It has been nearly five years since Simone Arora’s eponymous domestic decor store, SIMONE, opened its doors in Colaba’s Amerchand Mansion. During this span, other than showcasing the Mumbai-based dressmaker’s signature ‘nature-luxe’ aesthetic, it streamlined its authentic call and expanded its offering, each literally and metaphorically. “The ground above our existing ground- and primary-floor premises at Amerchand Mansion became available in April 2017,” says Simone. She became on the lookout for a larger area for the residence, the developing variety of fabrics from D’Decor (in which she is an innovative director), and the timing couldn’t have been more fortunate. She obtained the belongings soon after, and the recovery began in March 2018.
Restoring a hundred-year-old Heritage Property The building, placed on Madame Cama Road in Colaba, is heritage belonging—now more than 100 years old—and Arora decided that for the new floor, she would retain its historic allure.
As with the store launch, she got conservation architect Vikas Dilawari on board to restore the outside facade and supervise the internal structural paintings. “As the lower tiers were more modern-day in fashion, I decided to go along with an old-world look on the new floor,” she says. With trellised balconies outside the Indo-Saracenic-fashion building, wood doorways, and home windows, the high-ceilinged area now also has a floor that features a “Parisian modern” aesthetic Arora describes.
Arora enjoys D’Décor (where she has worked for decades), and her understanding of the material is glaring here. The Artful Curator The new level provides 3,300 square toes to the shop’s original 8,000 homes, a specially curated variety of domestic furnishing fabric displayed in unique sections delineated via coloration scheme. Where it’d ordinarily be clean to be overwhelmed by the range and range of alternatives to be had—jacquards, published fabrics in chenille, linen, velvet, suede, and leatherette—right here, Arora has grouped merchandise into neat sections with considerate catalogs to help clients choose.
Glowing with Luxury Each phase brings together fabrics, bed and bath linen, carpets, ornamental artifacts, and furniture (designed with the aid of Arora’s sister Sussanne Khan of The Charcoal Project) that makes it appear much less like a shop and more like you have stepped into a nicely-curated domestic. From refurbishing the interiors to planning the inventory, the whole procedure was completed in nine months, and Arora is undoubtedly pleased with the result. “It has been a tedious yet pleasing adventure,” she says, about the demanding situations that came with reading this area. The new ground, now a quietly steeply-priced place, softly lit using crystal chandeliers and equipped with length furnishings that offset the vast range of fabric, stands testimony to that passion—and a touch of success.
