New Mumbai store blends the city’s textile heritage with Indian craftsmanship, contemporary design and luxury retail as Jaipur Rugs expands its global footprint
Jaipur Rugs has opened a 20,000 sq ft flagship store at Mumbai’s historic Empire Mills, bringing together Indian handloom traditions, contemporary design and the city’s industrial heritage in what the company describes as one of its most ambitious retail spaces in India.
The new flagship marks a significant step in Jaipur Rugs’ evolution from a handmade rug company into a global luxury and design brand rooted in Indian craftsmanship. Located within the historic Girangaon precinct, the store occupies a former industrial warehouse and retains much of its original Victorian steel structure, pitched roof and clerestory glazing.
The company said the location creates a dialogue between Mumbai’s textile past and the living traditions of Indian weaving, while positioning the artisan and the craft process at the centre of the luxury retail experience.
Retail Space Designed Around Craft
Rather than functioning as a conventional showroom, the flagship has been designed as an immersive experience centre spanning craft, design, architecture and contemporary luxury.
Jaipur Rugs’ contemporary collections and heritage weaves are displayed through curated environments focused on colour, texture, material and design. Artisans weaving rugs in real time form part of the retail experience, while mesh partitions provide visitors with a view of the intricate processes involved in creating handmade rugs.
Lounge settings allow customers to experience the texture and scale of the rugs, while a vertical rug archive showcases the brand’s wider body of work. A suspended installation featuring origami-like metal birds forms a visual centrepiece at the entrance.
N.K. Chaudhary, Founder, Jaipur Rugs, said the Mumbai store was intended to take the story of Indian craftsmanship into a space where it could be experienced and valued differently.
“Empire Mills carries the memory of Mumbai’s textile heritage, while Jaipur Rugs carries the living tradition of the Indian loom,” he said, adding that the company wants visitors to gain a deeper appreciation of the human skill, time and emotion behind handmade rugs.
Design Draws On Mumbai’s Industrial Heritage
The flagship has been designed by Dubai-based multidisciplinary design studio Roar, led by Pallavi Dean.
The design approach retains the existing industrial architecture while introducing elements inspired by the repetition, rhythm and connections associated with weaving. Fractal geometry and sculptural volumes have been incorporated to create what the designers describe as a journey through the space.
“We didn’t want to design another showroom; we wanted to create a journey,” said Pallavi Dean, Founder and Creative Director, Roar.
The design, she added, works with the building’s existing identity rather than competing with it, using weaving as a conceptual framework for the architecture.
Global Design Collaborations Take Centre Stage
The Mumbai flagship brings together Jaipur Rugs’ portfolio of collaborations spanning craft, art and contemporary design.
Collections such as Manchaha and Freedom Manchaha place artisans’ individual stories and imagination at the centre of the creative process. The store also features collaborations with designers and creative personalities including Pavitra Rajaram, Vinita Chaitanya, Peter D’Ascoli, Kavi, Gurjeet Singh, Gauri Khan, Tatiana de Nicolay and Her Highness Bodour Al Qasimi.
The collaborations seek to combine the creative vision of designers with the technical expertise of Jaipur Rugs’ artisan communities. Traditional weaving techniques are used to translate contemporary concepts into handmade pieces, positioning the rug as a medium for cultural narratives and artistic expression rather than simply home décor.
Mumbai Store Supports Luxury Expansion
Yogesh Chaudhary, Managing Director, Jaipur Rugs, said changing consumer expectations around luxury were influencing the company’s retail strategy.
“Customers are no longer looking only for a beautiful product; they are looking for meaning, provenance and an experience that stays with them,” he said.
The company sees Mumbai as an important design and cultural market and said the flagship would enable it to engage with consumers at a deeper level while supporting its broader ambition of building a global luxury brand rooted in India.
Jaipur Rugs currently has stores across India as well as international locations in Milan, Dubai, London and Singapore. It is evaluating further opportunities across Europe and Asia-Pacific, while in India it is exploring expansion into markets including Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Gujarat.
Founded in 1978 by Nand Kishore Chaudhary with two looms, Jaipur Rugs now works with more than 40,000 rural artisans, 90 per cent of whom are women. The company has more than 7,000 looms and sells its products in over 90 countries.
