Simone Tata
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Briefly
Reeba.Zachariah, Dec 6, 2025: The Times of India
Mumbai: Simone Tata (nee Dunoyer) was a Swiss national who married into the Tatas and built India’s most enduring cosmetics brand.
Lakme, a Tata venture born of an unusual request by then PM Nehru, who noticed that Indian women relied heavily on imported cosmetics, draining precious foreign exchange, was named after the French opera Lakme, (itself referencing Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess). Simone became its driving force, marketing it in a way that directly questioned the taboo around makeup.
Simone, who grew up in Geneva, had recalled growing up absorbing lessons on presenting oneself with care.
Talking to Vogue in 2017, she recalled her first brush with the transformative power of cosmetics before a piano recital. A self-described tomboy, she was surprised when her mother dusted her face with cream, blush, and powder. “I was transformed,” she said. That moment sparked a lifelong fascination with beauty.
Trent-setter Simone was force behind Westside
Simone’s life changed course when she met Tata Group stalwart Naval Tata in Geneva. At the time, she worked for Air India — then under the Tata umbrella — and Naval often visited the city as a board member of the International Labour Organisation. In 1953, at 23, she visited India for the first time during a summer holiday. Despite a 26-year age difference and Naval’s previous marriage to Soonoo Tata, their bond deepened. The two married in 1955, and though Simone retained her Swiss passport, she embraced Mumbai as her home.
Becoming part of the Tata family also meant being stepmother to Naval’s sons, Jimmy and Ratan, the latter of whom would go on to become one of India’s most admired business leaders. In Horizons, a publication by Tata Trusts, she remembered Ratan returning home during a school break from the US wearing a Frank Sinatra-style straw hat —“a gangly Parsee youth disguised as an American star”. A year into her marriage, Simone and Naval welcomed their son, Noel, now chairman of Tata Trusts.
Her entry into business came in 1961, influenced partly by her husband’s interests but more so by her own growing professional curiosity. She joined Lakmé and began marketing it in a way that resonated with modern Indian women.
Advertiser and screenwriter Kamlesh Pandey once reco- unted a turning point in the brand’s journey. His agency, Rediffusion, had proposed a stark black-and-white campaign that questioned the social taboo around makeup with the line: “Is it bad to look good?” Simone initially detested the concept — accustomed as she was to colourful, glamorous visuals. “But our account supervisor Vishwanathan went on selling it. She could not take it anymore and exploded, ‘Mr Vishwanathan, I do not like to see your face!’ ‘It doesn’t matter if you do not like to see my face, Mrs Tata,’ countered Vishwanathan fearlessly, ‘But this is the campaign you are going to buy!’ And she bought the campaign which went on to win several awards at the Ad Club…,” wrote Pandey for exchange4media this Sept. It was one of many decisions that showed Simone’s willingness to adapt, experiment, and trust disruptive ideas.
In 1996, the Tata Group sold Lakmé to Hindustan Unilever as part of a restructuring effort. Simone channelled the sale proceeds to acquire British retail chain Little-woods, laying the foundation for the group’s entry into fashion retail.
Littlewoods was soon rebranded as Westside, which is now one of India’s most successful department store formats. Over the decades, Simone oversaw the group’s consumer businesses including Lakmé and Trent (which operates Westside) — and served on the boards of Tata Industries and the Sir Ratan Tata Institute. She eventually retired in 2006. “She was a gracious lady and an outstanding entrepreneur,” said former Tata Group director Ishaat Hussain.
After retirement, Simone preferred to remain out of the public eye. She appeared occasionally — at the reopening of the renovated Westside flagship in SoBo in 2019; at the funeral of her son’s brother-in-law and former Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry in 2022; and at Ratan’s funeral in 2024.
Simone passed away at Mumbai’s Breach Candy Hospital. A funeral mass will be held on Saturday at the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Colaba, a church Simone regularly attended.
Noel now largest Tata family stakeholder
Former Tata Group director Simone Tata had transferred ownership of her assets, including Tata Sons shares, to her son and Tata Trusts chairman Noel Tata, said people in the know. This increased Noel’s stake in Tata Sons to 1%, making him the largest Tata family shareholder in the holding company of the $180-billion Tata Group.
