The Delights of Distraction: Get To Know Us

It's been a busy week for all of us at The Wishing Chair coping with the new format of Diwali celebrations. Everyone is sending thoughtful 'thinking of you' Diwali presents & wishes as they celebrate safely & observe social distance. Drowning in a sea of gift wrap & deliveries, we haven't had the time and mindspace to distract or collate what we loved on the internet this week. So we thought we would take you back to our journey & beliefs as we work towards defining our niche in this post pandemic work.

Our dream incarnate began as an obscure little store in an urban village in Delhi back in 2012, and has since evolved into a pan-Indian, design-led retail brand by women, for women. A lot has changed since we first began, but our values and who we are hasn’t. We still believe in creating beautiful and playful products that spark delight and joy in small, everyday moments, and we hope to take you - our community of like minded loverlies with us every step of the way through our Friday newsletter.

How it all started:

In 2012, as women in our late 20s setting up our first independent homes, we struggled to find options that echoed our personal design aesthetic; that were affordable, good quality and kindled a sense of optimistic joy. And so, disenchanted with our current careers, we decided we were going to be the brand that brings all these things to life: for ourselves, and to an audience of creative, curious and passionate women who feel the same way.

Where our name is from:

The name is derived from one of our favourite Enid Blyton books we read as kids back in the 90s: The Adventures of The Wishing Chair. The eponymous chair was magical and could take you to anywhere in the world you wished. We loved the trans-portative nature of this idea, and that our spaces should stir a certain nostalgic longing to that dreamy, joyful, happy place we all yearn for. And so the name stuck, as the vision for the brand was to create that ‘happy place’ for all of us.

Our Vibe:

Our vision boards and subsequent product designs can be inspired from almost anything: movies, nature, food (almost always dessert), illustrators we admire, art, fashion, book design and everyday objects. Yes, a lot of our design is pastel colored with lots of flowers but we like to keep it classic with elements gleaned from local techniques, celebrating colour, pattern and intricacy through a lens of feminine playfulness and joie-de-vivre.

Our Values:

Handcrafted & Artisanal: We hand paint all our designs; from our ceramics to our table linen, which are hand-crafted and produced in small batches by karigars across India.

Cruelty-free: We firmly believe in the adage, “Just be kind”, and try and tread as lightly as we can through the world. As animal lovers - we made firm decisions to minimize animal-based products in our offering and have maintained that our Mad Teapot cafes serve only vegetarian fare. Though we aren’t perfect, we are striving to be as environmentally-led as possible and take steps towards sustainable practises everyday through our packaging, curation and design.

Real and Relatable: Everything we do starts with real women, and we champion that: we listen to our customers and constantly evolve to serve you better. We expect every interaction with The Wishing Chair to be friendly and welcoming and that our products are priced for their value, not their “exclusivity”.

Small is Beautiful: Ours is a self-funded (with a lot of help from our friends and family) small business that aims to be responsible and sustainable in the long term. We hold our values sacred, and would never compromise on them in pursuit of mindless growth. In a perfect world, we would like both – so let’s see what the future holds!

Our Promise

We strive to be better everyday, to make your day a touch brighter and to always be inclusive and transparent, as we try and provide solutions to women that make your lives more joyful and creative in little ways.

A final wish to all of you who may be spending Diwali separated from loved ones, alone or in a quiet space away from the usual bombastic celebrations of BC 2020: There are better days ahead. There is much more for you to discover, uncover and manifest. There are many adventures to be had upon which only you can shine your unique light. Celebrate a warm, hope-sparked Diwali, as we hold all of you in our bear hug of love and gratitude.

See you next Friday as we evolve the format of the 'Delights of Distraction' newsletter as we traverse through this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.
Shine like the whole universe is your light,

Viv & Ami

P.S: If you are starting out and would like any advice from two women who have braved the world of entrepreneurship for 8 years, have some questions or would just like to say hi you can reach out to us any time by writing in to this email address.