Where Heritage meets the Handloom: Jaipur Rugs Newest Flagship in Empire Mills is Bringing the Art of Indian Craft to Mumbai
Jaipur Rugs unveils a 20,000 sq. ft. flagship at Mumbai’s historic Empire Mills, bringing together India’s centuries-old craft traditions, contemporary design and the city’s rich industrial heritage.
Some spaces are built to sell. Others are built to tell a story. Jaipur Rugs’ new Mumbai flagship does both.
Set within the historic Empire Mills compound, once at the heart of Mumbai’s textile industry, Jaipur Rugs has transformed a former industrial warehouse into an immersive experience center that brings together craft, design, architecture and contemporary luxury. The brand’s Flagship store in Mumbai and one of its most ambitious retail spaces in India, it marks a significant step in Jaipur Rugs’ evolution from a celebrated handmade rug company into a globally recognized luxury and design brand from India.
Rather than treating the rug as a product displayed against a wall, the new space invites visitors to experience it as art, craft and living heritage. The setting itself becomes part of the narrative. The warehouse’s original Victorian steel structure, pitched roof and clerestory glazing have been largely retained, preserving the raw architectural character of a building rooted in Mumbai’s textile history.
For Jaipur Rugs, the location carries a deeper resonance. Empire Mills forms part of the historic Girangaon precinct that powered Bombay’s textile industry, creating an unexpected but powerful dialogue between the city’s industrial past and the brand’s contemporary interpretation of India’s weaving traditions. The choice of Empire Mills also reinforces Jaipur Rugs’ distinctive position at the intersection of craft, design, culture and luxury. At a time when global luxury is increasingly defined by authenticity, provenance and human skill, the brand is placing the Indian artisan at the center of its luxury narrative.
N.K.Chaudhary, Founder, Jaipur Rugs, said: “For me, this store represents more than expansion. It is about taking the story of Indian craftsmanship into a space where it can be experienced, understood and valued in a new way. Empire Mills carries the memory of Mumbai’s textile heritage, while Jaipur Rugs carries the living tradition of the Indian loom. Bringing the two together felt incredibly meaningful. We want people to walk into this space and leave with a deeper appreciation for the human skill, time and emotion behind every handmade rug. This is how we believe Indian craft can find its place in the global luxury conversation.”
The flagship has been conceived as an experience rather than a conventional showroom. Jaipur Rugs’ contemporary collections and heritage weaves are presented through a series of curated environments, allowing visitors to move through different expressions of color, texture, material and design. Artisans hand-weaving rugs in real time bring the craft process into the heart of the retail experience, while mesh partitions offer glimpses into the intricate making of rugs that can take weeks or months to complete. Lounge settings encourage visitors to experience their texture and understand their scale before making a purchase. A vertical rug archive offers a visual journey through the brand’s diverse body of work, while a suspended installation of origami-like metal birds creates a striking visual moment at the entrance.
Yogesh Chaudhary, Managing Director, Jaipur Rugs, said: “Luxury retail is changing. Customers are no longer looking only for a beautiful product; they are looking for meaning, provenance and an experience that stays with them. That is the thinking behind our Mumbai flagship. We wanted to create a space where the product, the artisan and the story behind the craft are equally important. Mumbai is one of India’s most influential design and cultural markets, and this flagship allows us to engage with that audience at a much deeper level. It also reflects our larger ambition—to enforce Jaipur Rugs into a global luxury brand rooted unmistakably in India.”
The design of the flagship has been developed by Roar, the Dubai-based multidisciplinary design studio led by Pallavi Dean. The approach was to work with the existing architecture rather than erase it, creating a dialogue between the warehouse’s industrial bones and the tactile, rhythmic language of weaving.
Pallavi Dean, Founder and Creative Director, Roar, said: “We didn’t want to design another showroom; we wanted to create a journey. The building already had a powerful identity, the steel structure, the pitched roof, the clerestory light and the memory of its textile past. Our role was to work with that character rather than compete with it. We looked at weaving as a system of repetition, rhythm and connection, and translated those ideas into the architecture through fractal geometry and a series of sculptural volumes. The result is intended to feel less like a retail space and more like a textile unfolding layer by layer, revealing something new as you move through it.”
The Mumbai flagship also brings together the breadth of Jaipur Rugs’ celebrated design collaborations, offering visitors an opportunity to experience rugs that sit at the intersection of craft, art, design and personal expression. Among the highlights are the acclaimed Manchaha and Freedom Manchaha collections; where the imagination and individual stories of artisans become the starting point for one-of-a-kind creations. These collections sit alongside a remarkable portfolio of collaborations with some of India’s and the world’s most influential creative voices.
From Pavitra Rajaram, Vinita Chaitanya and Peter D’Ascoli to Kavi, Gurjeet Singh and Gauri Khan, and international collaborators including Tatiana de Nicolay and Her Highness Bodour Al Qasimi, Jaipur Rugs has created a distinctive design ecosystem that brings together diverse creative perspectives. Each collaboration explores the possibilities of the rug beyond conventional décor, transforming it into a canvas for cultural narratives, artistic expression and contemporary design.
What makes these collaborations particularly distinctive is the dialogue between two worlds: the creative vision of the designer and the deeply skilled hand of the artisan. Ideas conceived in studios across India and the world are translated through traditional weaving techniques in the hands of Jaipur Rugs’ artisan communities, creating pieces that are at once contemporary and deeply rooted in craft. The result is a growing body of work that demonstrates how Indian craftsmanship can engage with global design language without losing its soul.
With stores across India and international locations in Milan, Dubai, London and Singapore, Jaipur Rugs is continuing to build a global retail footprint. The company is evaluating further opportunities across Europe, Asia-Pacific and other established luxury markets, while in India it is exploring expansion into markets including Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Gujarat.
