Court to Couture: Sanjay Kasliwal

A former lawyer, Italian-born Shalini Kasliwal returned to her Indian roots to cofound a branch of her family’s iconic jewelry brand, The Gem Palace, in the US.

The coronavirus has separated families in ways that few could have predicted. Consider the unfortunate situation of Shalini Kasliwal, the CEO of Sanjay Kasliwal. She has spent the past nine months in Bologna, Italy, with her daughter who turned one in September — unable to return home and be with her husband in New York.

Shalini Kasliwal is a product of her heritage. Her mother, a jeweler, is Italian and that is who Shalini and her daughter are staying with. She was born and raised in Italy in the cradle of one of the world’s great design and art cultures. Meanwhile, her father, Sanjay, was Indian. More importantly, he was a member of the family that owns The Gem Palace, the storied gem and jewelry firm in Jaipur that that will soon enter its ninth generation of family ownership. Its creations over the years have adorned Mughal emperors, European royalty, and Hollywood and Bollywood stars. Several of its pieces have been featured in museum exhibitions. Shalini represents the eighth generation of this venerable family firm.

Career change
Even though she grew up in a culture of high Indian jewelry and Italian design, Shalini took a different career path, earning a law degree and working as a lawyer in Milan. However, she and her husband had a longtime goal of moving to New York.

“I always loved New York. I went there every year with my husband and I always wanted to do something in New York,” she says in a phone interview from Bologna.

Joining the family business seven years ago provided the opportunity to make that goal a reality. Shalini, her father, Sanjay, and her brother Samir, opened the Sanjay Kasliwal boutique in the Carlyle Hotel on Madison Avenue in 2014.

“I literally jumped into my Dad’s business,” she says. “My law experience turned out to be super useful in managing the company. I quit my main job as a lawyer. It isn’t as much fun as being a jeweler.”

The US business, a division of The Gem Palace, is named after her father and produces distinct jewels that are created in the family’s Jaipur workshop. “We cut the stones, design the pieces and produce the jewels. We are vertically integrated,” says Shalini, who before the pandemic traveled twice a year to Jaipur where Samir works to immerse herself in that portion of the business.

Sanjay Kasliwal added outlets in Chicago and Los Angeles and built an online presence with Moda Operandi. In April, the company opened an e-commerce site, which was about the same time the pandemic began its spread in the US. The firm now has nine collections and also specializes in one-of-a-kind pieces. Shalini’s designs have taken a greater importance since the death of her father in February 2019.

Made in India
About 60% of Sanjay Kasliwal’s clientele are US citizens who have visited The Gem Palace. She says the US business offers traditional and contemporary jewels with the same level of craftsmanship and Indian themes that are unique to The Gem Palace. Colorful gems, large and small, further adorned with diamonds, are commonplace.

“Americans know us as iconic jewelry manufacturers for royal houses,” she says. “People in the US expect to buy something here that they didn’t see in Jaipur. We keep very traditional Indian pieces in the US store and we also do contemporary collections only for the US market. Traditional Indian jewels with a contemporary twist. We want to show our clients that we still offer pieces from the legacy of The Gem Palace, such as the traditional enamel work. We just launched nine new collections available on our website; nine chapters that make one fairy tale made with phenomenal Indian cut stones. Everything is crafted in India.”

She adds that many of the craftsmen have been working for The Gem Palace for generations, where they produce the variety of gems that range from big, bold chandelier earrings to delicate floral constructions that combine colored gems with diamonds.

One of the firm’s most iconic pieces produced is also one of its most recent. Following the death of Sanjay Kasliwal, a box was found in The Gem Palace containing emeralds, rubies, diamonds and pearls. Samir immediately recognized it as being from the same group of gems that were used to create a unique long beaded necklace for Italian style icon, Marella Agnelli, in the 1950s, who was widely known as “The Last Swan.” It was one of the family’s most important pieces in the latter half of the 20th century.

The company used these gems to form two beaded necklaces in the same style of the original one-of-a-kind piece. They are both named The Last Swan Necklace and are each priced at $80,000. One is in the New York boutique and the other is in Jaipur. They were released in April.

“These are the same stones that our granddad actually used in the necklace he made for her,” Shalini says. “There’s a lot of great history behind them.”

But her favorite piece is a pair of chandelier emerald earrings.

“It’s one of our most iconic creations,” she says. “It combines my favorite gem, emeralds, with diamonds arranged in an elephant and flower motif. It’s a piece I love. I’m attached to it because I worked alongside my father to create it.”