Anita Lal is India’s first tastemaker for Christie’s

Good Earth’s creative director collaborates with the London auction house to present art from both ‘Islamic and Indian worlds’

It comes as no surprise that Anita Lal, 73, fondly known by her initials, AL, is Christie’s tastemaker for a Spring sale this week. After all, the founder of Good Earth, the home goods and apparel company that celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, has led many craft interventions. The brand was behind interior restorations like the Rajmahal palace in Jaipur, a partnership with the Victoria and Albert Museum (Fabric of India exhibition) and, more recently, the Heirloom Project, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It marked a decade of the museum’s Islamic wing. This month, as tastemaker for Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds Including Oriental Rugs and Carpets, Lal created an edit of personal favourites from the sale and has curated digital vignettes with Good Earth products, objects she has “cherished over the years”.

While this is the first time Christie’s have worked with a tastemaker based in India, past tastemakers include Aerin Lauder (of luxury US brand Aerin) and British interior designers Rita Konig and Kit Kemp. Meanwhile, at the headquarters of Christie’s in central London, three-room vignettes have been recreated using personally chosen pieces from Good Earth by Lal. They will be showcased alongside the approximately 211 lots dating from the 9th to the 19th century. More from the founder and creative director of Good Earth:

“Islamic culture is deeply integrated within the Indian subcontinent, and it shows in the way we dress, our music, our food, our language and in our decorative patterns. It is so integral in our lives we hardly even notice that”Anita LalFounder, Good Earth

What draws you to the Islamic design vocabulary and which of Good Earth’s collections reflects this best?

As a design house out of India, we celebrate every cultural aspect of the subcontinent (including Vedic, Buddhist, Persian and Mughal influences, and from lands across the Silk Road). Islamic culture is deeply integrated within the Indian subcontinent, and it shows in the way we dress, our music, our food, our language and in our decorative patterns.

Over the years we have created numerous design collections based on some aspect of Islamic design, including vintage shawls. One of my favourites was Farah Baksh a Persian/Urdu term which translates as ‘Bestower of Delight” inspired by the Persian paradise gardens Charbagh that were created in Kashmir by the Mughals.

What did you enjoy working with the most?