Indian Jeweller (IJ) Magazine August -September 2019

I never wanted to be a traditional jewellery designer and I did
not do any typical jewellery course. I did fashion and lifestyle
accessories at NIFT and I specialized in high jewellery and
accessories in Milan. My entire passion towards jewellery
comes from my journey which has been very off-beat
It takes a lot of courage to improvise on
something that is very traditional and
holds a lot of meaning. This was exactly
Mrinalini Chandra’s claim to fame – she
took the humble Kaleeras and gave it an allnew
meaning, by making it more personal,
quirky and modern, while retaining its oldworld
charm. Mrinalini is not in the jewellery
business to make ordinary things, she is here to
make extraordinary things out of something
you wouldn’t even care to look more than
once. The mundane chair for instance; who
would’ve thought a chair can be celebrated
in so many ways? Her ‘Please have a Seat’
collection which was launched in 2014 is still
a cult. Her fresh take on designs and playful
approach to jewellery has won her many
celebrity audiences like Sonam Kapoor and
Priyanka Chopra. “I never wanted to be a
traditional jewellery designer and I did not do
any typical jewellery course. I did fashion and
lifestyle accessories at NIFT and I specialized
in high jewellery and accessories in Milan. My
entire passion towards jewellery comes from
my journey which has been very off-beat.”
Mrinalini was exposed to regional art
forms at a very young age and since her father
was in the services, he would get transferred
across the country, to remote and small towns.
“The local craft in such towns was thriving.
Wherever we lived, my mother would get
a piece of jewellery for me. So my wedding
jewellery is little things belonging to different
craft wherever my parents lived. I have some
polki jadau jewellery from Rampur, the jadau
INDIAN JEWELLER | august-september 2019 | 63