. That’s the law of human existence. Those who left -- and went further -- learnt, evolved, changed and created. If you are sitting in one place, you are not going to be able to do much; you’ve got to move. It’s not just me; travel changes everyone. Travel adds to your experiences.
For me, there’s no one place. I have lived and travelled a lot in Europe. When I saw how the Europeans maintain and care for their little villages so beautifully – in Germany, Italy and France -- I thought of the beautiful old cities we have in India. I wondered why we didn’t do the same – why we didn’t celebrate and nurture these amazing places. That’s one of the reasons why I am one of the patrons of the JDH in Jodhpur. It is an initiative to preserve and regenerate the ancient city.
S: Your Jodhpur store is stunning.
AL: Talking about travel -- when you travel, you see things, and then you come back and sit and think about how to translate them. Europe has been a big influence, and of course one travels in India as well. I think I love the mountains more than the coasts. Of course I love the charm and the freedom of the coasts as well, such as Goa and the Malabar area. When I land in Goa and see those green fields, my heart dances, you know!
S: How about the Maldives?
AL: We had a big event at the Maldives, which was a preview of our newest design collection called “Maladwipa”. This is the Indian name for the Maldives. I also try and revive all our old names. “Mala” means garland, and “dwipa” means island in Sanskrit. We invited some of our top customers, some editors and some such people to a 3-day experience at Soneva Fushi, where we launched the show in end-August.
S: Only Good Earth could do things like this!
AL: It was meant to be a special experience for our top customers.
S: So, moving away from Good Earth and Paro for a bit, I want to understand what the current design language in India is, in your opinion. What do you think is happening?
AL: India is, by its very nature, not one people or one culture. It is not a homogenous whole, and so, India will never have one such language. India is actually an amalgam of so many different kinds of people or thought, that I don’t think that there’s any one direction that we are going towards. India is going in many directions. On the one hand, we are going towards the totally mad, kitschy, happy space; you go to these bazaars and see how everything is so delightfully overdone. People love it, women look so pretty in all those sparkly things. This is one way. But we also have a very sophisticated line of what young designers in India are picking up, such as Khadi and the handwoven. Some people are pushing boundaries and living their dreams; some are following Gandhian principles. Then there’s Zen. The term “Zen” comes from “dhyan”, from the ascetic parts of our world. So, as much as we are about the sensuous, about overflowing and overdoing, we are equally about asceticism and restraint. As I said, you cannot put one face to it.
I am a great admirer of Sabyasachi; he has pushed so many boundaries. Sometimes people do criticise his choices, but personally I feel that someone who is pushing boundaries is also bound to stumble and make mistakes, and it is all good. You are bound to do things which won’t work or which go a bit awry; that’s the nature of things. One must be generous enough to give people the space to experiment.
Also, there is another thing about India that I would like to bring to the fore. The celebrated psychoanalyst Sudhir Kakkar, who also happens to be a very dear friend, has written a lot about it. I am referring to the civilizational values of tolerance, brotherhood, compassion and care for others. I think that these are very important values that we must bring to the fore. We must unfollow this culture of constantly criticising, pushing and pulling people down. To what end are we doing these things? It affords no richness, no warmth, no generosity. Sudhir is going to speak on this very subject in Paro this November.
One of the biggest values that we learnt in school was “Atithi Devo Bhava” – we have always seen guests as God. “Namaste” also has the same significance. Why are we losing these civilizational values, and why are we getting so influenced by how the West looks at the world? I mean, let them do it, they have to go through their own journey. Why do we have to follow them --mindlessly, blindly, foolishly? That’s because a lot of us so-called liberals have been educated in the Western mould and we refuse to look beyond it.
S: Or even question it.
AL: Yes. Unfortunately, things become political; at Good Earth, we have been asked repeatedly about why we celebrate the Mughal heritage or the Vedic heritage. I respond by saying that these are all parts of our own selves. The Vedic is as much a part of us as the Islamic, and so is the English. We cannot undo the pain of history. We may just have to accept some of the things that happened to us, even if they were unfortunate. As a design house, we at Good Earth want to celebrate every aspect of our culture.
