High & Lotus

After months of renovation, Good Earth re-opened its flagship store at Raghuvanshi Mills this past weekend, and the new space looks exotic and charming and… exactly like the old one. Here again are wrought iron chandeliers and sequined cushions, wide-seating daybeds and fat teapots, Molton Brown shower gels and many, many, many lotuses: etched into stoneware and carved out of candle wax, stamped onto wall posters and romantically withering in earthenware, they are everywhere. Padma Lakshmi would be proud.  

Home Shopping Net-Worth

The good news, however, is that the merchandise is as lust-worthy as ever. If this Scouter had her way, her shoebox-size living space would now boast a heartbreakingly romantic periwinkle blue chandelier (displayed at the store but not for sale); three tier gilded dessert stand that would make an excellent accessory holder (Rs 8,000); tiny silk fairy lights in pink and blue and green (Rs 1,500); and pale marble Narmada trays designed by Krsna Mehta, who thankfully seems to be getting over his pop-art hangover (Rs 1,600).

Silk & Honey

They have added an extra floor to the store, splitting the soaring ceiling to create a mezzanine-like space dedicated to bed linens, curtains and cushions. Rajasthani rajai’s and white on white curtains abound, designed expressly to melt the most hardened housewives and send international tourists into retail-rapture.

Yet higher, on the same level as the Tasting Room, is more of the same plus some apparel and accessories (think a better styled and expensive version of Fabindia). We liked a sequined cloth tote though not enough to shell out a cool 5 k for it, but couldn’t resist a badla-sprinkled diaphanous white scarf for the same amount. Some things, dear reader, you simply must have.

Speaking of the Tasting Room, looks like the popular restaurant will have some competition with Le 15 Patisserie opening a dessert counter on the premises, starting October 18. This is good, for even if you can’t afford the four poster bed that a French princess might have slept in, you can at least comfort yourself with seriously superior macaroons.

A Too-Accustomed Earth?

Good Earth might be the most gracious home in the city, impeccable yet eccentric, sweet-smelling and always open to strangers. And there is, like a friend pointed out, comfort in knowing that you’ll always find the perfect Esfahan lantern or Manish Arora dinner set here. But we can’t help but wonder what a real redesign of this creative vision would look like, and what treasures it would yield. A lotus jacuzzi, perhaps?

Getting there: Good Earth, Raghuvanshi Mills, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, call 24953840, Rs 1,600 for a stoneware tray.