Darwin-win Situation

It's nice to see designers evolve and price tags regress. At Evolv, a spanking new multi-designer store at Phoenix Market City, super high-end designers collaborate on garments that are targeted to the youth and are therefore more affordable.

Along with usual fashion suspects - Manish Arora, Rohit Bal, Rajesh Pratap and Namrata Joshipura - Evolv also stocks fun brands like Melissa (love those Melissa heels!), Skullcandy, Suhanie Pittie and Play Clan. These creations are housed in a vibrant 850 sq. ft. space where walls are pasted with fun pencil and scissor graphics. Interestingly, the clothes are sorted by colour scheme rather than label, making it easier to browse. Somewhere over the rainbow we found a red Gaurav Gupta dress for Rs 6,000!

Still suspicious, haan? Need another way to look at the situation? Read it backwards and 'Evolv' turns into 'V love'. Did you notice?

Getting there: Evolv Luxury Concept Store, Phoenix Market City, Nagar Road, Rs 6,500 for a pair of Melissa heels.

Sourced from all over the world,  brand new fashion venture The Bombay Story offers clothing and accessories for the girl next door who dreams of Paris and thinks in pink.

The online store is based out of Mumbai and Pune and delivery is subject to availability. Payments can be made through bank deposits or internet transfer.

We scoured through the merchandise and made our wish list for the holiday season:

View the slideshow here.

1: Candy-coloured suede booties in baby pink, periwinkle blue and beige, no mean feet! Code: D104, Rs 1,850.

2: Tiny print chiffon dress with drop waist. Pretty and non-fussy, it's perfect for flaunting your holiday accessories without making you look like a Christmas tree. Code: A-116, Rs 1,050.

3: Suede Oxfords in emerald green or fuchsia. Bright, super-soft and ridiculously cute. Code: B103, Rs 2,500.

4: Khaki cropped blazer with slim lapels. Classic, structured, too cool for comfort. Code: B105, Rs 1,900.

Any one feel like playing Santa?

Getting there: Visit the Facebook group here, to place your order contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Pulp Fiction

In this world of email, Kindles and virtual bills, the creative cats at The Paper Thingie have found a new use for paper: earrings. And they're pretty too: intricately made danglers in primary colours that are stylish and thankfully light. Hear, hear!

Think Inside the Box

They also do more conventional - but equally stylish - paper products, boxes and gift cards made from thick craft paper and adorned with loops of colour that swirl into pretty pink presents, slanty-eyed Buddhas, a fat Ganesha and our current favorite - a circular Christmas tree.

See for yourself with bpb's slideshow.

In the Click of Time

The Paper Thingie is a perfect find for the holiday season, when the glut of cheesy Hallmark cards and blingy wedding invites reaches it's apex. Plus, they'll design a customised gift box or greeting card for you, even for relatively small orders. Greetings, we say!

Getting there: Order by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or visit the Facebook group here

Designerds Come to Pune!

Ankita Patel, a commercial art graduate from Rachna Sansad and founder of fashion label Designerds, sees her work as an attempt to convert colour into products that look pretty and are fun to carry  - a simple enough concept which results in collections that are distinctly hip and very well crafted.

Slinging '60s

Patel’s vintage collection, inspired by the beauty in dog eared books, yellowing honeymoon pictures and hornrimmed glasses, features cute parrot sling bags (Rs 700), and rose motifs. They make up for the fact that your mom didn't save any of her uber cool stuff for you.

Pop Tales

bpb loves acrylic pins which come in funky shapes like lips, elephants and pop art mustaches (Rs 125) and the Wall-E inspired robot tote (Rs 700), a welcome respite from the same-old glam bags. We also dig the pink parrot tote that is fun to take for a shopping trip or an evening out with the girls.

Hoot-ers
If you’re an owl fan, check out Designerds’ parliament of birds, which fly onto bags, wallets and photo frames. Look out especially for the brown suede sling with a little metal owl (Rs 1,550) and the funky pink owl laptop bag (Rs 1,475).

So push up your glasses and get your fill of this Nerdy Nancy.

Getting there: Bliss, Phoenix Market City Mall, Viman Nagar, Nagar Road, call 30950596

Your Boss is a Dummy!

Think your boss is stupid? Say it with a dummy that looks just like him/her. bpb stumbled upon Excitinglives.com, an e-gift hub that can do a 3D caricature of your boss (or BFF or bull dog) and convert it into a bobble head for your dash board. Boss, can I have a raise? You can take that nod as a yes.

Here’s how it works: Send these guys a picture of the person you want the bobble head to resemble, pick hair, skin and eye colour and they’ll get started on creating a clone. Meanwhile, you can browse the site for a perfect body for the head to rest on. Women can choose from bodies clad in business suits, saris, golf gear, bath towels, Play Boy thongs, Marilyn Monroe’s flying dress, to name a few, while men can be seen playing a sport, surfing, wearing a tux and even shirtless and pumping iron.