S: It’s a very inclusive culture.
AL: Yes, that’s what Indian culture is about. I’m not doing anything new. Inclusivity is at the root of our Indic civilisation; it has always been able to absorb, adapt, accept, and yet create its own unique version of things. That’s what I think we should all do.
S: That felt like such a breath of fresh air, honestly! Drawing on what you said – there is nothing called pure Indian culture, because we’ve had so many people come in, and the geography has changed so many times. What I meant by current culture is that, there are so many expats coming here and starting creative businesses. So many of these fashion brands, and even the cultural spaces, co-working spaces and cafes were started by some expat. These concepts have come from somewhere else and then they have been married with the Indian scene. What do you think about that?
AL: I love everything that brings a creative input because there is nothing like “pure Indian” anyway. India has an ever-evolving, ever-changing, ever-growing culture. What doesn’t change are its roots -- they should be based on values rather than anything else –the values of tolerance, acceptance, growth, etc. I think that for a culture like us, we should welcome every creative initiative more from the heart than from anywhere else. I don’t know which particular thing you are talking about, because we go to the West as well and create cultures there.
S: What I meant was how we categorize decades, or eras, such as the ‘60s or the ‘70s -- how each decade is defined by something. In the same vein, if we look at today, what in your opinion is the definition of the current times?
AL: Thanks to the World Wide Web, the present is a very exciting time. People are getting to learn a lot more about each other and the world…It’s a very difficult question, honestly.
S: You know how the entire world was kind of going towards the Scandinavian or Japanese minimalism? We can see that kind of adaptation even in a lot of “mass-y” brands here in India. Is there an Indian aesthetic right now? It there an underlying and ongoing aesthetic that you can identify?
AL: Well, the fact is that a lot of our opinions are influenced by the West simply because they control the narrative, whether it is through us going to their universities to study, or through their big publications like Vogue or the Washington Post; or through the world of publishing or newspapers (media). They inform the way in which we see the world and form our opinions. The prism is Western. They see us through that prism as well, because that’s the only prism they have. So naturally, unless you take a conscious stand – which I have taken – people will think that this is the only way. So if one fine day they tell you that torn jeans are “in” (which I can’t bear, let me tell you), that is it. Every mindless person starts wearing torn jeans. They start saying this is “in” and that is “out”; Scandinavia is “in” and India is “out“. And we get influenced.
I do not let these things influence me. I consciously keep away from all that. And if people become more conscious, it will happen. It will happen in time because, at some point, people will figure it out. As you say, right now, things are in a bit of a muddle.
S: What you said is so right, because there already is a section of people who have figured it out, and I think that “individuality” has already become a trend.
AL: That’s a very good word. Individuality has become a lot more visible. However, a lot of it is going to extremes. Everybody wants personalised things, to have their initials on everything, which I find so narcissistic and stupid. See, people generally tend to follow the trend. Very few people actually have the confidence to be different, or at least to think out of the box. Social media has encouraged a lot of individuality too. People will go through various cycles. That’s inevitable. I think Indians are going to eventually -- if not now, in the next 15–20 years -- become a lot more independent of Western prisms in their thinking.
S: You have put it very well. Moving towards the word “sustainability”, how do you think people are becoming more conscious? For example, Good Earth has demonstrated the power to change mindsets. It has had a trickle-down effect, and permeates into every person who is associated with it.
AL: Sustainability was always the core and the root of Indian culture. We recycled everything. We have never overused heating or cooling. All of these were built into our systems. We were frugal in everything we did. It was when materialism became so rampant in industrialised countries -- when almost every person had access to cheap oil to run heating, and drive everywhere in automobiles, and to buy and eat food out of season - that an example was set to the rest of the world. These places have always been materialistic and loved commerce. A large part of Western economy has been based on their need to make money through trade and commerce -- they travelled all over the world to do that. This defines how they look at things. They have done things in excess, and also influenced the world tremendously in the past 50 years. The Americans have really dominated the narrative, and now we are all feeling the pinch of it. We have followed them, and consequently we have supermarkets over local bazaars. We actually came from a perfectly sustainable society, quickly converted ourselves to an unsustainable state, and now we all need to return to the quieter, more sustainable ways. Sustainability happens when everything is in harmony. You sustain cultures, you sustain livelihoods, you sustain traditions, you sustain the planet – the word “sustain” goes with many things. I think of sustainability as something that sustains many other things. And yes, there is no future without sustainability.
