DECOR | 27th Aug, 2025
Fashion renegade turned multidisciplinary tastemaker, Tahir Sultan transforms Jaipur’s design landscape with Makaan, a space where Roti, Kapda, and Makaan aren’t just necessities, they’re elevated to an art form.
Jaipur’s design scene has never lacked character, but with Makaan, Tahir Sultan doesn’t just enter the conversation, he rewrites the format. Housed in a heritage-style structure just ten minutes from the City Palace, Makaan is less a store and more an intersection where time, taste, and tectonics collide. It’s not trying to be palatable to everyone. That’s the point. This is a space built for those who understand that objects, like people, come with layered histories.
Step into Makaan, and the sensory change is instantaneous. You’re met not by branding gimmicks but by a quiet chaos: 350-year-old rice pots from ancient trade routes sit beside porcelain lamps designed for contemporary dining rooms. Naga panels flank the walls like carved memoirs, while candleholders fashioned from shattered ceramics whisper stories of repurposed beauty. Every item has been sourced or sculpted by Sultan himself often through blistering heat and long hours spent in India’s arid interiors because age, texture, and irregularity are the brand’s default language.
Sultan, known internationally for his fashion label and high-concept design projects, moved to Jaipur during the 2020 lockdown, mostly by accident. But the shift from fashion capitals to the craft capital wasn’t off-brand. Raised in Kuwait, trained at Central Saint Martins, and seasoned under the likes of McQueen and Galliano, Sultan has always operated in creative pluralities. Jaipur merely became the next chapter. “I happened to be here when the world paused. The city’s layered design history felt like an open studio,” he says.
Makaan’s Jaipur store stands as a functioning case study in how cultural memory and utility can co-exist without dilution. It’s not about chasing trends, it’s about preserving aesthetic relevance. The red façade doesn’t call attention to itself, but once inside, there’s no mistaking the level of intention. The store stocks everything from Sultan’s signature ceramic vases and metal sculptures to rare finds like weathered brass tiffins, custom incense holders, and elephant-themed objects- his personal symbol of strength. The materials lean heavy on aged wood, brass, and porcelain, textural elements that age well without losing structural honesty.
The store is a distilled showcase of Sultan’s multi-sector design philosophy where fashion, interiors, and hospitality are not separate silos but extensions of a single creative ecosystem. With one foot firmly in tradition and the other planted in conceptual experimentation, Makaan is the physical embodiment of Sultan’s triad of living essentials: roti through his culinary ventures like Tahir Sultan Food, kapda through his globally exhibited fashion, and makaan through this very space, his ode to interior environments that don’t just house people, but shape their sensibilities.
His clientele? An eclectic mix of global interior designers, stylists, gallerists, restaurateurs, and the occasional royalty. And while his vision is steadily scaling, Sultan’s approach to product remains hands-on and deeply personal. He doesn’t believe in over-designing. “The best pieces evolve. They don’t shout; they settle,” he says. In a world obsessed with the shiny and new, Makaan makes the case for the storied and enduring and wins.
Makaan Jaipur Survival Kit
✔ A camera – every corner is gallery-level.
✔ A wallet – you’ll pretend you’re “just browsing.” That won’t last.
✔ Patience – you’ll want to ask about every object. You should.
Not Your Auntie’s Antiques
What you’ll not find: dusty heirlooms and matchy-matchy reproductions.
What you will find:
• Ceremonial Naga shields doubling as wall sconces.
• 18-year-old desert-dug ceramic shards turned into candle stands.
• Furniture that’s too cool to sit on (but somehow still comfy).
•Rice Pots that’s 350-year-old trade-route relics that double as sculptural décor.
Sultan’s Rules of Design Thumb:
1. If it’s cracked, it’s character.
2. If it’s perfect, it’s suspicious.
3. If it’s old, don’t fix it- frame it.
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