Aneeth Arora’s first péro flagship, Pérodise, in New Delhi’s Lodhi Colony is conceived as an immersive universe rather than a conventional store. Designed to be fluid and wheelchair accessible, it blends retail, gallery and community space, echoing the brand’s ethos of love, warmth and all-sensory experience through handcrafted details, nostalgia and whimsical design elements.
After 17 years of building a world steeped in handcraft, nostalgia and whimsy, Aneeth Arora is finally giving péro a place to call its own. Tucked into a corner of New Delhi’s Lodhi Colony, the label’s first flagship is less a conventional store than an invitation into its universe. Called Pérodise, the space carries the same delight in detail that has long defined péro: hand-laid terrazzo floors scattered with blown-glass hearts, terracotta tiles, copper bells from Kutch and hand-beaten metal hangers, with little hearts waiting to be discovered along the way. Designed to be fluid and wheelchair accessible, it can just as easily shift from a retail space into a gallery or a place for conversation.
In conversation with Robb Report India, Aneeth Arora reflects on the journey to this long-awaited address, the craft and memories woven into its many corners, and why Pérodise is meant to leave visitors with something more lasting than a shopping bag.
Aneeth Arora(AA) : One thing that has always been central to péro is love and warmth, and that is the first thing we would like people to feel. From the very beginning, the idea was to create something that was not just a retail space. It was never meant to be merely transactional; it was about creating an experience. Like everything else we do, we wanted this to be an all-sensory experience. Before we even started imagining what the space would look like, we knew what we wanted it to feel like.
AA: I always say that I can be the person who dreams and imagines what I want to make, but I am always backed by a very strong team that helps bring that dream to life. This project was a perfect example of that. While we knew what we wanted from the space, our technical knowledge is obviously stronger when it comes to clothing. When it came to architecture and interiors, it was crucial to work with people who were masters of that craft. We collaborated with a couple from Milan, Kalpesh Solanki and Paola Conzatti, who have also helped us with our spaces in the past. That said, I was fully invested in the process. It was a massive project alongside our regular schedule of creating two collections a year, which could not stop. For months, my evenings—and eventually my mornings before going to work—were dedicated to the store. We did much of the work over video calls, with drawings being shared back and forth and ideas constantly evolving.
AA: It took more than six months. Before we began working with the actual materials, we spent about three months simply looking at the space and figuring out how to give it shape. There was nothing there—it was just an open area—and we wanted to create an experience within it.
AA: The heart has always been an important symbol for us. It began with the realisation that we were putting so much love into making every piece of clothing that we simply started embroidering a tiny heart somewhere on the garment for people to discover. Over the years, péro has become synonymous with love. We consciously named our Instagram page I Love péro because people were reciprocating that love and constantly telling us, ‘I love péro’. At one point, we also began saying, ‘We péro You’, as our way of giving that love back.
AA: The space is really an extension of how we make our clothing. We work with a great deal of handcraft, and we wanted to bring that same layered approach into the store. The canopies are lined with terracotta tiles from Odisha, while the rain chains incorporate copper bells made in Kutch. All the metalwork has been done in collaboration with a metal artist, including the hand-beaten metal hangers, which are in many ways an extension of the handmade metal buttons we use on our garments. Then there is terrazzo, which is an age-old technique that is also laid by hand. Every inch of the flooring has been created manually. We have inlaid blown-glass hearts, brass strips and hand-cut letters into the terrazzo. Some of the materials are different from what we use in clothing, but many of the ideas have travelled from one world to the other. Metal, for instance, is such an important part of putting together a péro garment. The glass hearts were once something we explored as buttons for our clothes. In many ways, whatever we have learnt over 17 years of making clothes and working with materials has found an architectural expression in this space.
AA: We have always been very organic in our approach, so if someone asks me about a five-year plan, I probably will not have one. I may not even know exactly what is happening next month or next season. But when we collectively came up with the name Pérodise, everyone was very excited about the possibility of it becoming something that could travel. Right now, we have a Pérodise in Delhi, and perhaps one day there could be one in Mumbai or somewhere else. We have wonderful retail partners in India and overseas and have built relationships with many of them over 17 years. So it is not that we feel the need to have a store in every city. But the journey has started now. If we find a space that feels right in Mumbai or another city, we would be very happy to create another Pérodise. Never say never.