“Bangalore’s a special market for me, this is where I started. Customers are very design sensitive” - Pallavi Foley

Pallavi Foley is one of India’s leading designers and is known for her avant-garde jewellery. After graduating as an accessories designer from the National Institute of Fashion Technology in 2000, she worked for nine and a half years at Tanishq. Today, she creates her own handcrafted jewels, in her studio in Bangalore.

Besides her own studio / boutique, she consults for many Indian and International jewellery brands. She believes her work to be more than art, “After conceptualising a design idea, it’s all about design detailing; there is as much science in a piece of jewellery as there is art,” she says.

With numerous national and international jewellery design awards to her credit, her shows are the most sought after in the fashion world. Her latest collection is being featured at the 4th edition of the India International Jewellery Week from August 4th to 8th, 2013.

When did you first discover that you wanted to be a jewellery designer?

I always loved art, even back at school, Sherwood College in Nainital where I studied, I had art as a subject in my board exams. I learned so much about nature on our nature walks with art teachers and sketched plants and scenery that we were drawn towards. After school, at NIFT Delhi, that’s when I think I decided that I wanted to design jewellery. I was in love with it as an accessory.

How would you describe your designs?

In one word, avant-garde. Though I believe that after conceptualising a design idea, it’s all about design detailing; there is as much science in a piece of jewellery as there is art.

How important is colour to your design process?

Colour is important to the design process, but only as long as it lends itself to the theme.

What is the biggest risk you ever took with a design?

I take risks all the time and I do it everyday. I work with avant-garde and break  conventional rules in a conventional market. I deconstruct and that’s my design philosophy, I break rules everyday when I design.

What are you favourite materials to work with?

Gold is my favourite metal, love its malleability, lustre and I think is such a fabulous metal for any jewellery designer, to turn their visions into reality.

What has been the most exciting part of building the brand so far?

I haven’t found a dull moment since I started my brand. Everyday is new and exciting. I am doing what I love… doing the fashion weeks, jewellery weeks, having customers from across the globe, having celebrities buy and wear my designs, making new friends, and having the freedom to create the pieces I visualize.

If you could design a piece for anybody, who would it be and why?

Giselle Bundchen. I think she is a great supermodel and can really carry off the dramatic avant-garde with panache.

What is your piece de resistance at IIJW?

It s a body jewellery piece, called The Body Vine. It’s a surreal drape of 18k gold leaves and jasmine buds represented in pearls, on the body.

Tell us about the jewellery scene in Bangalore?

Bangalore’s a special market for me, this is where I started. Bangaloreans are very design sensitive.

Awards and Accolades:

In January 2012 Pallavi Foley was featured in a Coffee Table book called the ‘Trailblazers of Bengaluru,’ which feature 28 entrepreneurs of Bangalore.

She was ‘The Best Designer, at the South India Jewellery Show, 2011.

She has been featured by the World Gold Council.

Her contributions for the Femina Miss India Universe Crown (2006 and 2007) for Tanishq have been some of her biggest accomplishments.

Her creation, ‘3-Space Necklace,’ won the second place in the beads category of the 2010 International Saul Bell Award Competition.