The Bosporus is not just a famed waterway that connects Europe with Asia, it also represents a confluence of cultures of the Orient and Occident. Which is exactly what Good Earth’s creative director, Anita Lal, had in mind for the brand’s landmark 25th anniversary collection. “I decided to shift our gaze westwards and when I thought about what connects Western cultural influences with the Eastern world, the storied legacy of the Bosporus strait was an obvious choice,” she explains.
Born from a collective fantastical imagination, the Bosporus Design Collection introduces an all-new vocabulary of motifs, colours and design. From ruby red pomegranates to stylised leopards, each motif has a unique story of its provenance. Richly layered together, they create syncretic designs, reimagined as lush hand block prints, jewel-toned embroideries, hand-drawn toiles, and opulent brocades as well as tableware and décor accents.The collection comprises Bosporus Rosa, focuses on hand-drawn toile with festoons of roses, from classical Greek and Roman decorations surrounding Asiatic cheetahs poised under palm trees. Then there’s the seductively named Scherezade, digitally printed on cotton and then quilted in the French boutis style. Its deep crimson ground is the much-loved Ottoman colour palette known as ‘guvezi.’
Next comes the Jewel Box, inspired by patterns on Ottoman brocades, which comprises jewel-toned cushions woven and embroidered in silk and velvet with gold and silver threads. Then, digitally printed on handloom silk, the Secret Garden collection presents an imagined journey from the hidden gardens of China down the Silk Road to the shores of the Bosporus, encountering magical cheetahs and peacocks in palm groves festooned with roses and jasmines.
Staying true to its oeuvre, the brand also showcases Imperial Blue. With its distinctive blue and white porcelain which was especially valued by the Imperial Ottoman court, this unique collection comprises hand-painted porcelain platters, vase, and ginger jars reminiscent of those created by traditional artisans in Jingdezhen, home of Ming pottery in China.
The launch of the 25th-anniversary collection also coincides with the unveiling of the restored and renovated Good Earth Flagship at Raghuvanshi Mills, Mumbai. Reimagining the grandeur of Yalis—palatial Ottoman villas along the Bosporus—the restoration has been brought to life in a unique collaboration between Anita Lal and designer Adil Ahmad.