Wrist Action

Lifestyle label Forty Red Bangles was conceived when Melbourne native Ramona Saboo married and moved to India. The 'chuda' inspired brand came to represent the connection between her past and future, and all her experiences in India. The result? A range of fun home products all of which are sold on their website and shipped to Pune.

She Wax Him

Considering the festive season, bpb’s pick will have to be their 'From India With Love' candles inspired by different Indian cities. Not only do they smell super, these candles also wax eloquent, urging you to get “mogra high in Mumbai” or “sand me to Jaipur”. Inspired by four cities – Hyderabad, Pondicherry, Mumbai and Jaipur - these are encased in pretty individual boxes, manufactured by Crawford Market Candles and feature mad pairing of scents like black pepper mixed in with grapefruit and mandarin, coriander and champa. The candles not only smell delicious, but come with a saintly conscience as well.

Supporting a better cause - empowering craft communities – are the terracotta potted candles with the potter's story etched around it. These come in lemongrass, clove and cinnamon. Diwali hunters also see Forty Red Bangles’ gorgeous handmade lanterns crafted from recycled tins and manufactured by Noah's Ark.

Buy these for your Diwali party and they'll wonder how you got so bright. It will be our little secret.

Getting there: Forty Red Bangles, buy online at www.fortyredbangles.com, Rs 1,000 for a set for four beeswax candles.

Design Diaspora

This is one migration from the North that no Sena will object to: Play Clan, uber cool Delhi-based product design firm has begun making its way around the country, opening stores in Mumbai, Goa and earlier this month, Vimannagar, Pune. Welcome, we say!

Kings of Kitsch

Even if you're sick of kitsch and pop art like us, Play Clan is worth a visit: here are high-quality products that still feel fresh, intricately imagined and well-finished, some of them funny enough to make you laugh out loud.

Shopping Cart

bpb loves lungi iPod covers, Rajnikant visiting card holders, brightly coloured sports bras, BEST boxers, yoga and meditation-inspired diaries, kitschy pocket mirrors, lamps, trays, paintings and more. If you’re not afraid of bling and color, you should also get the sequins-scattered T-shirt screen printed with comically angry goddesses - also awesome are the graphical boxes these come in, which make great pencil holders. (Rs.1,995).

It's also a perfect place to do all your holiday shopping at: diverse, festive, colourful and quirky, we found "Mind It" zippo lighters and  Sadhu tees for a blissed-out brother and screen-printed canvas bags for a niece who's starting college soon. Be prepared to spend though, as this family is pricey!

Getting there: S-38, 2nd floor, Phoenix Market City, Vimannagar, call 0203095038 or visit the Facebook group here.

Aaji Mastan

Don’t expect a daydream back to the til laadoos her aaji (grandmother in Marathi) made when she was a child, and the soporific effect they had on Sundays. In fact, there will be little reference to personal stories when you ask graphic designer Falguni Gokhale about the inspiration behind Aaji’s Kitchen, a super cute miniature doll house - well, doll room - built in a 10 by 10 wooden box that displays a kitchen scene from 50 years ago.  

Glam Slam

Make room in your closet for Radhika Dhawan of First Row, who invades Pune this October, armed with lust-worthy designer clothes and accessories, all at deeply reduced prices – think Gayatri Khanna and Lina Tipnis, Rajat Tangri and Princesse K.

These will be available at a weekend sale held at the beloved Terttulia, which means you can gorge not only on cocktail rings but also thin crust pizza and cold mango soup. Delish!

Instant Gratification

The sale only starts next weekend (October 7 and 8), but you can whet your appetite by visiting the First Row website, easy to navigate, fun and chockfull of great deals.

Also check out bpb’s lust list of things we love, currently on First Row. Look out for them at the sale or better yet, snap them up on the website now.

Bow-backed nautical  shirt by Sinbad, Rs 1,080.

Embellished hair bands by Bansri – top notch! – Rs, 1,050.

Casting Directors

On a day as clear as vodka, you see a sturdy ship steering its course. Then out of nowhere, an iceberg appears and the vessel you thought was invincible goes down without so much as a whimper.

This familiar sea scene plays out in a glass of Grey Goose, where ice set in the shape of abovementioned boat-killer floats ominously around other frozen Titanics. These fun nautical ice trays you can buy from It’s Our Studio (they spell it ‘Its Our Studio’ but we can’t bear to keep the typo), where cast-ing directors buy moulds of every kind from around the world to sell in India. These guys will be showing in Pune at the Shopoholics 2011 fest at The O Hotel from September 30 to October 2. If you miss them, you can always browse the pictures on their Facebook group and call in/ email with your order. Or better still, shop on their web store which will be up and running in a week. A quick flip through their mould album revealed super innovative trays for ice, jelly, chocolate, butter and custard.