BROWN GIRLS IN THE RING
Indian models are scorching international runways and making it to international magazine covers
Indian models are scorching international runways and making it to international magazine covers
IN JUST THE LAST YEAR, THERE HAVE BEEN AT LEAST 10 BREAKOUT MODELS OUT OF INDIA
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
Coming from small towns, Paris, Milan, New York and London were distant destinations for them. They had never considered themselves beautiful. Urvashi Umrao was just another regular collegegoer hanging out at the university fest in her home town Ankleshwar in Gujarat when she was spotted by Gunita Stobe, a former Latvian model who set up the agency Anima Creative Management in Mumbai in 2008 with her Australian model husband Mark Luburic. Urvashi had refused to see the first test shots Anima sent her; it took a lot of coaxing from Gunita for her and her family to consider modelling. “Never in my life had I thought a chance meeting would turn into something so monumentally big,” says Urvashi. Anima’s big bet for the year, she has already generated interest in Paris and Milan, and agencies are vying to book her for more international assignments since Anima posted her test shots on Instagram.
Bhumika Arora, a top international model today, was just the girl-next-door in Karnal yesterday. “Growing up, I thought I was ugly,” she says. Her friends at the Chandigarh college where she was studying business administration thought otherwise, and sent her selfies to a café magazine. She made it to their model watch section and from there to local fashion shows. Later, she was included in the model pool for Indian fashion weeks. Even so, she wasn’t exactly scorching runways, nor was she the first choice for designers. Delhi-based Samant Chauhan, who cast her in his shows, says she was always striking, but was never considered outstanding. In 2014, she sent her pictures to Elite Model Management in Paris, who signed her on. Her first international walk was for noted Belgian designer Dries Van Noten. Today, Bhumika has walked for all the big designers, including Balmain, Hermes and Chanel, and was on the cover of Grazia UK this February. She is so big now that she is off-bounds for Indian designers. Vicky Yang, digital strategy manager of The Society Management in New York, who also manage
Kendall Jenner, says of her, “Her runway walk is effortlessly strong, something many international designers have complimented her on. As a result, any outfit on her appears beautiful in either photos or videos, and for many brands that kind of presentation is exactly what they look for.”
Changing Notion of Beauty
In November 1993, the cover of Time showcased ‘The New Face of America’, a computer-generated portrait morphed from many faces of varied ethnicities. Allure magazine, in a beauty survey on its 20th anniversary in 2011, said 64 per cent of its respondents thought women of mixed race represented the epitome of beauty; 70 per cent said they wanted their skin tone to be darker. This, when just 20 years earlier, Allure’s first survey had chosen the blonde, blue-eyed Christie Brinkley as the epitome of beauty.
Beverly Johnson did become the first African-American to feature on the cover of Vogue as early as 1974, Naomi Campbell and Iman are well-established as fashion royalty and Veronica Webb became the first African-American to win a major cosmetics campaign, for Revlon, in 1992. However, the Indian presence remained unremarkable throughout, though Dehradun-based Kirat Young, nee Kirat Bhinder, did become the muse for Yves Saint Laurent in the 1970s. Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai winning international beauty pageants in the same year brought the Indian look centre stage, but for the most part, Indian models were considered too ‘exotic’, and their differently-shaped bodies unsuited to the homogeneity international designers desired. It was only in the first decade of the 2000s that Ujjwala Raut, Padma Laxmi and Laxmi Menon made a mark, with Laxmi becoming the first Indian to pose for the iconic Pirelli calendar.
A ‘traditional’ model in the industry was also required to meet certain height and proportion standards. Today, says Yang, if someone has an effusive personality, or if their back story is intriguing, there could be place for them in the business even if they are not tall. As Susannah Hooker of Elite Model Management puts it, “It’s important in these times, when there are so many new faces, to stand out and let your personality shine. It’s not enough anymore to merely be a
FOR AN INDIAN FASHION WEEK, A REGULAR MODEL CAN EARN UP TO Rs 2 LAKH. IN THE WEST, MODELS GET PAID $1,000 A SHOW
pretty face, you need the character to back it up.”
As early as 1936, the legendary fashion maven Diane Vreeland had asked in her Harper’s Bazaar column, “Why don’t you paint a map of the world on all four walls of your boys’ nurseries so they won’t grow up with a provincial point of view?” Almost a century later, the boys are still learning to shed their provincialism and international runways are still mostly whitewashed, but a bit of colour is creeping in. And brown is one of them.
