Casiraghi’s eccentric aesthetic culminates in the ground floor Pondicherry Bar. Swathed in the hotel’s signature orange hue, the space is animated by a series of tapestries by American fashion designer Emily Bode that wrap around the room. Hand-embroidered in dark blue linen, the panels are inspired by Britain’s colonial connections to India, teeming with elephants, tigers, and traditionally dressed figures—motifs that, rather than feeling derivative, infuse the space with a layered, almost dreamlike quality.
The collaboration between Grand Hotel Bellevue and Emily Bode extends to a gift station with an assortment of baseball caps, notebooks and other accessories. Given carte blanche under a colonial-inspired brief, Bode—whose sensibilities are keenly attuned to themes of heritage and nostalgia—has distilled a sense of exoticism into an exuberant collection characterised by vibrant hues and playful details. In a hotel where every object and surface tells a story, this retail concept becomes an extension of the overarching narrative, an opportunity for guests to take a piece of the Grand Hotel Bellevue’s imagined world with them.