The IKKIVI Podcast: Exploring Fashion, Culture and Values · Nivi Murthy

S4E08: Luxury, Heritage & Sustainability: A New Era of Indian Design | Esha Gupta

·38 min·3 clips

Isha Gupta closes with a personal design principle: “always think about how you want to design your life.”

1. The IKKIVI Podcast episode S4E08 examines luxury, heritage, sustainability, and the changing position of Indian design through a conversation with Isha Gupta. 2. Host Nivi Moorthy speaks with Isha Gupta, founder of Design Pataki, who brings Parsons School of Design training and more than 20 years of industry experience. 3. The episode asks how Indian design can preserve cultural heritage while becoming contemporary, globally visible, and commercially sustainable. 4. Gupta traces her interest in design to discussing paint shades, fabrics, redecorating, and reupholstering with her mother during Diwali. 5. She says Design Pataki began as a blog before becoming a media platform covering design, art, architecture, and lifestyle. 6. Gupta describes the platform’s original aim as making design in India more accessible through a “global design” and “made in India” lens. 7. She says international events including Milan Design Week, Copenhagen’s Three Days of Design, and India Art Fair now feature more Indian product designers. 8. Gupta identifies wicker and brass as Indian-associated materials appearing prominently in contemporary global furniture design. 9. She argues that furniture, lighting, automation, sanitary ware, and tiles are increasingly being made in India, although some components still require imports. 10. Gupta recounts how export houses once ignored domestic buyers at Delhi’s EPCG trade show before developing Indian showrooms and brands such as Elementary and Orange Tree. 11. Gupta recalls frustration when international audiences asked about “Maharajas” and “elephants,” while noting that this perception of India has changed in recent years. 12. She says Indian brands seeking international trade-show credibility may need to exhibit at events such as Cien Maison or Salonier for three consecutive years. 13. Gupta identifies India collector pavilions and group shows as newer, lower-barrier alternatives for smaller brands seeking global visibility. 14. She describes Design Pataki’s DP Cult initiative as a response to the difficulty of discovering brands and designers during COVID-era travel and trade-show restrictions. 15. Gupta says DP Cult is expanding toward galleries, current exhibitions, and professionals including stylists, interior designers, architects, and landscape designers. 16. On AI, Gupta says Design Pataki is embracing the technology, featuring AI artists and experimenting with Midjourney while declining to predict whether AI will replace people. 17. Gupta links craft preservation to Design Pataki Foundation, a COVID relief effort that raised close to 19 lakh rupees and a focus on empowering women. 18. She uses home-based rug weaving as an example of craft work that can let women earn while caring for children and supporting their families. 19. The interview is conversational and reflective, moving from industry history and trade shows to social media, AI, neuroaesthetics, and personal design philosophy. 20. Design professionals, craft advocates, and listeners interested in Indian creative industries may appreciate it, while listeners seeking technical production instruction may skip it.

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