For as long as I’ve known Padma Lakshmi, I’ve always been impressed by her unique sense of style. Never one to follow trends, the statuesque former model–and, I’m happy to say, my friend–has blossomed into author, actress, “Top Chef” host and, most recently, jewelry designer. Her eponymous line of fine jewelry ranges in price from $300 to $6,000 and is available at seven high-profile retailers worldwide, including Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus in the U.S. As her third collection debuts this spring, not to mention the birth of her first child in a few short weeks, I chatted with her about how her line has evolved.
How does your culture play a role in your jewelry design?
“Jewelry is so much a part of Indian culture–especially Indian feminine culture–that it couldn’t help but play a significant role. Jewelry is also India’s greatest export. I have a lot of antiques and archival jewelry pieces I’ve amassed from relatives and gifts and through my travels as a model. Every kind of jewelry plays a big role in my designing. Some of the pieces have a direct influence from my heritage, but I’m also influenced by a Calder mobile or Erte sculpture or Verdura charm bracelet that I have of Maltese crosses (our charm bracelets are more slick, modern and younger versions of those). I didn’t want to do costume jewelry; it’s just not my bag. I really wanted, even in a humble pinky ring, it to last–something you could pass on to your daughter or niece. I’m Indian so we put a lot of stock in gold.”
Who is the woman you design for? What are her characteristics?
“I’m not a metal smith and I’m not a classically trained jeweler, but having worked in fashion for 20 years now, whenever I went on a trip I always brought back jewelry. I was very pleased that the jewelry looks good on my 16-year-old niece and my 65-year-old mom. That was very important to me. There’s also a lot of movement in my jewelry; it’s meant to dance on your ear and dance on your wrist and catch the light–but not be gaudy. My women share a hyper-femininity. This is not jewelry for women who dress in men’s suits all the time, although I do pair my jewelry with my YSL men’s tailored pieces. It’s very pretty, delicate jewelry (we’re getting a lot chunkier for fall) and for spring we kept it organic with botanical lines.”
Flipping through your lookbook made me hungry because of all the food vernacular tied into your jewelry names!
“Honestly, it’s proximity of what’s on the desk. In my showroom, we have the jewelry and right next to it is my test kitchen where we mix teas and test recipes. It’s kind of what was in my head when I was designing; when I was designing this collection I was also mixing spices for my line of spices and teas called Easy Exotic. For example, I’ll see a jasmine leaf and then you’ll see a jasmine earring in the collection. Everything sort of bleeds into another part of the desk!”
Growing up, what was your most memorable jewelry moment?
“When a man turns 60, in Brahmin culture it’s a very big milestone in his life. When my grandfather turned 60 there was a religious ceremony that happened and I can remember my mom stitching jewelry into my hair and jasmine flowers into the long, single braid that I had tied in my hair. I was no more than six or seven and that was really my first memory of self adornment.”
Do you wear any lucky charms?
“If you notice in the collection, there’s a micro collection called the Nav. I try to wear a little tiny piece of Nav jewelry whenever I can, especially if I’ve got a big meeting or am doing a TV appearance or on an audition. The Nav concept is to wear nine specific gemstones altogether in one piece of jewelry. Every Indian jeweler has Nave rings or necklaces, but they were always hideously done, so I modernized it. Wearing all nine stones together is said to bring you balance and harmony because each stone corresponds to a different planet so having all those stones harnessed means not one planet is pulling you in one way.”
What would you say is the quintessential must-have piece for spring from your collection?
“I really like the earrings we did. For spring we’re going to see a lot of very pale pastels and sexy skin tone neutrals, which are colors that I love. With that backdrop, the earrings are really beautiful because they catch the light. We do them with pink sapphires and we also do them with peridot and aquamarine and it’s nice to have a big, feminine earring with these neutral, flowy dresses. It gives you a dash of gypsy or sex appeal.”
What’s your most favorite piece from the collection?
“My favorite piece is actually the one we did the first season: the long, single strand pod necklace (and also the dangling pod bangle). They’re very feminine, they can be layered with anything and they’re just a perennial that works. As it happens I’m not wrong because they’re out best-sellers.”
What other areas of jewelry would you like to branch out to?
“From soup to nuts, I’m the one doing the floors and the windows, so I really have to think about what’s going to sell and what we can afford to do. We’re getting killed with gold prices. I’d love to do anklets and belly chains–whimsical, beautiful and strange pieces. I’d like to think it’s very wearable. There are beautiful strange pieces that I fantasize about making, but at the end of the day as a businesswoman I really wanted the company to make its mark with a broader audience. I wanted something women could layer–that could take them from day to night. I wanted it to be very flattering. I really wanted it to be jewelry that women would become part of–jewelry that you would take off and put on your nightstand and put on again after your shower.”
Will becoming a new mom influence your future lines?
“(Laughing) I’m sure it will. I don’t know how yet, but I’ll let you know after the baby is born. Everything influences everything else. We did the peppercorn necklace because I was grinding spices in my mortar and pestle and I just thought the peppercorn was so beautiful that I had a real peppercorn–that you would find in Dean & Deluca–cast and molded in gold.”
What jewelry lines do you like?
“I like a lot of the pieces I’ve seen at Alexis Bittar. I also go to a lot of antique jewelry shows or estate sales or at the auction houses. I’m lucky enough to have a few pieces from Fred Leighton and they’re not at all what we do–or have the budget to do–but it’s fun to look at.”
Finish this sentence: Jewelry is…
“Jewelry is a personal talisman that can tell you a lot about being a woman.”