Design & Decoration in Little India

As I mentioned in my last post, some friends and I were going up to NYC for the day. There were two directions on this trip and I took the second… the road less traveled. Julie, who’s my partner-in-crime on Sunday mornings at the Farmers’ Market and the Book Thing, and I headed out to Queens and the villages of Flushing (which I wrote about here) and Jackson Heights, which is also known as Little India.

One of the things that I was most intrigued with was the sheer volume of design, decoration and colour on even the simplest of products. The other thing was the sheer volume of incredibly intricate jewelry in almost every store. While I prefer much simpler jewelry, this was incredible because of the delicate work that had been done on each and every piece.

Here are some examples of what we saw: This simple tin of curry, by Appointment to His Excellency, the Governor of Bombay (now Mumbai) reflects the age of its founding during the Victorian era.

These tins were about 12 inches tall and were just so beautifully decorated. If we weren’t getting on the train back into Manhattan at rush hour, I would have bought one for Connor’s dry dog food. Wouldn’t that have been elegant?Each brand and variety of rice (and who knew there were so many?) had labels designed to attract the attention of buyers, many of whom may not know how to read well.  

We saw some items that have been long gone from American stores, including tooth powder and snuff!

The main street we were exploring, 74th Street, was lined on both sides with shops selling saris and jewelry. Each window had dozens of necklaces, bracelets and earrings on display. Most of the gold is 22k and doesn’t have the alloys in it to make it shiny like a lot of the gold jewelry sold in the States. Most of the stones are semi-precious, such as tourmaline, coral, turquoise and pearls.   Even if the jewelry isn’t to your taste, you have to admire the workmanship that went in to creating it.

I did rather like this piece! I can just picture it on a black cashmere sweater. It would be striking.

It is always fun to explore places that I have never visited, and Little India will now be on my list of fun places.