Design Democracy 2025 brings global luxury and craft to Hyderabad

HITEX Exhibition Centre was abuzz as design fanatics flocked to partake in Design Democracy 2025. Held from September 5 to 7, the third version assembled over 120 luxury manufacturers, 80+ audio system, and curated installations by business vanguards.

Co-founders Pallika Sreewastav, Shailja Patwari, and Arjun Rathi’s unified imaginative and prescient has captivated an estimated viewers of over 15,000 guests. “Design Democracy is proof that when passion finds purpose, magic happens,” says Sreewastav. Rathi attracts upon the town’s mien: “Hyderabad’s energy has always resonated with me. This platform enables us to bring a collaborative vision to a larger community.” While Patwari provides, “To us, it is not just a festival, it’s a statement about where Indian design is headed. As soon as one edition concludes, we set the groundwork for the next.”

Design fanatics graced Hyderabad to relish Design Democracy’s third version.
| Photo Credit:
YNotUs

Here are some exceptional finds from the occasion that celebrated cross-disciplinary showcases traversing furnishings, lighting, materials innovation, and craft:

Ashni: Bengaluru

Ashni’s creations meld nature-centric inspiration and luxe design sensibilities.
| Photo Credit:
Ashni

Founder Priti Mehta’s intention in 2014 was easy: to display that distinctive design and ecological accountability can coexist — fantastically even. At the design showcase, we witness a moodily lit sales space, Ashni’s creations levitating dreamily. Crafted in wealthy textures of banana fibre, uncooked silk, handcrafted washi papers, sustainably-sourced bamboo, and reclaimed wooden, the luminaires really feel sentient.

Priti Mehta 
| Photo Credit:
Ashni

“We chose this palette of materials for their natural textures, inherent translucence, and organic elegance. Pieces like Vyoma, Amara Bliss, Midori, and Aurea are inspired by floral life forms, in various stages, some blooming and some modest, bud-like,” says Mehta.

Banana fibre, washi paper, and uncooked silk kind Ashni’s core arsenal of supplies.
| Photo Credit:
Ashni

Her workforce champions moral craftsmanship, providing handmade items by expert artisans from the nation’s distant areas. Mehta’s impetus transforms lighting into private, poetic experiences that illuminate areas.

From ₹4,500 onwards

Jamun Tree: Kolkata

Jamun Tree’s curation mirrors a path by eras and cultures.
| Photo Credit:
Team Jamun Tree

The amassing follow at Jamun Tree, which started in 2018, dwells on the intersection of heirloom reminiscence, soul, and lore. They stir this cauldron of inspiration at Design Democracy’s showcase — their sales space creating an immersive journey akin to stepping by time itself: ornate mirrors, artisanal crosses, carved busts, and credenzas in tow. An eclectic curation of colonial-era furnishings and objects of curiosity pepper the show, conceived by co-founders Sweta and Anurag Tewari, narrating tales that paint scenes of an period bygone.

Sweta Tewari.
| Photo Credit:
Team Jamun Tree

“Jamun Tree was founded by the second generation of dealers within our family, marking an entry into the retail landscape after being synonymous with antiquing for numerous decades,” shares Sweta. The assortment brings items of British, Dutch, and Portuguese origin underneath one roof, alongside notable Hindu and Islamic descent items that mirror the homeland’s wealthy tapestry of heritage.

Jamun Tree’s curation mirrors a path by eras and cultures.
| Photo Credit:
Team Jamun Tree

From ₹30,000 onwards

Itihaus: Hyderabad

A vividly detailed Vishnu sculpture from Ithaus’ curation.
| Photo Credit:
Clique Studio

Suman Kakumani’s endeavour’s identify is a mix of the Hindi phrase ‘Itihaas’, which interprets to ‘history’, and the German phrase ‘Haus’, that means ‘home’. Initiated in 2024, Kakumani’s collective focuses on curating distinctive choices that commemorate India’s heritage and craft.

