Why India Inspires Designers: Suzanne Tucker

To celebrate the publication of Rajasthan Style, Indagare founder Melissa Biggs Bradley sat down with some of her favorite designers and insiders—including John Robshaw, Suzanne Tucker and Madeline Weinrib—to discuss how India influences their work—plus, where they like to stay, shop and more.

San Francisco designer Suzanne Tucker is known for rooms that layer antiques, rich color and exceptional fabrics. She co-founded the firm Tucker & Marks and launched Suzanne Tucker Home in 2010 with a fabric collection built around varied weave structures and luxurious colorways. Of course, her travels inspire all of her work, and her line of textiles includes an Indienne print, a nod to the Indian chintzes that shaped European decorative arts for centuries—a dialogue central to the discussion in Rajasthan Style.

What makes India one of the world's most inspired destinations for designers?

India is an intoxicating multi-coursed feast for a designer's eye—where centuries of extraordinary craftsmanship, courageous color, exquisite pattern, and a glorious sense of the unexpected conspire to make inspiration highly addictive.

How has time spent in India shaped your own aesthetic or creative point of view?

India teaches one not to be timid—to embrace color, pattern, texture and the beauty of the handmade with a little more abandon. There is such confidence in the way seemingly disparate elements coexist there, and it reinforced something I have always believed: the most memorable rooms, like the most interesting people, are layered, individual and never too perfect.

What Indian craft, material, textile, artist or tradition has had a lasting influence on your work? More broadly, can the global design community learn from India's extraordinary craftsmanship and creative traditions?

India's textiles have had an enduring hold on me since I was a teenager—the extraordinary block prints, embroideries, ikats, woven silks and exquisite handwork are a constant reminder that the human hand gives a textile its soul. What India teaches us so beautifully is that craftsmanship is not simply decoration; it is a living language, passed from one generation to the next, with all the subtle irregularities that make something truly individual. In a world increasingly enamored with speed and sameness, there is much to be said for India's devotion to time, touch and tradition—perfection, after all, can be terribly dull.

Are there specific places in India you return to for inspiration? What makes them so special?

Rajasthan is endlessly inspiring to me—Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur and the extraordinary forts and palaces scattered across the landscape. I could happily return again and again simply to study the colors: those sun-faded pinks, saffrons, indigos and chalky blues that somehow look both exuberant and completely at home. Then there are the textiles, jewelry, miniature paintings, carved stone, intricate inlay, gardens and architecture—not to mention the bazaars, where inspiration awaits around every corner. India has that wonderful ability to overwhelm the senses and sharpen the eye at the same time; you return home with a thousand ideas and three extra suitcases!

Which hotels in India do you think every design lover should experience, and what makes them so memorable?

For a design lover, Ranvas at Nagaur Fort is quite unforgettable. Set within the extraordinary 4th-century Ahhichatragarh Fort, it occupies the restored ranis' havelis—the residences once built for the maharaja's queens—so there is a wonderful intimacy to the architecture despite the grandeur of the setting. What I love is the restraint of the restoration: lime-plastered walls, delicate frescoes, carved stone, quiet courtyards and gardens are allowed to speak for themselves rather than being overly "decorated." Pay attention to the extraordinary proportions, the play of light and shadow, the layers of faded color and, above all, the evidence of the artisan's hand. It is a marvelous lesson in how to bring an ancient place back to life without polishing away its soul.