PEAKLIFE

Confluence has launched their new collection with Zariin which is a focused line of contemporary jewelry with Swarovski Crystals named “Girl in the city”. As we all know, CONFLUENCE celebrates Swarovski crystals, curation, detailed craftsmanship, in each collection and piece hence bringing alive the signature and vision of each designer. The same reflects in this latest collection where each piece in CONFLUENCE X Zariin comes with the promise to induce luxury and a dose of sparkle, employing clean lines and gem coloured Swarovski Crystals.

Peaklife engages in a conversation with Mamta Gupta to know more behind the collection and the story behind the wonderful 10 years of Zariin, started by the sister duo- Mamta & Vidhi Gupta.

Q1. How has the journey been so far?

We started as self-trained jewelry artists where neither of us comes from the jewelry study background or fashion design background. Vidhi has grown up with a love for design. She has always been the experimental one and trying out different silhouettes and clothing or matching jewelry with it while I have always been drawn to creating brands, more towards the commercial and the business side of things. We came together and we wanted to start our own jewelry label which would really appeal to the global women. That’s a place we both started from scratch. She brought her design thinking and I brought my idea of how to grow that design into a label and brand.

A few years into the business, we started receiving a lot of media attention in India and design awards. Customers started asking us where I can buy this from India and when we figured now that we have also established ourselves in the international market, we should look at launching in India as well. In India, we went only through the e-commerce route so that we could immediately go countrywide retail instead of taking two or one cities at a time. Since we launched it in the domestic market it has really received us warmly from launching three collections a year. Now we have about 16 collections launched.

So, the journey has been great! We have been covering the entire Indian market – shipping our goods to Srinagar or to Nagaland or Tamil Nadu, Kerala Gujarat. It feels great because India is home and we also understand the pulse of Indian customers.

Q- What is the concept behind the collection- Girl in the City?

This collection has culminated from Vidhi and my travels to different cities of the world. So whether it’s Tokyo, London, or New York, each city has its own façade of lights. When you look at the city of gold as an onlooker, it touches differently. So, for us as a jewelry artist, it inspired us to want to create a collection keeping those lights in our mind as a background.

If you see in this collection, each piece has a sparkle of different crystals, all colors coming together in a very subtle manner. Even if you see a minimal aesthetic, it has an element of wearability that one can wear it while you are going to an office meeting or taking it from day tonight. It’s a completely nine to nine collection, yet it has that sparkle which completely mixes you up. After doing the wedding collection we were really drawn to create a collection, which will again find the girl in her every daily mode, hence we called it Girl in the City.

Q- What has been your favorite piece of jewelry from this collection?

I don’t remember the name of the particular piece but there is basically one hoop that has all different motifs of the collection that are there. It has like little stars, a curvy triangle…these hoops are my favorite. I love how they frame the face. They’re so lightweight and they go with all the outfits.

Q- What advice would you give to the people who are still budding in this particular career?

You have to be passionate about what you want to do and not try to hop on a trend because it’s not for the long haul. It’s not something that you can quickly reap the benefits and move on. It requires a very concentrated dedication to the craft and you have to become the master of your craft. There’s no quick reward system in the route of entrepreneurship you have to ride out the lows and enjoy the highs and really love what you do.

Another thing I want to say is that, you know, one has to keep an eye on the business and commercial side. One can get carried away in the glitz and glamour of marketing, but you have to do that way. You’re putting the money so make sure that it’s a sound business idea. So, writing a business plan is very important.

With this collection, Zariin is a part of CONFLUENCE’s existing designer portfolio of thirteen designers, including, Amrapali, Ashima Leena, Deepa Gurnani, Eina Ahluwalia, Isharya, JJ Valaya, Nida Mahmood, Pernia Qureshi, Rohit Bal, Shivan & Narresh, Suneet Varma and Tarun Tahiliani.

Their collection will be retailing on Confluenceshop.com, Zariin.com ogaan.com, Jaypore.com, perniaspopupshop.com, azafashions.com and all the online retail partners.