Weaving The Past And Present

- Rupali Sebastian

In a city that revels in the now, looks to the future, and cherishes its historical roots, Kolkata’s trendsetting fashion boutique Bombaim is a testimony to the beautiful balance between past and the present. The name (Bombaim) itself is how erstwhile colonial superpower Portugal referred to Mumbai, founder Richa Kanoi’s hometown — Bombay is actually an Anglicized version of the Portuguese moniker. When she felt the need for an overhaul of the store she’d been running since 2009, Richa knew Bombaim had to speak a language it had built for itself over the years. “There were three words I kept repeating to myself: warm, strong and clean,” says the advertising graduate from Boston University.” This was the brief she presented to architect Animesh Nayak of Open to Sky, who was charged with renovating the retail space — housed on the ground floor of a 100-year-old British Raj-era bungalow on AJC Bose Road — from its earlier kitsch-laced avatar into something more modern. More than the damage wrought by time — creeping damp on the walls, unsightly salt efflorescence, uneven floors due to settling of the foundation — Animesh remembers the atmosphere of the space. “The colonial buildings of Kolkata are atmospheric spaces, where the smell, the light, the air is unique,” says the principal architect of Open to Sky, which operates dually out of Bengaluru and Kolkata. “The existing store was de