Malvika’s Ramblings

Artwork from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Play-Clan/12091938108?ref=s

If you go to Select Citywalk in New Delhi and come upon a splash of yellow in an aisle on the first floor, it’s the Play Clan store. On entering it you will find white funereal roses stuck into guns, lamps twisting like snakes and the clone wielding his sword or revving his bike.

Check the official Play Clan website on www.theplayclan.com

Ok, let’s go one step at a time. Play Clan is a fashion+art+design store run by the designers of Illum Design Studio, New Delhi. The Play Clan store is half a year old. It offers T shirts with mad graphics (look for Dilli Airport and Loveless monsters), hand painted shoes, sling bags, totes, funky jewellery, journals, cushions with all of Delhi pasted over them and wall-art.

Going away from the traditional definition of art, Play Clan offers whatever we truly think of as art – People of Delhi standing in a queue, an artistic interpretation of Lutyen’s Connaught Place, the murder of Cupid.

The design team behind the store is made of a handful of individuals, mostly young graduates (22-36 years old) from NID, NIFT, SHRISTI, Design colleges in London, Paris and US. It’s a team of graphic designers, animators, copywriter (that’s me), illustrators, dreamers. Everyone has different interests – from traveling, to checking out all the hotspots of Delhi and writing systematic reviews on them, fashion trend-spotting, sports, dancing, blogging and design of course.

The team has a penchant for traveling and the studio is alive with ideas that are translated into funky products. For example, after a few of the team-members undertook a trip to Varanasi, the mood at illum was captured by sadhus, babas and hippie-pilgrims. Look out for T shirt graphics exploring sub-cultures of India:

Varanasi: Nagasadhu:’warrior ascetics’

Rajasthan: Rebaries: Pastural Nomads

Kerala Kallaripayatu: Combat code

Play Clan was started with the idea of channeling all the thoughts and hardcore fun, ‘playfulness’ into a store; sharing the jokes and mood you will find in our design studio. The name came easily as we had a very clear aim behind the store – To Play. As the idea was born, so was born the concept of a clan with a distinct identity and community feeling. In this clan everyone was similar as they wished to cut off from the ordinary world and play (each in their own way). Thus Play Clan became a world of ‘clones’.

One of the team-members designed the clone. He sketched, slept and breathed the clone as he drew it in romantic and flirtatious, angry and spiteful, playful and buoyant, dreamy and meditative moods.

Later a short film was made where the clone invents the wheel while playing around. In doing so, more people at Illum jumped into the Clan – Animators and 3 D modeling pros. Watch the film @ http://youtube.com/user/theplayclan

The team thinks of a theme for the store each month. Every alternate month the I.S.T – Indian Standard Tamasha theme is explored. Many foreigners have visited Play Clan and been delighted with the Indian-ness over the I.S.T wall-art and T shirts. The website www.theplayclan.com states “Ambassadors, autos, evening chai n gossip, gali galouch, Sab chalta hai attitude etc etc. We start our I.S.T. Collection with the place where ministry resides and autos collide, where metro unites, and black money hides. See a loud, brash dilli collection. You will either love it or hate it.”

Another theme – Loveless was thought of at the end of February 2008 when everyone was sick of Valentine’s day, love and mush. All of us came out with our break-up stories, doodles and thoughts on lovelessness. As the website explains “Love is overrated. So this summer we decide to burn some teddies, puncture the heart shaped balloons and devote an entire season to lovelessness. We bring in some loveless monsters, plant cactus instead of roses, fill the ledger with the account of lovelessness and sing suicidal songs. All the lovesick junkies are advised to visit play clan for a dose of anti-love merchandise to support our cause.” Check out loveless crimes and punctured and bandaged hearts at the store.

The ORIGINAL design offered in the Play Clan store makes it one of a kind. You can be sure that all the ideas and spunk of Illum design studio go into PLAY products and you won’t find products like ours elsewhere in India, or the world.

One of the key features at Play Clan is to keep the design fresh so that the visitor finds new items on every visit. The collected in refreshed every two months with new themes like Dilli, Loveless and I.S.T.

Over and Out.

Also known as Ultraviolet. A coffee shop in Lucknow. Actually it’s a lot more than that.

It’s Pride & Prejudice, Gangster gold, schoolgirl tee-hee, Kasol hippie-haunt, garden snacks, white Pondicherry feeling, terracotta figurines, bonsai pots, curries and tandoori, folded cloth napkin dining, bohemian kitsch, funky bottle openers, mosaic mirrors, youth, freshness, opulence, laziness, picturesque scenes – all rolled into a combo. Separate areas for different purposes and different moods in the same place.

There is large room which you can book for a dinner party. Another area where you can sit and enjoy fine dining. Another where school students collect to enjoy coffee, slush, mocktails and exotic stuff like hummus and non-exotic digs like pav bhaji. And also an area with white walls, green canopies of curly creepers over black wrought iron frames. There used to be a lounge but Lucknow doesn’t seem to have patronized the low seating, dark, hookah haunt much. A shop with curios, wall hangings, art and wine-stands still stands.

Sandaas Ashtray by Happily Unmarried, seen at Cappuccino blast

One can see the love and personal effort that has gone into designing the place. I would imagine that a person who traveled to places like Pune, McLeodganj and odd cafes abroad was inspired and returned to Lucknow to set up this place. The coffee shop is abuzz with activity with a softboard that announces “All IPL matches being shown here”. The target group at the coffee shop seems to be girls of 13-17 years of age. Ads for call-centre jobs and air hostess training are pinned up.

The ‘leisurely pace’ concept goes a tad bit too far with service that sucks; well-meaning waiters who seem to be sweet but just plain dumb. They don’t pause at your table; they don’t acknowledge your order. Instead they just float away with no nod, no ‘OK,’ nothing! And they are not under-staffed. Service is really slow. Part of the food comes first. They forget about the rest, they really do! We asked about the hookahs and they launched into an elaborate hunt for the correct information. Finally, when we reminded them, it was just a matter of handing us the hookah-menu from a table next to us. It’s a pity when a well fashioned place where gardeners have done their bit, special chairs have been imported and bathrooms are well maintained; when such a place falls apart because of poor hospitality. They could do with better menu design too. (On a second visit, the waiters were much more responsive than earlier. They were nice enough to let us take photographs of the place freely).

Ok, I’ll tell you what really worked for me. The room that can be booked for parties is really gorgeous in funky opulent style. Big enough for 25 people, just small enough to keep it cozy and intimate. It has golden fabric pasted on walls, super high back red couches (as if from a gangster movie) and black leather chairs that are so super kinky. The backs of the chairs have interlaced chains that looked like the lacing at the back of a corset. And the chandelier is in red glass, like someone mixed wine and light together. Good job!