Tablecloth from Anokhi
Internet, I have found my mother ship in Jaipur. Meet Anokhi.
I swear, it’s where Anthropologie gets all their lovely bedding and textiles, and I spent a long time drooling in there, cursing the fact we don’t even own a bed or a dining table right now.
The prices are expensive by Indian standards, but still cheap compared to North American prices – especially to Anthropologie. The patterns are hand stamped and vividly coloured, and they make everything from clothes to bedding to linens for around the home. In the end, I settled on my beautiful tablecloth for $10. I think this determines the specs of our next dining table, too, but it was so well worth it.
Anokhi is a chain of stores around major cities in India, but I believe it was founded near Jaipur. Unlike shopping in Jaipur’s bazaars, it is a nicely air-conditioned store situated in a mall, where you’re free to browse at your leisure without anyone pushing their wares on you. It’s also fixed price, which makes it much easier for a non-thick-skinned Westerner like me. Sad part: they do not accept orders online or via phone, which I see as a ploy to get me to come back here to stock up when we have a home again.
Check out the Anokhi website anyway to see what I mean about the colours and patterns!
Oh, and the shop has a cafe attached to it, where we had our first cup of coffee since arriving in India. It was a delicious cup of coffee; in fact it tasted better than some of the cafes in Toronto!