What do Jennifer Lopez, Eva Longoria Parker, Hillary Duff and Sonam Kapoor have in common? They all swear by Isharya, the Indian jewellery brand that has taken Hollywood by storm.
On the eve of their launch in India at Mumbai’s Bungalow 8, sisters-in-law designer duo, Gauri and Radhika
Tandon, are excited about finally bringing their brand home, almost six years after its inception.
“We were discovered after Daily Candy, a popular online fashion newsletter spotted Radhika wearing one of our designs. We used to design just for ourselves, taking sketches to the local jeweller to be made,” explains Gauri, a graduate of London School of Economics, who currently lives in India.
Radhika, a patents lawyer by profession who quit her job to handle the company’s growing interests in the US, adds, “We were in the right place at the right time. After that initial article, several stylists contacted us. We got work through word-of-mouth and with the help of stylists who pick up our stuff for the celebrities over there.”
Famous clients
They have also been featured numerous times on the hit TV show
Gossip Girl, where Jessica Szohr’s character Vanessa is often spotted wearing necklaces and earrings by Isharya. While they count Lucy Liu, Drew Barrymore, and Hayden Panettiere among their clients, their most exciting moment was spotting singer-actress Jennifer Lopez in one of their designs.
“She was wearing a stack of four gold strip polki bangles on the cover of a magazine. Apparently, she loved them so much that she later kept a cuff for herself,” Radhika reveals.
While they don’t chase celebrities, they are always excited to spot their designs on TV or the red carpet. “We don’t always know if a celebrity requests for our jewellery because stylists may just pick something from the store. But when I spot a piece, I immediately know it’s one of ours,” she adds. “It’s exciting to see young Hollywood wearing our stuff because they are the future and this will help us build our brand globally.”
Nothing specialThe duo insists that they’ve never made a special piece for any particular celebrity. “We work with factories, and so it’s almost impossible to make single pieces,” says Radhika. “But we are working on a special collection for the upcoming New York Fashion Week, where a couple of designers have asked for our jewellery.”