Penelope Chilvers’s first trip to India was as spellbinding and magical as she hoped it would be.
The British designer, whose footwear is beloved of the Princess of Wales, spent ten days exploring the landscape of Rajasthan – home of deserts and maharajas, palaces and tigers – on horseback, foot and 4WD, and can’t wait to return.
“It was like opening Pandora’s box because I’ll get obsessed. I didn’t want to come home,” she says in our exclusive interview.
In fact, Penelope, whose celebrity clients include Amal Clooney, Cate Blanchett and Pippa Middleton, was so inspired by the richness and colours of the landscape and the people she met that she created two designs, a slipper and a riding boot, for the conservation-focused safari camps where she stayed.
WILDLIFE AND WONDER
Every morning and evening, when the sun was lower in the sky, she would go for a ride on one of the camp’s native Marwari horses and take in the wilderness.
“We watched the sun rise over the Aravalli mountain range and I felt at one with this amazing landscape. I saw a leopard – he was sitting on a rock, just watching us – and if you looked carefully through your binoculars, you could see a crocodile sunning itself on the sand. It was like nothing I’d ever seen before.”
One evening, she adds, a party was held for the camp guests. “We went out in Jeeps into the middle of the desert, where there was a cocktail bar set up with candles and oil lamps. Some incredible local musicians played a wonderful array of instruments that I’d never seen before.”
The designer’s trip wasn’t just for pleasure; following in the footsteps of the Prince and Princess of Wales, Penelope is a champion of sustainability and every year supports conservation initiatives through her brand.
This year, she is working with Suján, the first positive-impact safari camp of its kind in India, founded in 2001 by entrepreneur Jaisal Singh, wh
