I open the email and what do my eyes see? Could they possibly be deceiving me?
Shopping in South India? Really? Seriously?
It’s true! Oh yay! You might think my excitement is weird, but it’s not often that you find any mention of South India.
Why would I care? I’m so happy to see so many new visitors here, and if you don’t know yet, this blog originally started because we have a “second home” apartment in the city of Chennai, which is in South India. (It’s not yet finished … so more to come about getting it done in the future.)
Outside of India, most of what we are exposed to is from North India. India is a huge country with different cultures, languages, foods and styles throughout the subcontinent. You will see different styles in the south than you see in the north. And it’s not often that we get to see the southern styles. So … let’s go shopping for South Indian style at OKL …
Like teak and cane chairs that look tropical, like this one that just beckons “lounge on me lazily while sipping cold coconut water under a palm tree:”
These wood stools with bone inlay – beautiful! They’re sold out. I must hunt something like these down next time we’re in India:
And a brass urli, quintessential South India Keralan style. We may have Le Creuset, but Kerala kitchens have urlis. Urlis are also used for decoration (mine on our fireplace hearth holds candles):
OKL found a silk sari in Chennai (my favorite sari shop there is Nalli in T Nagar) and turned it into pillows. One sari can have many different patterns across many yards of fabric, so you can get different coordinating pillows from one sari:
There’s also simple strong shapes lacquered in red:
I love wooden architectural remnants like this niche on a stand:
There is so much more to see at the sale, check it out! It’s nice to see so much sold out. Hopefully they will run another sale of South India goods.
Here are photos from OKL’s shopping travels. Ancient temples and elephants, always a must-see in India:
Shopping in Kochi:
We’ve also had fun shopping in Kochi. Check out these posts for photos of our South Indian shopping for the India pied-à-terre:
I saw this yesterday, and I was thrilled, as you can imagine. I was mostly thrilled that almost everything sold on the first day. . . :D
Yes, wow to the sell-outs, huh? I saw it in my email in the morning but I was very busy at work all day and couldn’t get to revisiting it until evening. Maybe that’s a good thing for my pocketbook.
I have shopped in Pondicherry and northern Kerala, but this makes me think I need to broaden my horizons!
Kochi in Kerala has great shopping! And wonderful atmosphere too in the Fort area.