Vogue India June 2019

202 VOGUE INDIA JUNE  http://www.vogue.in

TALIB

CHITALWALA;

ADIL

HASAN

CASA

Aesthetes Peter and Cecile D’Ascoli play with print on print at work

and at home, creating a hybrid world of interconnected personal and

cultural histories,  nds Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan

IN FINE PRINT

from every perch, whether it’s the pat-

terns on the bolster cushions or the

Napoleonic-era reproduction prints of

birds hanging in frames on the wall.

This is maximalism for you, a reaction

against the minimalism that’s taking

over the world, patterns upon pat-

terns, colours upon colours, “more is

more” as a motto.

MIXED MATCH

“To imagine the style in my parents’

home, just think of The Sopranos,”

says Peter, “I was not raised in a home

with cultivated taste, and only began

hind the tony Panchshila Club, a plain

set of buildings with a grey stucco exte-

rior, clubbed around a central court-

yard, through which you pass to climb

the stairs up to the second fl oor. There,

two small dogs greet you, and it is an

Ali Baba cave of wonders—textiles on

the wall and ceilings, paintings and

sculptures everywhere, the last of the

evening light against the linen panels

on the wall. It feels very Bedouin al-

ready, a sharp contrast to most of Del-

hi’s fancy homes, accustomed as peo-

ple are to bare white walls and sharp

angles. There is something to look at

Peter and Cecile D’Ascoli—the former

American, the latter French—met in

India and fell in love while viewing the

Taj Mahal. The grand sweeping monu-

ment, the two foreigners in India, the

driver assuming they were on their

honeymoon when, in fact, they had

just met the previous day. “I loved In-

dia,” says D’Ascoli, “I watched globali-

sation happening, and felt increasingly

eager with an anticipation that there

was something that was more on this

side of the world, and a desire to be

here.” Now their home is on a stretch

of Delhi’s Panchsheel Park, right be-