Verve and Louis Vuitton Diaries #4 Priya Tandon

‘GO-14 Malletage PM’ bag, Louis Vuitton Fashion Photography and Louis Vuitton, The Birth of Modern Luxury books, all from Louis Vuitton. White shirt, chambray skirt, shoes and metal watch, all from Priya’s personal collection.

Priya Tandon gets tens across the board for being one of the best hosts we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. With a warm smile, she invites us into her sprawling Great Gatsby-esque house, where each room has its own identity and just calls out to be revelled in. Every nook and corner of the pleasant home is inviting and comfortable, without looking plain or drab in any way. Priya, with a little help from her husband, has personally picked every detail, from paintings and vintage artefacts to intricate drapes and statement vases.

Selecting her ensemble for the shoot is not easy only because she has so many enviable clothes. The fashionista seems to own a little bit of everything, from printed trousers, high-waisted skirts and elegant dresses to vibrant palazzo pants, classic shirts and elaborate Indian couture clothing. She proudly shows us her wide-ranging selection of shoes, which are all flats. When asked about heels, she laughs, “Darling, I’m so tall that I have no reason to own heels!”

She leads us to her library and I immediately decide that it is one I would love to have. Serene and bright, the massive glass walls on one side of her book-filled room work perfectly to bring the precisely-manicured lawn inside. The light that floods the library is magical, and as Priya sits there angelically, lost in thought, we know that we need to start clicking right away. She tells us how lucky she feels to have had creative inputs at every stage of building the abode. “My husband loves and also relates to my sense of style so much that he gave me free reign to experiment and turn the house into our dream home,” she says. She likes to take note of design elements that appeal to her whenever she is travelling around the world, so she can attempt to recreate it in her own way. We find ourselves doing the same thing as we explore every room of the house, which is like a unique Pinterest board for us.

When Priya is not at work, managing the administrative side of St. Kabir School, Ahmedabad, she loves spending time with her family, cooking up a storm in the kitchen and organising fun activities for her adorable son and ladylike daughter. The go-getter surprised us all with a large spread of scrumptious treats, all made by her, making us wonder whether she has more hours in a day than us regular folk. “I think it was a bit of a challenge, initially, to manage my own kids as well as about 7,000 students. But I am a very organised person in general, so once I really focussed on creating a workable system for me, things sort of just fell into place,” she states, quite modestly.