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N
ot even in her wildest
dreams did Farah Khan imagine that
she would one day be a successful
jewellery designer. “I was always
the tomboy,” she says, recalling her
childhood. “When my mother (noted
interior designer Zarine Khan) took her
jewellery out of her safe, my two sisters
were the ones who were drawn to it like
moths to a flame. As for me, I didn’t
know an emerald from a ruby.”
After she graduated from college,
she startled her family one day by
announcing she wanted to do a course
in gemmology from the Gemological
Institute of America (GIA) in Santa
Monica, California. “I had no clue
Farah Khan
Do It Well Or
Don’t Do It At All
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about gemmology ,” she confesses, “I
just wanted to follow my best friend,
who had signed up for the course there.
I planned to have a lot of fun hitting Los
Angeles!” Perhaps sensing some of this,
her father (actor and director Sanjay
Khan) questioned her long and hard
about her decision. In the end though,
he let her go through with her plan to
join the GIA after she explained that it
was only a six-month course and also
promised him she’d top her class!
Once she got to the GIA though,
Farah was jolted by reality. She realised
that studying gemstones was no
cakewalk. She had to grapple with
learning the physical and chemical
properties of various stones and this
meant she also had to come to grips
with a fair bit of physics. “My party
plans went out of the window and
I put my nose to the grind,” Farah
recalls. Far from being the party animal,
overnight she became the typical nerdy
immigrant student who studied into the
late hours. At the end of six months, she
even made good on her promise to her
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father – she topped her class, scoring
97 per cent.
By this time, she was also hooked
and after a two month break, Farah
went back to the GIA to enrol in a
jewellery design course. “I was always
good at art and loved to sketch and
draw,” she says. This latent talent was
channelled into top flight jewellery
design by some of the world’s best
talent. “I was trained by Robert Ahrens,
former head designer for French
jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels. He used to
call me ‘Tiger’ because no matter what,
I never gave up,” Farah recalls.
Back in India, Farah interned with
retailer Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri
for almost a year. In 1994, she started
to design her own jewellery. “There
was a lot of curiosity about my work
as I was the daughter of a movie star. I
admit that having famous parents did
help me get walk-ins. But the real test
began after that as expectations from
me were very high. My work had to be
exceptional if I wanted the loyalty of my
clients. I was heartened by the amount
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of client retention I had, despite my
youth and inexperience. What helped
a great deal was my passion for design.
That passion still impels me today and
I’m still an assiduous worker.”
Farah believes that a job must be
done well or not at all. If she doesn’t
like the way her designs turn out, she
destroys them. Maintaining quality and
high standards are of prime importance
to her. “There are no shortcuts to
success,” she says.
In 2004, Farah teamed up with
Mumbai’s Anmol Jewellers to launch a
line of branded jewellery. “It was great
working with a top retailer and it gave
me a lot of exposure,” she recounts.
Two years later, she did the same thing
with Mahesh Notandas, another highend retailer.
Last year, Farah branched out on
her own, and now retails her jewellery
under the name of Farah Khan Fine
Jewellery through retail agreements
with A.K. Mehrasons in New Delhi
and Om Jewellers in Mumbai. “As
a designer, one’s thought processes
are different from a retailer. We
designers are creative, and we sell a
piece of art and beauty. Most retailers
are consumer-directed,” she reveals,
adding, “so it is important for me to tie
up with those who appreciate designs
and actually find it difficult to part with
a piece of artistic work. I have always
been fortunate enough to work with
people who think this way.”
This year she plans to launch an
eponymous boutique outlet in Bandra.
“I wanted to open my store last year,
but my jewellery got sold out and I had
to postpone the launch! Right now, I’m
building up my inventory to stock my
own outlet,” she says.
Excellent finish and top quality
stones are two sacrosanct inputs
for Farah. She absolutely refuses to
compromise on this. She explains,
“Jewellery is all about a need to possess
a thing of beauty. It has, therefore, got
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to offer visual stimulation. Everything
is important when you sell a piece
of jewellery – branding, marketing,
display, mounting, and even packaging.
I take a lot of trouble over my packaging
– it’s all set with Swarovski crystals.”
Farah has an insatiable desire to
create something unique. Her couture,
one-off jewellery is stylish, flamboyant,
and eye-catching. Farah believes that
jewellery is worn for adornment, for
showing it off. “Jewellery on a person
should not be missed. It has to be
charming, or over the top,” she says.
Lamenting the situation in the
Indian jewellery industry, Farah
believes that a major problem is
that jewellers here are unwilling to
experiment. “Everyone wants to play
safe. So, if certain designs do well,
they are quickly imitated. Not much is
invested in designing,” she observes.
“Jewellers should realise that they are
selling a work of art, not a commodity.
If you yourself don’t give value to your
product, how do you expect consumers
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to value it or pay a premium for design?
And the product isn’t always sold the
right way – selling is an art in itself.”
Farah’s jewellery is almost always
theme-based. Her artistic renditions
of nature, gardens, flowers, trees and
animals, breathe life into her jewellery
pieces. Her ornaments have fluidity
and movement. The glamorous pieces
she creates are not still, and the kinetic
energy is well blended into the various
exotic forms she so carefully crafts.
Trends
Farah says that a whole range of
coloured gemstones will be back in
vogue this summer. “Jewellery will
be colourful, flamboyant and grand.
Stackable jewellery will continue to
remain in fashion,” Farah says, adding,
“Unique pieces with cultural motifs
taken from India, China and Africa will
gain popularity. Ethnicity combined
with modernity will be the key in
jewellery designs.”
— Shanoo Bijlani
Farah Khan