Creative polymath Waris Ahluwalia unveils his latest projects—a line of teas that soothe body and soul and a new botanicals bar in New York—and tells Tatler why slowing down is the fastest way to good health
It’s hard to keep up with a man who does it all. Waris Ahluwalia is many things—actor, activist, designer of clothing, fine jewellery and ceramics—but, at the end of the day, he is a storyteller. And his latest tale is House of Waris Botanicals, a collection of teas and elixirs.
“Tea has been connecting people for centuries. In every indigenous culture across the planet, tea has always served a purpose. It was a way to bond and a way to heal,” says Ahluwalia. We’re at his office in New York’s Lower East Side, and I’m sipping one of his early blends from a rustic steel cup—it’s a mix of turmeric, black pepper, rooibos, ginger, honeybush, cinnamon and bee pollen, and it feels like a hug from the inside.
House of Waris has been producing tea since 2010, but after spending the last few years working with herbalists, sourcing teas and unearthing ancient customs in places like Tamil Nadu in southern India, Ahluwalia saw an opportunity to dig deeper.
“I thought, wait a minute, why am I doing Earl Grey? That just puts me in the line of every other tea company, where I'm just in marketing and sourcing. So instead, we’re creating blends that give us the chance to be better—that address some very human needs: love, sleep, immunity, digestion, detox, clarity and beauty. I could personally use help in all of those,” explains Ahluwalia, adding that it took his own falling apart for this new path to fall into place.
See also: How Water Can Make You Well
A Shift in Perspective
In 2013, after years of collaborating with coveted fashion brands including A.P.C., Kenzo and The Kooples, showing at New York Fashion Week and designing for his fine jewellery label, House of Waris, he hit a wall in what he described as a ‘philosophical disconnect’.
“We were doing scarves, fashion, and other beautiful stuff, working with craftsmen in Rome, in Jaipur, in Bangkok. It was an incredible exchange. I knew all my craftsmen, I knew all their children. We didn't work with factories. We worked with individuals and families,” he says. “These products were going to incredible stores like Dover Street Market, On Pedder in Hong Kong and Colette in Paris. These are some of the best stores in the world, but when it would sit on that counter, it was just expensive jewellery. It was just another thing that created desire and material lust.”
The flashiness of the fashion world began to lose its lustre, and Ahluwalia found himself searching for a new source of light. “I want an alignment in everything that I do. I want my actions to reflect my thoughts. And I also didn't want to be part of a system that just creates more products, more goods, that doesn't have a larger conversation outside of that.”
So he set off for Thailand, where he spent a month at a yoga and meditation retreat to reset and relearn what it means to simply be, and perhaps most importantly, to slow down.
