The Luxe Café

Manisha Rao, ex-journalist and luxury-marketing expert, is the founder of The Luxe Café. Having started her career as a brand correspondent with Financial Chronicle (Deccan Chronicle Holdings), she went onto leading the luxury section of the newspaper. Her passion for art, lifestyle, luxury and the evolution therein brought her to work closely with the head of Avantgarde India, one of the world's leading luxury communications firms. Having crafted the communications strategy of many European luxury brands entering the Indian market, she stands witness to the expansion of high-end retail in India.

Her vision to further bridge the gap between luxury brands and the purveyors of fine living led her to start The Luxe Café as webzine with a 360 degree approach to consumer culture and exclusive content. An ardent traveller, she loves green neighbourhoods, and lives in one such in South Delhi. Follow her as she curates an enriching lifestyle experience on Twitter @theluxecafe

manisha@theluxecafe.com

A Goldsmiths graduate, Shabnam has worked in advertising and publishing. While brand strategy and marketing communications remain her favoured pursuits during the day, she loves burning the midnight oil researching and writing on gastronomy, travel and aesthetic lifestyle – on all that catches her fancy or comes in her way of keeping up with the latest in town, and outside it. Travelling across continents for work brings her the pleasure of sampling cuisines and cultures which reflect in her quirky worldview and writings.

Flash mob activism, pop-up restaurants, poetry in the park are some surprises she actively scouts for, while interesting brand tie-ups and new online discovery tricks spur the marketer in her. Follow her newfound interest in photography on Instagram @vintageshab

shabnam@theluxecafe.com

Delhi-based Neelam Mathews is a passionate traveller and aviation enthusiast. Being a consummate writer, she is a contributing editor to numerous international publications on business aviation, defence and commercial aviation. Her diversely rich experience ranges from being with the Aviation Week for twelve years writing on space, defence, and business aviation to being the Editorial Director to three MRO Asia events in Singapore and Hong Kong. Having written for inflight and specialist publications all over the globe for the past twenty years, she is a high-flyer who loves her rides in swanky jets and plush private planes. Follow her updates as she maps the world of aviation on Twitter @neelammathews

Nivi Shrivastava is a free-thinker, passionate traveller and a writer with a eight years stint at Asian Age and Deccan Chronicle writing on Indian fashion and lifestyle. She follows the fashion space for interesting trends and updates which she weaves into informative, interesting features for her blog www.msjunebug.com. She also contributes for fashion magazines like L'officiel and Outlook Splurge as a guest columnist.

Sarfaraz is a traveller, photographer, poet and musician and adding another feather to his hat is his fluent Mandarin. His time behind his prized Canon lens has been well captured in photographs which have been to exhibitions such as the one during Delhi Contemporary Arts Week. He merges text and image brilliantly to create evocative photo-essays, variously published, and is currently engaged in a book project entitled 'Poetography'. His wanderer’s boots have taken him to offbeat paths and nooks in India which shows in the songs he has written and composed in sufi, folk and contemporary styles.

Jatin Tulsiani is the founder and creative director of Mix Tape Films and has shot and directed creative brand videos for reputed fashion houses and luxury brands like Bvlgari, Harper’s Bazaar India, Gap India, Bacardi and more. Fashion, beauty food and lifestyle are the favourite subjects to focus his lens on. A consummate story-teller, he brings in years of expertise having produced award-winning shows for NDTV, ET Now and now lends his expert eye to select projects which take him to picturesque locations and vivid experiences. Follow his trail of invigorating creative impressions on Instagram @jatintulsiani