Sona Dwelling founder Priyanka Chopra Jonas would like People to affiliate extra than simply paisley with India. Whereas the teardrop-shaped motif—which AD editor Sydney Gore lately predicted is ripe for a comeback—is discovered on loads of Indian textiles, its origins are Persian. What’s extra, it was named by Europeans after a Scottish city that produced textiles. And above all maybe, it is just a small fragment of what India has to supply on the subject of design
“India is so numerous,” Chopra Jonas tells AD. “I grew up in a timeless, luxurious India.” That is exactly what she has tried to convey with the menu and decor of her New York Metropolis restaurant, Sona, which she based alongside her good friend Maneesh Okay. Goyal. Not lengthy after Sona opened in March of 2021, the pair had the thought to launch Sona Dwelling, a line of dinnerware, desk linens, barware, and different residence equipment impressed by (and even lifted straight from) the Sona eating room.
“As quickly as individuals would sit down, they’d look down, smile, choose up the plate and switch it over. And so they’d say, ‘The place’s this from? What is that this plate?’” explains Goyal. The bone china was from William Edwards, a ceramics producer situated in Stoke-on-Trent, England, probably the most well-known pottery locations on the earth. The inexperienced palm tree motif used on the plates at Sona had by no means been used exterior of the U.Okay. earlier than. “We in the end partnered with them to launch Sona Dwelling,” says Goyal.
To Chopra Jonas, who moved round India rising up, and Goyal, who was raised in Texas by Indian dad and mom, the palm tree is emblematic of their beloved “Mom India” and its miles of shoreline. Anticipate future Sona Dwelling collections to lean into different motifs that People could not instantly affiliate with the peninsula, however that characterize its variety. If the decor of the Sona eating room is any indication, Mumbai’s artwork deco structure is a contender, as are the palaces of Rajasthan.
A type of palaces, Umaid Bhawan, is the place Chopra Jonas married Nick Jonas in 2018, and funnily sufficient, it was their cross-cultural union that led to the title Sona, which implies gold in Hindi. “We have been arising with all these concepts and my husband goes, ‘Why not Sona?’” says Chopra Jonas. She knew he’d landed on one thing good, however first she needed to ask him: “How have you learnt this phrase?” It seems that across the time of their wedding ceremony, Jonas picked out jewellery for his bride along with his future mother-in-law, who advised him, “Solely diamonds for my daughter—no sona.” The reminiscence caught with the singer. “Now I do know he is all the time listening,” says Chopra Jonas.