DESIGNER PROFILE - Viren Bhagat

September 2008


The sophisticated jewels of Viren Bhagat put a fresh spin on an ancient tradition

Before celebrated Indian designer Viren Bhagat, of the Mumbai-based firm Bhagat, forged a reputation for creating one-of-a-kind jewels that perfectly embody the combination of Art Deco and Mughal aesthetics, he was enamored of European jewelry, and Bulgari’s work in the 1970s and 1980s in particular. Not long before he and his brothers, Bharat and Rajan (who look after the company’s finances and sales and administration, respectively), launched the business in 1991, Bhagat interviewed with the firm in Geneva. When the terms didn’t work out and Bhagat remained in Mumbai, “a more Indian style began flowing into my work,” he says.

DESIGNER PROFILE - Viren Bhagat

Bhagat’s specialty is a unique blend of styles that he describes as a reinterpretation of history. “My jewelry isn’t Indian Indian jewelry,” Bhagat says, noting that he only works in platinum and not the 22-karat gold that characterizes traditional Indian workmanship. “A friend of mine, someone I buy a lot of stones from, said my jewelry is European in its manufacturing and Indian in its inspiration.”

Using rose- and table-cut diamonds, natural pearls, fine rubies, sapphires, emeralds and spinels, a Mughal favorite, Bhagat crafts just 60 to 70 pieces a year for a global cohort of collectors.

The turning point in his career came in 1999, when Spink, a London-based auction house, organized an international exhibition and invited Bhagat to participate. “From then on, we started doing private exhibitions with Scavia, Fred Leighton,” Bhagat recalls. “They were always private, very small, very special.” Since then, a relationship with Christie’s has flourished. After being included in a 1999 contemporary jewelry sale in which one of his pieces, a brooch, was featured on the back of the sale catalog, Bhagat has been a fixture at the house. “You look at it, and you know Viren made it,” said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry at Christie’s New York, where a pair of Bhagat earrings composed of diamonds cut to resemble lotus petals came up for sale at the end of 2007. Estimated at $50,000, they sold for $85,000 — naturally.

DESIGNER PROFILE - Viren Bhagat

The first piece of jewelry I ever made: Pair of earrings. The kind of customer request I’ll never tire of: “Do you have anything beautiful to show me?” Design cliché I love: “Less is more” … Mies van der Rohe My favorite gemstone: A Golconda diamond. My favorite design era: The Art Deco period. My favorite living designer: Joel Rosenthal (JAR). One unusual detail about my design process: I dream of most of my designs. Between one pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby or half a dozen D-flawlessses, I’d rather have: A pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby. The craziest thing I’vee ever done for a client: A pair of toe rings with large diamonds. When I create a new collection:I can’t sleep! If I were a city, I’d be: Fatehpur Sikri (Mughal Emperor Akbar’s capital). The jewelry-related job I’d least like to have: Salesman. While designing, my mind usually wanders to: Things that have made an impression in the past few days.

DESIGNER PROFILE - Viren Bhagat

Auction darling Bhagat’s diamond ear clips sold at Christie’s New York in 2007 for $85,000. The diamond, ruby and natural pearl brooch sold at Christie’s New York in 2000 for $47,000, while the diamond and pearl necklace