In the 70s, in Dakar, Bollywood animated all of Dakar society. Indian films filled cinemas, melodies circulated in the streets, and the colors of the screen mingled with those of the city. It was in that Dakar that the 9-year-old girl I was received her first shock — the incandescent colors, the swirling saris, and the sparkling bracelets on the dancers' wrists. Silent, profound, unforgettable. I had adopted India long before I knew it.

Years passed. I traveled the world, yet I stayed away from the India that had revolutionized my aesthetic approach at the age of 9. A trip that would come in its own time and would not be just a simple journey.

This moment arrived in 2016.

It was in the workshops that everything was revealed. The discovery of block print — these wooden blocks sculpted with goldsmith-like precision, dipped in color and placed on the fabric, motif after motif, tirelessly. The length of the task, the silence of the gesture, the infinite patience of these hands that print, that weave, that start again — without flinching, without rushing — before slowly seeing a masterpiece emerge. A product of the body's sweat and the heart's joy.

I already knew that India would not remain a simple trip. But life has its own deadlines — my consulting business, and then the idea of Awesome Green Beauty, another project also born from a crush during a trip, to offer a setting for niche skincare brands gathered from all corners of the world. Projects accumulate when you have a curious soul.

2023 was the year of the decision. Awesome Unique Home could finally exist. Three times a year, I return to India. To choose the patterns, caress the fabrics, and select each piece. Not from a catalog, not behind a screen — but on site, in the workshops, in contact with the artisans and their expert hands.

Awesome Unique Home is the culmination of all this. An invitation to travel — into the elegance of an ancient India, at the crossroads of civilizations. An India where chaos and wonder intertwine in an incessant ballet, where cows roam, sovereign, indifferent to the fever of the street. And yet everything flows, everything breathes, everything lives. Everyone finding their way. A freedom that you don't immediately understand, but that you feel right away.

And in the midst of this frantic whirlwind — the delicacy: Havelis with carved facades and lace of pink stone. Simple, modest people, yet dressed in colors like a natural dignity. The deep blue of a sari in an ochre alley. The gold of a turban under the Rajasthan sun. Faces weathered by the sun, backs weary from heavy loads — and yet, everywhere, joy. Inexplicable and irreducible. The festivals that ignite the streets, animate hearts, reminding us that beauty is not a matter of means.

The patterns we offer carry this heritage: centuries of history and beauty: the floral arabesques of the Mughal heritage, nourished by Persia and Central Asia, the Paisley born from imperial courts, the lotus and the peacock of the Hindu tradition. So many visual languages melted, century after century, in the patient hands of the artisans of Rajasthan — in pink Jaipur, blue Jodhpur, golden Jaisalmer, imperial Bikaner — under the benevolent gaze of the Maharajas who made this land one of the world's great capitals of textile art.

What we offer you is a timeless range. Pieces that gracefully transcend eras.

Cécile TALL

Founder