Cinnamon
Owners Radhika and Abishek Poddar source modern Indian products for their boutique.
The shop is in a Dutch bungalow.
Just a few hundred meters from Malabar House is Cinnamon, Fort Kochi’s most fashionable lifestyle store. Cinnamon immediately stands apart from retail competitors in the area with its crisp décor and contemporary take on Indian design. Drawn by the opportunity to open a seaside equivalent of their first Bangalore boutique, owners Radhika and Abishek Poddar employed Italian architect Andrea Anastasio to revamp an old Dutch bungalow into a chic and pristine, all-white gallery space. The Poddars began the boutique with the aim of showcasing India’s rich culture by selling indigenous products, but don’t expect to find the typical painted jewelry boxes or kitschy elephant bronzes here. The couple personally curates the offerings of the store, and their taste is nothing but modern: the textiles, jewelry, and homewares on offer are some of the chicest you’ll see in Kerala. Keep an eye out for the beautifully draped kurtas and kimonos of Bangalore designer Jason Cherian and designer updates on traditional Indian antiques and crafts—the antique stones from Pratapgarh, a district in Uttar Pradesh, set in contemporary gold and silver are particularly lovely. If you’re looking for something more distinctively Keralan, Cinnamon also offers up a quirky souvenir: Kochi fishing nets woven into soft pillowcases.
1/658 Ridsdale Road, Parade Ground; 91-484/2217124; Cinnamon