There has never been a greater churning in the international modelling industry. Sustained campaigns by models like Naomi Campbell and Iman who have written open letters asking designers to be more inclusive of other races, ethnicities and gender identities, as well as by personalities such as Diversity Coalition founder Bethann Hardison and British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful are ensuring that difference is becoming a marker of beauty, not an aberration.
New York Fashion Week 2016 remains the most rac-
PORTFOLIOS ARE PASSE, MODELS AS WELL AS AGENCIES ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA AND APPS LIKE INSTAGRAM
ially diverse in recent history. After examining 116 major New York shows and tallying 2,700 runway appearances, industry watchers said 31.5 per cent of castings were non-white. This was the first season where every runway included at least one model of colour. In an open letter on Instagram just before Fall 2017, Ivan Bart, president of IMG Models, encouraged designers “to celebrate our diverse talent by considering all of our models, regardless of size or background”.
The Indian Imprint
Indian actresses and designers are also carving a niche in the international entertainment and fashion scene. Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone have gained a foothold in the American entertainment industry; Sonam Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Freida Pinto have been making regular appearances on the Cannes red carpet. Rahul Mishra and Suket Dhir won the prestigious Woolmark International Prize in 2014 and 2016 respectively; Mishra and Manish Arora have also held shows at the Paris Fashion Week for six seasons now. As Yang says, “We will see more and more Indian presence in both fashion and entertainment in the West. The models can open doors for many who work in the same industry.” “The launch of more and more magazines in countries that previously had a relatively small fashion market is helping with the need for change,” says Hooker. “The launch of Vogue has helped, even though it dedicates most of its editorial pages and covers to Bollywood stars.”
“The changing identities in fashion now include more Indians and other non-white minorities,” acknowledges David Abraham of the celebrated Abraham & Thakore duo. “This has less to do with ethics and more to do with the purchasing power of Indians! At the end of the day, India will be one of the world’s largest consumer markets.”
To be fair, though, the Indian modelling industry has also evolved. “Indian models weren’t making it to international catwalks as Indian agencies didn’t have international connections or knowledge of the industry outside the country,” says Hooker. That is changing with agencies like Anima, currently India’s leading talent agency, representing photographers, stylists, make-up artistes and catapulting homegrown girls into the international arena. Rashmi Virmani, 48, founder and CEO of Ramp Model Management, who is credited with finds such as Sushmita Sen, Priyanka Chopra and Neha Dhupia, says they would have an easier time promoting Indian models internationally only if taller girls approached them. “In the 5’10 category, we have only about 45 models across India,” she says. When scouting for fashion weeks in India, they tap two or three pools of models, each comprising 15-20 girls.
“The Indian modelling scene for women is pretty good,” says Prasad Bidapa, 55. A renowned fashion stylist and choreographer, Bidapa has groomed and trained Deepika Padukone and Anushka Sharma, among others. “You must remember that categories exist,” he adds. “Runway models are required to be very tall (5’10”) and don’t have to be good looking. Commercial models for print and TV can be of any height and the curvy, pretty girls work very well here, and have the highest chance of getting into Bollywood.” The Western fashion market, too, he explains, is divided into specific categories—runway, print and catalogue, as well as specialised sections like hands and feet. Indian models like Laxmi Menon and Pooja Mor, he says, are cast in runway shows for the exotic factor. Ethnic models rarely become part of the mainstream in the West. Paris and Milan accept more Southeast Asian models than London or New York. New York still prefers blueeyed blondes. But from the woefully small number of Indian models abroad, the situation has improved, he concedes.
If a newcomer earns Rs 10,000 back home for a runway show, seasoned models command Rs 25,000, and supermodels Rs 50,000. For a fashion week in India, a regular model can earn up to Rs 2 lakh on runway appearances. Abroad, says designer Rahul Mishra, regular models get anything between €1,200 (Rs 91,000 approx.) and €3,500 (Rs 2.6 lakh approx.) per show while big fashion influencers such as Gigi
and Bella Hadid, Kiara Gerber and Kendall Jenner get upwards of €25,000 (Rs 19 lakh). Having walked for Balmain, Bhumika Arora would be an A-lister and earning in the upper bracket. Aishwarya, says Bidapa, continues to be the highest paid Indian model in the West, thanks to L’oreal and Longines. Most models, though, are paid an average of $1,000 (Rs 65,000 per show. Only supermodels get million-dollar contracts, that too just a select few.
