Pippa's Travel Diaries: India March 2026

India is, for me, a place of creativity, of inspiration and invigoration, of friendship, and of happiness. I first travelled to India with my sister as a teenager. I was an avid appreciator of Indian literature and film, I was fascinated by its many spiritual and religious traditions, the creativity in miniature painting, textiles, ceramics, and most of all the intense and complex relationship, and interconnectedness, of gems and jewellery and the ancient Vedic healing traditions; knowledge and stories going back thousands of years.

We travelled as two young women on our own from Rajasthan to Varanasi, Ladakh and Kashmir, as well as Nepal and Tibet. It was a rite of passage, a way of coming of age into the world. The understanding of different ways people live in the world, the different beliefs about our sense of self, life and death, and our relationship with gems was a part of that. Jewellery was not just a status symbol or a pretty bauble. I learned that gems have a huge impact on our life - the intentional wearing of a particular gem on a particular finger could enhance your life, fate and well-being, or the wrong gem could do the opposite.

I now travel to India with my twins Mac and Madu (since they were six months old) twice a year to work with the families of gem dealers, cutters, and goldsmiths, and create new collections that we will then show in Paris and New York.

I have learned so much from everyone I work with, long conversations over hot sweetened chai about stones, their meanings, qualities, origins, about family and politics, life and the future.

My days start in the beautiful garden of my home in Jaipur, the Narin Niwas Hotel. I then head off with Ramesh who has a lovely new pink upholstered tuk tuk, and we go to Om Prakash to look at stones and discuss cuts and designs. We then go to Sushil for special gold pieces in his workshop at the top of his home, where his wife plies us with tea and sweets before we head to Amrapali where I have been working for many years with their team of talented goldsmiths.

I take time to explore in the countryside at weekends, to visit Amber Fort and study the inlaid walls and paintings. I visit the gem dealers around the city to see what is available and I am always looking for unusual stones that speak to me to create a one off piece for the shops.

Jaipur has changed over the years and become more international and connected to the rest of the world, busier and with a growing population. When I first travelled there bicycles and horse-drawn carts were still the most popular form of transport. The pink city was small and charming, filled with artisans from all over India making shoes and weaving textiles, and goldsmiths migrating from the villages.

Jaipur remains a vibrant craft centre, and the skills are as fine today as ever. I recommed the Khadi shop on Mi road for artisanal woven textiles, Nila House for a contemporary take on traditional weaving, Jaipur Modern for delicious food and wonderful Indian fashion; centred around the handmade – Andraab for the finest Kashmiri cashmere, and Anokhi for fun block prints.