Weaving the worlds of Indian lore, mythology, and artisanship, the curator’s imaginative and prescient options the works of Priyanka Aelay, Bhaskar Rao, Kandi Narsimlu, and different artists, alongside sculptural choices that make use of novel mother-of-pearl and straw inlay strategies.

Suman Kakumani.
| Photo Credit:
Clique Studio

“We hope that our patrons find pieces that can become objects of legacy and history within their homes. Art and collectibles bear the ability to speak with us when they truly belong in our spaces,” Kakumani expresses.

From ₹72,000 onwards

Taro Collective: Bengaluru and Milan

An assortment of merchandise from the Kadam Collection.
| Photo Credit:
Soup by Falka

A artistic calling’s wellspring transcends borders — Bengaluru and Milan-based Taro Collective is proof. Co-founded in 2022 by Shikha Rentala, Marco Grimandi, and Federico Fraternale, the studio balances environmental interplay whereas harmonising Italian aesthetics and Indian manufacturing. Their Kadam Collection contains chairs, consoles, storage items, and a bookshelf, all rooted in nomadic exploration — a becoming illustration of the trio’s ethos. “Kadam is a foldable, easy-to-move collection that is painstakingly engineered and light in construction,” says Grimandi. Rentala provides, “The collection reflects who we are based on humans’ intrinsic need for change and an existence laced with variety.”

Marco Grimandi, Shikha Rentala, and Federico Fraternale.
| Photo Credit:
Casa Carigar

Fraternale illuminates the inspiration driving the gathering’s genesis: the enduring Tripolina chair. “Oak and stainless steel form the core materials. Things around us appear to have a stationary existence every few feet. We dream up elements that feel alive in one’s space,” he notes.

An assortment of merchandise from the Kadam Collection.
| Photo Credit:
Soup by Falka

From ₹30,000 onwards

Tabula Rasa: Kolkata

The Terra Credenza by Tabula Rasa.
| Photo Credit:
Kamakshi Pasari

Founder Nithika Agarwal’s imaginative and prescient manifests as sculptural creations the place construction emulates story. With its beginnings courting again to 2015, Nithika, alongside her daughter Annanya Agarwal, has celebrated sincere materiality and hand-finished surfaces and types that really feel primal but exact. Their capsule this version melds rhythm, ritual, and resilience articulated as monoliths, tiered geometry, and inlay craft. Tabula Rasa’s core materiality has a palette of pure stones, brass, and mahogany hardwood that creates keystone objects. 

Nithika Agarwal 
| Photo Credit:
Tabula Rasa

Annanya Agarwal
| Photo Credit:
Tabula Rasa

“They are sculptural enough to pose as conversation-starters and extremely functional, making them a joy to live with! “We draw from Indian craft lineage and architectural rhythm, and the result is timeless pieces that feel like they belong in any ambience,” says Nithika.

From ₹85,000 onwards

Takshni Art Collective: New Delhi

Language and artwork discover widespread floor in Takshni’s Muladhaar Collection.
| Photo Credit:
Takshni Art Collective

Richa Uppal’s labour of affection, Takshni Art Collective opened its doorways in 2019, making a design platform that explores craft, tradition, and neighborhood. Uppal’s efforts deal with the preservation of conventional data, imagined by the lens of slow-making processes, regional crafts, and considerate materiality. 

Takshni’s choices discover the intersection between artisanal prowess, storytelling, and rooted materiality.
| Photo Credit:
Takshni Art Collective

With their newest assortment, Muladhaar, the workforce explores languages as residing archives of civilisations. Uppal says, “When a language fades, an entire philosophy is lost. The installations curated as a part of Muladhaar highlight these languages as vibrant forces that shape human connection.”

Richa Uppal
| Photo Credit:
Takshni Art Collective

Uppal’s work thrives on collaborative pulses, its attain uniting artisans, performers, and designers to create areas the place reminiscence and materials breathe in unison.

From ₹24,000 onwards

The author is an architect and design specialist.