"I never know the value of things nor have enough money to consciously acquire art and antiques. I just have an eye." An eye that picked out a carved, colonialscreen on which is hung a `Toran' -- a welcome curtain to an Indian house, made intriguingly out of cigarette cards. Combined with this is a Parsi lace cloth stitched with a collection of age-old postcards and photographs, to form a charmingly, eccentric oddity. But the favourite among his much-loved antiques is his own Portuguese colonial home, a heritage structure. In his family for hundreds of years, it is a blue and white bungalow with Mangalore tiled-roofs, mosaic floors in different designs, old huge fans and dusty, ancient chandeliers. The picturesque `village' with narrow, interweaving lanes where James' house is ensconsed -- Chimatpada -- is one of the oldest colonies in Mumbai. What he would love, is to actually collect old homes and restore them. "I wish we had a living heritage society where old residences were restored and run the way the castles of Europe are -- as hotels."

A huge canopy over an altar is another special buy. This adorns the main room, teeming with curios as in an old curiosityshop. It is here that James -- who has trained with Zandra Rhodes and Rene' Dairy, the French designer -- is at his inspirational best, conceptualising magical ensembles for primma donnas of Indian society like Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Tina Munim and Maureen Wadia. And perhaps it is these surrounding that have prompted the designer to end his long sabbatical to host a fashion show at Glitterati, in the first week of July.