Bina Ramani
Bina Ramani is an Indian fashion designer, socialite, entrepreneur, writer, restaurateur, and philanthropist. Her restaurants include: The Small Café, The Exit, Tamarind Tree in Delhi and Congo in Goa. She is known for pioneering boutique culture in India, developing the Hauz Khas Village art and fashion district in Delhi in 1980s, and later the Qutub Colonnade area and for her role as a key witness in the 1999 Jessica Lal murder case.
Early life and education
Ramani was born into a Sindhi-Sikh family in Karachi, British India, around 1943. Her father was in the pharmaceutical business. After the Partition in 1947, her family relocated to Mumbai, where she grew up. She later studied decorative arts in London, though reports differ regarding her institution of study. Her elder brother Kartar Lalvani founded a UK-based telecommunications company Binatone in 1958, named after her.Career
After her divorce from Andy Ramani, she was an Air-India employee based in New York. Subsequently, she returned to India to set up a garment export business to the US. Ramani was among the early Indian designers to open high-end boutiques catering to the elite. Her store, "'Once Upon A Time", located in New Delhi, became a prominent label in the late 1970s and 1980s. In the early 1980s, she was among the first Indian designers to have her collection featured at Bloomingdale's in New York, including promotional window displays and advertisements in The New York Times.Ramani founded and managed the restro-bar "Tamarind Court" in New Delhi, which became a popular cultural venue. It gained national attention after the 1999 Murder of Jessica Lal occurred on its premises, where Ramani was a key eyewitness.
In the 2010s, she launched the wellness and lifestyle brand "Malabar Secrets", specializing in spice-flora infusions, herbal tonics, and natural health products.
Art, writing and activism
Ramani has exhibited art jointly with her partner George Mailhot.She is also the author of the memoir Bird in a Banyan Tree: My Story, which chronicles her life, work in fashion, the transformation of Hauz Khas Village, and the Jessica Lal case.
Ramani is widely credited with transforming Hauz Khas Village into a fashion and design hub during the 1980s. Her boutiques and cultural initiatives helped turn the heritage area into a center for design, art, and lifestyle in the capital.