Nupur Jordon may not be your traditional Indian princess, but she certainly is living the fairy tale.
Born Nupur Rana Jaisl Kapoor Pratup Singh Jordon, princess of Jaislmer in Rajasthan, India, Jordon was never a girl to stay in one place. Now living in Paris and commuting to New York once a month, Jordon is clearly an eager businesswoman. She just launched her own contemporary sportswear line, called Nupur Paris, for spring and pulls pieces off a rack with a huge smile on her face.
“Retailers are really liking the line, and I think it’s because it’s something different on the floor,” she said, pointing out a white linen embroidered dress with white coral stones placed around the neckline.
“The idea is to have a line full of the clothes that I want to wear. That has always been what I wanted to do,” she said.
The line also features silk chiffon dresses and skirts, as well as cotton shorts, skirts and tops. Clearly inspired by her heritage, Jordon holds up a white cotton skirt with an embroidered picture of horses.
“This is a painting that hangs in my mom’s palace,” she explained. “I always admired it.”
The clothing line, Jordon said, has already been picked up by Barneys New York, Lord & Taylor and Saks Fifth Avenue. It wholesales from $30 to $300.
In addition to the apparel, Jordon has a line of fine jewelry, ranging from beaded ruby necklaces to vintage-inspired pearl and diamond rings. That line, which goes for up to $8,000 retail, is also called Nupur Paris and sells at specialty boutiques, in addition to Le Bon Marché in Paris.
Jordon said she expects to reach more than $1 million in wholesale volume by the end of the year.
Now 31, she said that, according to her parents, she did almost everything wrong and against the traditional values they instilled in her since birth. As their only child, Jordon’s parents urged her to stay in India, marry an Indian man and someday pursue a career in politics.
“My mother is not happy with my career choices,” Jordon explained, sitting in her new showroom at 463 Seventh Avenue in New York. “She really isn’t happy with any of my choices. She didn’t want to see me in fashion — she wanted me to do something political, something to help India.”
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While Jordon said she loves her native country and has even started the Nupur Foundation to help Indian orphans live better lives, she always believed in her ability to become a fashion designer. To do that, she knew she had to leave India.
“When I was 16, I came to New York on holiday, and I never went back,” she said.
With the help of her uncle, El Jordon, who lived in New York and worked in the textile business, Jordon was able to stay in the city, finish school, graduate from the Fashion Institute of Technology and then move to Paris to attend the Paris Fashion Institute at Cité Universitaire, where she studied couture.
While her parents disapproved of the decisions their daughter made, Jordon continued to speak to her family over the years. Then she met Frederic Tron, a French real estate investor who would become her husband. The two married in Saint-Tropez just three weeks ago, and her parents were not there. Her uncle walked her down the aisle, and her parents vowed to never speak to her again. She even designed her own wedding dresses, three of them, that she wore during the event.
“One of the dresses was a strapless chiffon in a beautiful blue,” she explained. “It was the color of the Mediterranean Sea.”