Design Mumbai catapults India onto the global design stage

The world's largest exercise in democracy is currently underway in the world's largest democracy. With nearly 970 million citizens eligible to vote in India's general election, the process takes an eyebrow-raising month and a half to complete.

The scale of the subcontinent's political franchise – and, indeed, its even larger total population – is reflected in the size of its nominal GDP, which, perhaps surprising to some, is ranked fifth largest globally, ahead of the UK and France. 

It’s within this hyper-dynamic context that the country’s first major international design fair, Design Mumbai, will throw open its doors later this year to an international audience of A&D professionals, planners and other expert specifiers.

Running from 6–9 November at the city’s lush Jio World Garden, the trade show’s inaugural edition is as much a two-way street as it is a crossroads: homegrown design manufacturers are keen to increase their exposure to a discerning international visitorship who are hungry to discover contemporary design from India and the wider region; while high-profile, long-established European and North American brands, such as VitrA, Boss Design, and De Sede, have for some years now been looking for a credible and curated physical platform that will allow them to plug into a fast-growing economy with major spending power.

It’s little wonder then that design grandee Tom Dixon sees Design Mumbai as a much-needed correction. ‘It’s a chance to broadcast the design wealth of this extraordinary subcontinent,’ he argues. ‘India’s natural capital, vast reservoir of skills and technology, and rich history should be more widely recognised and celebrated.’

But with high potential come high expectations. From the outset of Design Mumbai’s genesis, its founders – a trio of entrepreneurs with a track record in launching and growing successful design events – decided on the event being 100% juried. Each and every exhibitor submission is assessed by the team for its quality, credibility and all-important authenticity. ‘The selection process,’ explains Ian Rudge, who co-founded long-running UK design exhibition 100% Design, ‘will prioritise original products designed by named designers, striking a balance between local, growing talent and well-known international brands.’

With Michael Dynan, co-founder of Design Shanghai, and designer, brand owner, event organiser and TV presenter Piyush Suri as the fellow brains behind Design Mumbai, together with financial and operational backing from the Montgomery Group, a fairs business with over 50 events in its global portfolio, it’s a collection of proven talents that bodes well for this November.

Local players have responded to the fair’s launch with alacrity. Andblack, the Ahmedabad-based design studio of Kanika and Jwalant Mahadevwala, both graduates of London’s Architectural Association, see themselves ‘at the threshold of going big, going international. Design Mumbai has come in at the right time for us,’ they say. For AKFD Studio, meanwhile, who work out of Jaipur, the show will be a valuable springboard. ‘After two decades of designing and manufacturing at scale, we're now taking it up a notch with a refined and more streamlined identity. Design Mumbai will be a grand stage for unveiling our evolution.’

The value for creative professionals planning to travel to Mumbai won’t, however, just be in the familiar and emerging talent they’ll see there in furniture, lighting, kitchens and bathrooms, workplace and outdoor. It’ll also be in them being seen. For, with its programme of talks and get-togethers, the fair is eager to establish itself as the foremost networking stage for the design industry in the region, with the likes of industrial designer Michael Young, Zaha Hadid Studio and Danish designer and ceramicist Naja Utzon Popov due to attend.

Young considers India to be ‘a market of key interest for any brand right now’, while Parminder Pal Singh, co-founder of Loco Design, whose stable of brands manufactures contemporary and hand-crafted furniture and accessories, welcomes Design Mumbai’s level of ambition. ‘It comes at just the right time for India’s fast-paced maturing market,’ she says.

But, let’s be honest. These days, there’s more to visiting a physical design fair than simply the fair experience itself. As the exhibitions industry globally is forced by a new macro-economic reality and significant shifts in societal behaviour to rethink its business, the events that will stay the course are the ones that play to their host cities, encouraging their audiences to draw as much on the cultural offerings to be found outside the fairgrounds as within them.

Mumbai, as India’s spirited design, fashion and film capital, is ready to deliver.

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