Obeetee, long known for its handcrafted carpets, is evolving into a full-spectrum luxury home brand while staying rooted in Indian heritage. CEO Angelique Dhama explains how the company is expanding into bedding, furniture and global collaborations, including its Italian facility and the Tokyo Chowk collection, to create contemporary design that remains unmistakably Indian.
For a long time, Obeetee has meshed in the story of Indian craftsmanship into some of the world's most considered interiors, with carpets as quite literally its canvas, and Indian techniques and colloquial design knowledge as its foundation. At this stage in its story, its is furthering its course and expanding beyond carpets into a broader world of luxury home, clubbing together bedding, furniture and new design collaborations while strengthening its presence across India and international markets.
However, at its most unique, Obeetee’s evolution is not simply a story of going global. It is a story of what Indian luxury can achieve when it experiments with its own heritage; when it takes its singularly domestic motifs in design and matches it up with the world standard on its own terms. From bringing Luke Irwin to India to exploring the cultural contrasts of its forthcoming Tokyo Chowk collection, the brand has always looked at India not merely as its point of origin but as a source of ideas, energy, creative possibilities and chaos. In this conversation, Angelique Dhama, CEO, OBEETEE Carpets-Retail, reflects on that journey and on the making of Obeetee’s new Tokyo Chowk collection, its international presence and its past, present and future.
Angelique Dhama (AD): Obeetee’s story is really about evolution without losing our soul.
For almost a century, Obeetee has been synonymous with Indian craftsmanship and carpets. But as we looked at where the world of luxury was heading, it became clear that the opportunity was much bigger than the floor. People don’t experience their homes as individual categories anymore; they experience them as a complete expression of who they are. So our expansion into furniture, bedding and other elements of the home is a natural extension of what we have always stood for.
The Italian manufacturing capability adds another dimension—access to global design and manufacturing expertise while retaining our Indian point of view.
Over the next few years, I see Obeetee becoming a distinctive global luxury home and design brand born in India. We don’t want to compete by trying to look European or American. Our ambition is to make Indian design, craftsmanship and sensibility relevant to the world in a way that feels contemporary, sophisticated and unmistakably Obeetee.
AD: I don’t really see heritage and innovation as opposites. For me, heritage is the foundation; it shouldn’t become the ceiling.
Obeetee has access to an extraordinary body of knowledge built over generations—craft techniques, materials, colour, weaving traditions and, importantly, the hands and minds of the people who make these products. Our job today is to take that knowledge and give it a contemporary language.
That means being willing to experiment with scale, materials, technology, colour and form, and to work with designers who may come from very different cultural and creative backgrounds. We are not trying to reproduce the past. We are trying to build on it.
The most interesting luxury, in my view, happens when you can recognise where something comes from without it looking like a historical reproduction. That is the balance we are constantly looking for at Obeetee.
AD: I think Indian design is entering a very interesting phase. For a long time, the world largely viewed India through the lens of craft, ornamentation and colour. Those are enormous strengths, but India is capable of much more than that.
We have a very rich design vocabulary because we are a country of contrasts—old and new, maximalist and minimal, deeply traditional and incredibly experimental. I think the next chapter of Indian design is about bringing these influences together with greater confidence.
Our collaborations with designers such as Luke Irwin, and our investment in design capabilities in Italy, are part of that journey. We want to learn, collaborate and exchange ideas rather than operate within a single geography.
Obeetee’s role is to create a bridge. We want to take the depth of Indian craftsmanship and give it a global design context, while also bringing international ideas and perspectives back into India. Ultimately, I would like Obeetee to be part of a broader conversation where Indian design is not simply appreciated for its heritage, but recognised for its ability to shape contemporary luxury.
AD: Tokyo Chowk came from a fascination with two places that, on the surface, couldn’t be more different.
Tokyo has an incredible sense of order, restraint and precision. Indian streets, particularly our bazaars and chowks, are almost the opposite—there is colour, movement, layering, noise and spontaneity. But when you look more closely, both have an extraordinary visual rhythm.
That became the idea of “Composed Chaos”: the thought that chaos can actually have structure, and restraint can still have energy.
For us, Tokyo Chowk wasn’t about literally putting Japanese motifs onto an Indian product. It was about taking two different cultural sensibilities and allowing them to influence each other. The collection reflects how we think about culture today—not as something fixed within geographical boundaries, but as something that constantly travels, collides and evolves.
That is increasingly how Obeetee thinks about design as well. We want to be rooted, but never insular.