Inside collector Shalini Passi's New Delhi home

Shalini Passi's New Delhi home is a work of considerable sophistication, and although she worked with a Delhi practice on early versions of the design (Passi has no formal architectural training), the house is emphatically her own vision

(Image credit: TBC)

By Caroline Young

last updated 15 August 2022

in Features

If you want to see the way the Indian elite might one day live, the collector Shalini Passi's New Delhi home is a good place to start. For more than a decade, Passi has conducted a brilliantly curated, global tour of self-education: commissioning and collecting works of art, objects and furniture from auction houses, artists and fairs on four continents. And she has housed her collection in a remarkable space that is so much more than the sum of its parts.

To hear the extraordinary tale behind Passi's home, you'll have to turn to our May issue, but here, we take you on a tour.

Passi, in a tunic, skirt and belt, silver sequinned dress — Left: Passi, in a tunic, skirt and belt, all by Fendi, next to an untitled piece by Ravinder Reddy, 2006. Right: Passi on the lawn of her home, wearing a silver sequinned dress by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla

In the main entrance, in front of Jitish Kallat's Rickshawpolis, 2008, sit five porcelain Puppy vases, 1998, by Jeff Koons, which Passi fills with fresh flowers flown in from Holland every Friday

Passi sits on the 5m ‘Yamuna’ bar, commissioned from Based Upon, which faces the garden. A privately commissioned Subodh Gupta oil painting is lit by a Baccarat crystal chandelier

unique table, magazine rack, waste paper basket — In the study is a unique table by Marc Newson and a 'Pennini' magazine rack and 'Mani' waste paper basket, both by Fornasetti, while on the wall hangs a painting by MF Husain

Passi, in a blue satin jersey halterneck dress with snake choker by Roberto Cavalli, in the dining room beneath a cluster of copper pendant lights by Tom Dixon

A 1960s Belgian low table in highly polished brass and bronze with agate

Passi, in a leopard print dress by Dolce & Gabbana, in the rose-motif mosaic-tiled bathroom

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