How Indians Are Making It To The Very Top Of The World Fashion

Indian models are scorching international runways and making it to international magazine covers

- Chinki Sinha in Mumbai and Delhi

OUTSIDE, BEAUTIFUL, WARRIOR-LIKE WOMEN strut fiercely the gallery of a modelling agency on upscale Park Street trying to crack auditions for the forthcoming New York Fashion Week. Inside, getting her make-up done, Rasika Navare, 26, sits unfazed, uninhibited. She has come a long way from the time she wrote to a modelling agency on Facebook asking if she could be a model and was told to return after putting on some weight. It is a tough world in New York City, but she seems to have arrived. As she strikes a pose for the photographer in Times Square, dressed in black leather jacket and white shirt, passersby turn to look at her. A few even claim to know her face. And it’s not just her. A few blocks down, on 52nd Street, Pooja Mor, 25, one of India’s biggest exports to the western modelling world, stares out of a poster outside the Ann Taylor store.

As the notion of beauty begins to change worldwide, catwalks are becoming more diverse, Indian designers and actresses are making a mark abroad, the Internet is providing both exposure and opportunity, and Indian women are stepping on to international runways and gracing the covers of top international fashion magazines. There have been 10 breakout models from India in just the last year. Radhika Nair, 26, became the first ever Indian model to walk for Balenciaga, and Dipti Sharma, 22, closed the Spring/ Summer 2018 show for them at the Paris Fashion Week. Bhumika Arora, 28, closed the show for Marc Jacobs at the New York Fashion Week; Mor featured in Nicholas Ghesquiere’s resort collection for Louis Vuitton at Palm Springs in 2015 and also became the first Indian model to appear on the cover of Vogue Italia in April 2016. Navare has done print campaigns for Smashbox Worldwide Cosmetics and Sephora, Canada.

Small-Town Girls Make it Big