The West has a fever dream of India.
It is a persistent, low-grade hallucination, a loop playing on repeat since the 1980s. In this dream, the sun is always setting, the air hangs heavy with sandalwood. And yes, in this dream, there are elephants walking down the street.
It is a fantasy built on the unholy trinity of the tourist brochure: Eat. Pray. Love.
That is the mantra, isn’t it? The idea that India exists solely as a spiritual service provider for the Western soul. The assumption is that you come here to fix yourself, wash away the sins of late-stage capitalism in the Ganges, and go home feeling 'centered'.
For a designer like Meghna Ratra, founder of Maison Megh, standing in a New York showroom in 2026, this hallucination often becomes an occupational hazard. An unspoken requirement to explain what India actually looks like today.
She tells me people come up to her, and ask if there are elephants walking on the street. She tells me a woman looked her in the eye, complimented her eyeliner, and asked, "So, you guys have makeup there?"
"It’s infuriating," Ratra notes, regarding the latter. "We literally invented it."
This is the box brown designers are placed in. The global market expects bridal, ornate, exotic. Specifically, they expect filigree in jewelry. The assumption is that if the design does not feature a peacock, a lotus flower, or intricate wirework, it is un-Indian.
Ratra, however, is looking at the concrete grid of Chandigarh for inspiration. If you know, you know: Chandigarh is the city Le Corbusier built when Nehru wanted to scrub the colonial slate clean. It is Brutalist, and it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
Ratra applies this ethos to her jewelry. When buyers walk past her display at Wolf & Badger, they stop. They are shocked because it doesn’t fit the India they thought they knew.
For decades, Indian luxury has been synonymous with the bridal design. The giants of the industry built empires on the back of the Big Fat Indian Wedding.
"India doesn't care about only the wedding. It also wants everyday wearable art", Ratra argues.
It is infuriating that a brown designer still has to explain that her country has electricity, makeup, and geometric literacy. But that is the mission. The mission is to show that Indian luxury can be architectural. It can be stark.
It’s about time the rest of the world caught up.