Sussanne Khan Reveals Her Best Kept Festive Design Secrets

Celebrity designer Sussanne Khan, known for larger-than-life, edgy designs, recreates the spirit of the season and reveals her best kept festive design secrets

- Aditi Pai

As a five-year-old, Sussanne Khan skipped hopscotch and toys to accompany her interior designer mother Zarine Khan to her project sites and observe colours and combinations that enthralled her. “My first inspiration came from my own home because my parents are very creative people who enjoyed the good moments of life, be it travel or food or décor,” says the 44-year-old interior designer and entrepreneur. Khan recently won an award as Asia’s Most Influential Designer at the Designer of the Year Awards in Malaysia. A self-confessed perfectionist with “an OCD for having everything done perfectly well”, she ensures that each piece by her brand—from the biggest installation to the smallest furniture— is approved by her. “I have learnt that I have to put my head down and work if I want to achieve and contribute to the world of design,” she says. Khan forayed into designing at the age of 21 with a row house for a doctor family in Thane, outskirts of Mumbai. Twenty three years later, she is refurbishing the same house for them, an example of the close rapport she maintains with her clients.