Internet, the Great Enabler
Portfolios are passe, agencies as well as models now use social media to connect and communicate. Gunita and her husband are out in the field, scouring college festivals and social media sites for talent. IMG launched an Instagram campaign in 2015, inviting young aspiring models to create a ‘digital portfolio’ under the hashtag #Weloveyourgenes. It was how 19-year-old Komal Gajjar, a student at NIFT, Gandhinagar, came to be associated with IMG Models Worldwide, which represents models like the Hadid sisters and Karlie Kloss. The agency asked her to send them her Polaroid shots and soon the tomboy with a pixie haircut was on her way to London, her first shoot with noted fashion photographer Tim Walker for i-D magazine.
It has been as much of a fairytale for the girl from Sangaria, Rajasthan. Kiyara, all of 18, was the winner at the Lakmé Fashion Week Model Auditions, which won her the IMG Models worldwide (Paris, Milan, NY, London and Sydney) representation contract for two years. Gunita scouted Bareilly-born Pooja Mor on Facebook. Studying to be a computer engineer in Ahmedabad, she made it to the finals of the Clean and Clear Ahmedabad Times Fresh Face contest. Gunita dropped her a message, they chatted on Skype, and Mor, who wore braces at the time, travelled to Mumbai to meet her. Anima sent out a Polaroid shot of Mor minus makeup to international agencies. Elite New York signed her on in 2014 after Indian origin model Keisha Lal posted their selfies on Instagram.
There was no response initially, till she walked for Louis Vuitton. Much sought-after today, Pooja
NYFW 2016 WAS THE MOST RACIALLY DIVERSE, WHERE EVERY RUNWAY INCLUDED AT LEAST ONE MODEL OF COLOUR
is associated with the biggest names, be it Victoria Beckham, Derek Lam, Tory Burch or Calvin Klein. She worked with Patrick Demarchelier for the August 2016 issue of Vogue US, Txema Yeste for Numero China magazine and featured on the cover of The Edit magazine of fashion portal Net-a-porter.
Likewise, Rasika Navare was studying to be a technologist in Pune and doing the odd fashion shoot in college when Gunita chanced upon her on Facebook, asked her to meet, and soon had her international modelling career going. Mumbai girl Naomi Janumala’s Andhraite parents always intended to send her pictures to Anima after she finished high school, but Anima caught up with her first on Instagram. “I was on cloud 9, 10, 11, 12! I was only 16,” says Naomi. It helped that her father, Jimmy Moses, is a stand-up comic, the celebrated comedian Johnny Lever is her uncle and her mother’s family too is in the entertainment business.
Dreams Come True
How has all this changed the lives of the girls themselves? The first time Bhumika Arora went abroad was for the Paris Fashion Week. She recalls being super excited because the “clothes were so beautiful and the shoes very comfortable”, she says. Bhumika now lives in a studio apartment in what she says is “a nice area of New York”. Rasika travelled to London for the first time on her own in 2013. For someone whose notions of beauty were shaped by Bollywood, as it is for so many teenaged Indian girls, she was amused to see how interested the agencies were in her face. “It was a new face for them,” she says. Talking of Pooja Mor, Hooker says, “It moves me to see the number of girls who have reached out to her for advice or just to thank her for showing them that their dreams can also come true.”
“I’m still completely in awe of things around me,” says Monica Tomas, “but I’ve had the most incredible experiences throughout.” Born to Malayali parents settled in Ooty, Anima approached her after her friends sent her pictures to Gunita. Her first international walk was at NYFW Fall 2016 for Zac Posen. She is currently represented by the reputed Wilhelmina Agency in London, and walked for Nicholas K., Chiara Boni and Tome at the NYFW Spring Summer 2017. She has been featured in Vogue India eight times, and was the cover girl for Elle India and Harper’s Bazaar.
Natasha Ramachandran, 27, who has walked for big design houses such as Del Pozo, says she was stunned when Anima approached her but now takes the international catwalk in her stride.
The world’s their runway, and these women are ramping it up.