Star Interior Designer Nisha Jamvwal on Latest Industry Trends

Nisha Jamvwal is well known as a Star Interior Designer or Architect. Yet, this glamorous long-legged belle dons myriad hats - Fashion Designer, Art Consultant, Columnist, and Craft Activist - all with equal ease and élan.

Shiksha.com presents an exclusive interview of Interior Designer Nisha Jamvwal and unearths her secret to such a great phenomenal success.

You dabble in many things - interior designing, fashion designing, and writing. And you are always on the move. How do you manage it all?

I have tons of energy and am always impatient to do many things - I don't know any other way. My mind and life are fed with art and history, architecture and words. I am an aesthete, a lover of the arts, and work with all media that allow me to dabble in design and art.

I almost cannot see a space or fabric or canvas without my mind and vision clicking with ideas to enhance it to its aesthetic function in accordance with my vision. Sometimes there is an upsurge of ideas; I find it difficult to keep pace with my mind.

As a professional interior architect I chose to work with all arms of design and art. I created and spearheaded the brand 'Nisha JamVwal' in Interior Architecture and Interior Design, and diversified into fashion. I also modelled selectively, compeered shows on stage & Television, and done a few vignettes in Bollywood for a lark. I cramp my day with delightful projects and enjoy this tight rope walk through time.

I am a prolific writer and have columns in magazines and newspaper, have written books on Art, Craft & Sculpture. My articles were at first  mostly about Interiors and later I was asked to comment and write about style and trends in Fashion, film, personalities and travel. It is true I do multitask and I have to say its most exciting.

What is your main passion?

My main profession and driving force has been Interior architecture, and since I was a child I'd assist my parents, aunts, friends, their friends in re-arranging furniture, buying furnishings', redoing their space not in-depth but definitely as time went by more and more involved-ly. Never was I conflicted about where I was going. While my parents are very intellectual Economics, Management graduates they had hoped I'd go the LSE (London School Of Economics) assuming that I'd have inherited their scholarly genes, but I was born with the ‘Art Gene'.

To me my abiding interest is to remodel & revamp interiors, without breaking & remodelling, doing a soft revamp make-over where an entire new look is created in a matter of days without stress to the client, and to the absolute delight of the inmate/ client. A grooming of a space in an age where breaking down a space can become cumbersome to a client.

Like a grooming job upon a woman, a recolor, re-dress of the home/ office/ restaurant!! To re-invent a space is my delight.

My second most passionate interest is to write, it remains one of my most exciting journeys into life and myself!

How did you launch yourself in the field of Interior Designing?

I worked and studied in America and France and I have worked in Japan, California, France, and Australia. On my return to India twelve odd years ago, I'd say my launch pad was the Jaipore airport after which there was no looking back. It was my first project and I kept doing homes and offices and wrote about design and interior solutions all over the world to spread the know how as well.

I drew and colored before I could write...for me design, shapes, and forms have been attractive since I was three or maybe before even.

What have been your main achievements in this field? What have been your Star Projects?

All projects, and I accept  selective ones, are close to my heart, like a phase of child birth. Quite honestly, it becomes difficult for me to leave it once completed, so attached is one to the project. I am most often in touch with my clients, way after I have finished the design. I enjoy the clients as much as the space for a ‘designer' is like a friend and a counsellor to the client. We work in a team and they seem to enjoy walking the design journey with me. I've had some clients shed tears at the parting time, when my workers and I handed over the keys and in some other touching moments clients had a dinner for me to introduce their designer to their friends.

On a hillside in Hakone, there is a house built with waterfalls and nearly as if it is synergetic with the volcanic rocks in Japan. I'd say that inspired me toward my style, which is quintessentially stone and glass.

What has been your 'Dream-Come-True Moment' professionally?

There are so many:

• Standing on stage with adulating students, thousands of them clapping and cheering at my key note speech I felt like a Ms Universe must feel winning a crown;
• The completion of Jaipore Airport after the trepidation that the Airports Authority had felt about one so young handling such a big project receiving accolades for it;
• My solo fashion show with Chris Cairns Foundation where it seemed as if the entire Mumbai applauding for me at my finale from pristine dinner tables in the lawns;
• The opening night of my book release about The Craft Of Stone Sculpture: ‘Iconic & Narrative Symphonies In Stone'; and
• The house I painted and designed for Lisa Ray appearing on the covers of International magazines.

What is the secret of your success?

Through life's every rapid or pitfall, I was only more enthused toward living the journey to its fullest. I have not used references or family connections for short cuts toward achievement. Career and work have been a priority and I’ve always found work is my raison d’être in life. I also  work with a desire to bring issues to the forefront- with the peg of glamour, to help in whatever way I can to bring about some meaningful change in our society. Like wheelchair access in public spaces and care and concern for animals being my primary priorities.

How did you launch yourself into the Celebrity Network - did you use family contacts or did you manage it on your own? Is networking important to be successful in your profession?

I don't at all feel networking is as important as it is to work hard and put your soul into your journey. I have kept pace with the times and kept my work trendy & smart, multitasked to always give a shot in the arm to all the things I do, and broken the walls between all creative worlds in design, fashion, interior architecture, writing, art, and not really needed to piggy back to success upon brands and other successful people. Somewhere I feel my USP is this that I am able to do so many things and synergize them often.

I fly solo and depend upon myself to make it or break it. I sit on the board of institutions, judge at Design institutes, write columns, it is due to my work, education & a career in design and art/ determination, drive and entrepreneurship - the ability I have to dream and work toward dreams, most importantly to admire and celebrate the achievements and successes of other successful people. Not because its been easy or anyone has been my Godfather.

It's a personal preference that I am normally not too fond of the appendage 'socialite'; I think it undermines what I stand for, and my work and creative journey. I do enjoy flamboyance, panache, and unwinding but that is not my raison D'être. However, it does give the glamour and drama that catapults me into the sphere of an architect telling me ‘Nisha, you're the Sushmita Sen of the Architectural world.'

I am sometimes known as a Page Three phenomenon, that is not however my identity!

I work hard and play hard and it's the way I enjoy my life, the tag is a by-product of my f

ast-track lifestyle and a short appearance in the movie 'Page Three'.

What are the various branches of Interior Designing in which students can specialize?

Students can specialize in Lighting, Product Design, Furniture Design, and Furnishing, depending on their preference and interests.

You must have come across many designers. Would you like to share names of a few institutes which you think are doing good work in training interior designers? Would like to say why you think they are the best?

According to me, NID Ahmedabad, Parsons in NY, Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Prat in NY and Graduate School of Design at Harvard are best Interior Designing institutes. These are the places where you are challenged and allowed to think; these schools teach you how to design, not be a clerk. These schools teach you how to think out of the box.

What suggestions would you like to give to students who want to become Interior Designers?

My advice to all students is to work hard, work hard and work hard, there are NO shortcuts! And second very important suggestion is to always go with your design ideas when you are sure, don't allow people to shilly-shally around you and detract you with silly ‘judgement' and ‘verdicts', especially idle socialites who come to college juries and browbeat students to show importance.

I always go to school and college festivals so that I can interact and be part of their exuberance, growth and metamorphosis.

Every experiment in life has been a step in my journey of growth and self-discovery, a kaleidoscopic part of life that enriches the fabric of my work & existence. Without these, life would be a meaningless transition from the womb to the tomb and this often entails some mistakes, some triumphs, but that's the enriching of the fabric of life and so far I don't regret that much!

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