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We remember the Framjee Cawasjee Institute for discount book sales and buy-one-get-four-free offers on men’s shirts. Just don’t expect the same deal on a bridal lehenga. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have transformed the building opposite Metro Cinema into Mubarak Baug, a 20,000-square-foot store that looks and feels like a palace. Here, the designers bring together four decades of work since their partnership began in 1986. Reliance Brands now backs the business and the ambition is evident everywhere.
We drop in while out shopping with no particular agenda. The staff know we’re only browsing and still give us an hour-long tour, taking us through the collections with warmth and patience. It makes a place this grand surprisingly easy to enjoy.
On the ground level, Shine Shivan’s hand-painted murals fill a long corridor with mythological scenes, including the story of Krishna and Sudama. There are chandeliers, miniature jharokhas, layered mirrors and elaborate arrangements of ivory shola flowers. An upside-down miniature cityscape in brass hangs above the ready-to-wear, which includes handwoven sarees, gota and appliqué pieces and the house’s signature crushed silks.
The staircase leading up to the first level is decorated with the Bombay skyline in brass. Upstairs, the ceilings soar over a golden hall where supersized gilded birds sculptures are suspended among illuminated clouds. Shilo Shiv Suleman’s intricate screens divide the collections into smaller sections. Through their art and design venture A Wonder Room, Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have brought together artists and craftspeople throughout the store. Wolf Jaipur turns leftover fabrics and embellishments from the atelier into elaborate flowers, foliage and fantastical creatures. Framed embroideries cover the walls and even the corners deserve a closer look.
Don’t miss the chikankari at Mubarak Baug
Their famously delicate chikankari (a hand embroidery style originating from Lucknow) is beautiful up close. There are sarees and lehengas in colour after colour, with real mirror work, zardozi and resham embroidery providing plenty of reasons to examine the clothes carefully. The blouses are wonderfully sexy and full of imagination, with pearls, jewels and elaborate details worked into their tiny dimensions. The ways they are cut and fastened are almost as interesting as the embellishment. We can see ourselves planning an entire outfit around one.
A grand staircase leads to a stepwell-like display of archival clothes, including Madhuri Dixit’s mirror-work ghagra from Devdas. The whole store feels like a designer retrospective, with the added pleasure of being able to shop the current collections.
The fitting rooms are made for a bride’s The Princess Diaries moment. Some could pass for small Bombay apartments, with enough seating for the family, large three-sided mirrors and a pedestal on which to admire the lehenga. There is room for everyone to have an opinion.
And there’s jewellery too!
Our favourite section is the jewellery vault, an huge faceted structure with jewels displayed against hot pink inside. The new Iconic Jewels collection takes inspiration from chikankari and patola, translating their patterns into diamonds and coloured gemstones. There are birds, fish and flowers worked into intricate pieces. We fall for a delicate diamond necklace with so little visible metal that the stones seem suspended in air. We come to see the clothes and leave talking about the jewellery, the Gatsbyesque interiors and how generously we were shown around. ‘Mubarak ho’ means congratulations and the designers have certainly earned ours.
Time Out tip: For a quieter browse, try a weekday morning or mid-afternoon. If you’re shopping for an occasion, book an appointment and tell the team what you have in mind so they can help you navigate the exhaustive selection.