“We were really taught to think, and feel,
and to be excited by life and mesmerised by wonderful things.” “My love for nature, the key inspiration behind
Ortaea, comes from a childhood of wondrous travels. We adventured on safaris, swam and star- gazed on beach holidays, drove across the Lake District, explored natural sites from Sicily to the Grand Canyon, and Mexico. “ Hailing from a family of entrepreneurs, Vohra
Sometimes you just know something is right for you. I am a big believer that when you want to do something, and there is a flow that moves with it, then it is really meant to be.” The “flow” she is talking about came in the
form of an open door at London’s Harvey Nichols. Vohra had already been in talks with the luxury
department store in relation to Jooal—something her ex-husband had since decided against— allowing Vohra a fresh approach, this time with her own concept. “I thought it would be a very tall order to get in,
because I didn’t have any jewellery to show them.” As it turned out, Harvey Nichols were excited
about the line, saying they wanted to open her boutique in three months. “I was like ‘three months?’. I don’t even have a
single piece of jewellery yet—or a name.” Ninety sleepless nights later, Vohra opened her
elegant space at Harvey Nichols under the banner Ortaea—an amalgam of “Ortus”, a Latin word meaning beginning or rising, and “Gaia”, the Greek goddess of creation.
Entrepreneurial roots Ortaea’s thoughtful, statement pieces tell stories about empowerment and connection to nature and people—themes instilled in Vohra from a young age by her father Gurcharan Singh Vohra, Sarova Hotels co-founder. In what sounds like a charmed
childhood, Vohra travelled widely, and met people from all around the world.
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grew up with a father and brother who taught her about “the power of your own will and the strength you have within to make things happen”. Thinking out of the box and for the greater good were also key themes. “The ethos was that nothing is impossible, and
Above, left: The entrepreneurial founder and chief executive of Ortaea has forged her own path in both her professional and personal lives
Top right and below: Vohra’s striking jewellery is crafted from 18-carat white gold, yellow gold, rose gold and black gold set with diamonds and precious stones. With manufacturing bases in Italy, Hong Kong and Thailand, she has ambitions to open private showrooms in London and New York
not even the sky is the limit. It was a wonderful way of thinking to grow up with.” Vohra’s father, who passed away in 2013,
was also a lawyer, then starting a plane charter business flying between Nairobi and London. He also became interested in buying and selling property. “Honestly, I think the first hotel was perhaps
just meant to be a property investment, but then he became a hotelier. That is what I call flow. He had an incredible way about him. He managed to find the right properties at the right time, and they managed to grow both a hotel and a real estate portfolio incredibly fast.” Vohra’s brother, Sandy Vohra, led Sarova as
managing director from 1992 until 2006, when he died tragically in a motor accident. “My brother was on the Kenya Tourism Board,
chaired the Hotel Keepers Association as well as the committee for the Central Business District that was geared [up] to clean up the deteriorating city centre in Nairobi.” Today, Sarova Group’s properties include 11
hotels, resorts and game lodges across Kenya, plus four in the UK. Vohra has been on the board since 2014, and often travels to Kenya. “Our sites are incredible,” she says. “We have one historic hotel, Sarova Stanley, in the centre of the city which is the oldest in Nairobi. It is
where Ernest Hemingway used to write and the first stock exchange in Kenya was in that hotel. There are just hundreds of stories.”
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