RAHI CHADDA The Cult of the Beauteous Sell

It is 9am, and Rahi Chadda is just getting started. A beautiful ceramic cup in hand, the 32-year-old London-based model, entrepreneur and influencer lays out his plans for the day—a succession of meetings, ideations and planning sessions—all the while exuding a quietness of spirit that strangely belies the demanding pace of his professional life.

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Dressed in a neon green (or brat green, for the faithful and initiated) t-shirt, I find Chadda in a rare moment of quietude—far removed from the globetrotting Instagram self one usually associates with him.

"My love affair with fashion started when I was 12," Chadda recalls. "Back then, I couldn't articulate what it meant to feel empowered, but I understood instinctively that when I wore something I loved, it changed how I felt." In his all-boys London school, where the sartorial language skewed towards prep (think tennis jumpers, chinos, colourful shirts tucked under leather belts), Chadda found his early vocabulary of style on the one day of the month when the students had the liberty to show up to school in an outfit of their choice. "I was never the loudest in the classroom, but I expressed myself loudly through clothes. It was my way of showing up."