S: It is an attitude more than anything else.
AL: But I’ll tell you something -- it is least prevalent amongst the rich Indians right now. They don’t care. They just don’t care. The ones who care the most are the Europeans. Worthy of special mention are the Germans. They are very conscious -- one has to absolutely admire them for this. And I’ll say the Japanese.
S: I completely agree.
AL: So I’ll say that the Germans, the Scandinavians and the Japanese are the ones who are leading this. And living it. They are actually living it.
S: They actually go out of their way to recycle.
If you were to put it in a few words, what do you think ‘luxury’ is? What does the term say to you?
AL: Again, luxury is a construct that has been created by brands in order to sell, and also to give you a sense of self-worth. You feel that you must have this luxury in order to have truly arrived. Luxury can be in many forms. For me, luxury means the luxury of relationships, of time, of nature and natural things, and of well-made things like the luxury of a beautiful ornament. Luxury doesn’t necessarily have to mean one branded product which you carry like a badge of success. For me, that is the worst kind of luxury.
S: That’s actually the kind of answer I was looking for, from somebody like you. I think that’s the trickle-down effect I was referring to. When people hear somebody like you say that, they get it.
AL: Well I hope so. But yeah, in my family, we believe this. We believe that luxury is wearing the most beautiful handloom saree, luxury is having a beautiful bag made by somebody. Yes, a beautiful handbag from Europe can also be luxury. I don’t deny it. But that’s not the only kind of luxury, and it shouldn’t define you. You can have one, but what’s the point of having 30 of them?! I think that in the end, that’s pretty hollow. It is your relationships that give you happiness and improve the quality of life, not any of these other things. Yes, they can give you a little comfort, and a little fun. But you have to balance. I also love to use luxurious fabrics, luxurious things, the occasional luxurious fragrance and cosmetic – all of that. I think balance is the key. We should not let logo-based luxury define us. You are a lot more than the logo on your dress or your bag. I really feel this.
S: I also think that what Paro is offering – beautiful things from the past -- that’s luxury.
AL: That’s a quiet luxury. It is very luxurious but without the logo. In fact, the Paro bag actually doesn’t have a logo.
S: Oh!
AL: No, the bag doesn’t have it. But we do a lovely white stitched cloth bag with yellow. It is the yellow thing that says that it is from Paro.
S: So this is my last question to you for now. In the last 5 years, a lot of micro-cultural businesses have come up, especially those run by creative women. For instance, I am a part of that set-up. Maybe that has a lot of political, and economic reverberations as well. Nowadays, I can run something based on what I love doing, sitting at home. I’m thinking of this kind of acceptance and inclusivity, and the confidence to go ahead and do something very different. You had done this 25 years ago, and these concepts are coming up only now. What are your thoughts on this change?
AL: It’s wonderful indeed. It’s a blossoming of tens and thousands of such businesses. We all carry within us an impulse to create. We need to empower people to do this because that’s what brings you a sense of self-actualization. And yes, it is also probably the most wonderful time to be, and do all this.
S: Yeah, it is almost like a movement now. Even two years back, when I started out, there weren’t so many private museums and publications. Now I see so many spaces where people want to come and engage with theatre, music, etc.
AL: And young people today are very curious. They are looking at the world with so much genuine curiosity. I think that the millennials are very interesting people, and they are going to define how culture will be created. And Nicobar, by the way, is another brand from Good Earth itself. So Nicobar, let’s say, is Good Earth’s baby; it’s another attempt of ours to speak to the millennials and to continue with this culture which is, again, Indian, but which looks out at the world.
S: The Nico Talks are very inspiring. I have attended a few and found Rahul to be a great speaker.
