Category: Model

Blogger and sari influencer Kamal Kapur, on introducing the sari into our daily lives and the changing trajectory of the garment.

The sari has done it. It finally made its way to the global Met Gala red carpet as supermodel Naomi Campbell flaunted a sari-inspired gown from Chanel’s spring/summer 2010 couture collection. A silky salmon flowy fabric draped in visual cadence, covered by silver metallic embellishments for the blouse, the beauty icon gave hope that the sari may now be an international redcarpet staple, as argued by a wknd. cover story a few weeks ago. The sari also made an appearance recently at King Charles III’s coronation concert at the Windsor Castle as businesswoman Natasha Poonawalla wore a sheer nude sari and a bodysuit in a fusion twist.

But the sari has had a more robust legacy than what we see on stage and red carpets around the world. Just think of women with toddlers on their backs as they worked in fields and factories as well as homes. Their saris were laced in dyes, extracted from indigo, lac, red madder and turmeric. These are women who we now see painted across cave walls, ancient scriptures, and who became the muses of poetry, fables, and doe-eyed characters in black-and-white films. Kamal Kapur, an expat living in Dubai since 2001, likes to call the sari a working garment, and believes the traditional rigidity must be removed from the garment and should be embraced in diverse settings — be it daily life errands or parties. The blogger, who goes by the username ‘desibychoice’ on Instagram, has around 29.2k followers and is on a mission to normalise the sari within the desi community while removing the so-called traditional or ‘reserved for a Diwali function’ aspect from it. She goes on to tell wknd. about this dynamic relationship she has with the six-yards of elegance.

Journey along the drapes

Originally hailing from Chandigarh, India, when Kamal landed in Dubai, she went through the same dilemma that many expats do. What clothes to keep here? And the dawning realisation that many of her Banarasi and Jamdani saris would be collecting dust behind the closet’s doors. Every time she would go back home, bidding her saris farewell would be a downhearted affair. But it just so happened that in one of her social gatherings, she noticed how every Indian woman was wearing a gown and realised she wanted to break that system. From that day onwards, she made a conscious effort to wear saris in all her events and garnered some raised eyebrows and amused attention. “People would ask if I was dressing up for a fancy show, but later I realised they all started following me, saying, ‘Oh Kamal is going to be there, so I can wear a sari now, or wear a sharara. She is coming, I’m sure there will be some company’,” says Kamal. The power of a community has had a great impact on strengthening her purpose. “We downplay our tradition. Once we stand up for ourselves, the entire community will follow.”

On Kamal’s Instagram, one can see her donning saris in different locations, taking us back to Sridevi’s yellow chiffon sari moment as she ran amongst the green meadows in the Swiss Alps in Bollywood film Chandni. The blogger has also made a travelling sari, which has been to places like Switzerland, Scotland, Georgia, Banaras, and South Africa with her. “My first time was in Switzerland, and it was freezing cold, but I wanted to drape a sari. I wore a jacket and went, and then removed it once we reached the spot.”

Sari in the 21st century

“In ancient India, women were breaking bricks while wearing a sari and holding a child on their backs. We have complicated it in today’s world and reserved it for traditional occasions,” says Kamal, who believes in the modern world, a sari can be draped in any way, and infused with different cultures and styles to make it adaptable. “It is especially important for today’s young generation to embrace the sari. Just because mum told you to wear it a certain way and without showing your ankles, doesn’t mean it has to be worn that way. It is a fluid garment with drapes, do not restrict it,” says the influencer, who is often seen pairing a shirt with a sari, making it a modern fit for the workplace. Kamal doesn’t believe in stitching up a sari, as it ruins the concept at its core, and rather prefers to wear it in a drape. For a red-carpet sort of event, she prefers gown-like glamorous drapes, whereas for a causal lunch, she opts to wear an airy cotton sari. “I pick up whatever reflects my mood. All my saris are inspired by traditional and rural drapes.”

With the NMACC red carpet, where global stars like Gigi Hadid and Zendaya walked the soft baby pink ‘red’ carpet in sparkling saris, the spotlight shifted onto this versatile drape and now the trajectory of sari seems to be shifting. “Big stars wearing saris gives a comfort factor that what I have been wearing was right. People call me crazy sometimes, with the way I center my drapes and how different they can be.”

Overhyping of ‘empowerment’

To Kamal, empowerment is what comes from within, rather than external means. “When you start believing in yourself, that is when empowerment comes, and you become comfortable in your own skin. Being an expat here, we are so confused as to what we do or do not want,” says Kamal. The blogger often organises desibychoice meetups, where all the women turn up wearing saris, sometimes with a certain theme from a state of India. With the community that she has built, the women who were once hesitant to meet up in a mall with her wearing saris, can now be found in nightclubs and evening dinners draped in different styles of saris. “I call myself desi by choice because I am not desi by root because of my mother who is Indian. It’s because I want to be desi and have empowered myself to say that with the stamp. We do not want a reason to be this.”

 

High-street designer brand launched at Dubai Design District on March 12.

Meet the popstar of high jewellery, Pavit Gujral.

A gemologist by education, and a jewellery designer by profession, Pavit Gujral is a Dubai-based jewellery designer whose creations are known to intertwine with the elements of nature. Be it starfishes and parrots dangling from one’s ears, or daisies and fishes nestled between collarbones, Pavit’s designs reflect unique styles, with a story behind them all. Recently showcasing her designs at the Dubai Design District, Pavit won the prestigious Inhorgenta Award in Munich, Germany, for her crab earrings from her Marine collection. The designer, who graduated from the Gemological Institute of America, has previously won the Saul Bell Design Awards in the US, and the IJ Jeweller’s Choice Design Awards in India.

Voyage, Marine, Sylvan, Memoir and Le Fleur, the designer’s collections are heavily influenced by a harmonious concoction of art, nature, moments and architecture, enriched deeply with the history of the gem. Sapphires, rubies, diamonds and topazes are no stranger to her as she takes pride in infusing colour and grandeur into her pieces, while paying ode to the stone. Ahead of her win, the designer opens up on her love for gems, and the journey to creating a niche.

The muses behind Pavit’s creations are not only limited to elements of nature, but she also takes inspiration from architecture. “Especially when I travel, I keep an eye out for different sorts of architecture because I feel the design industry is interconnected. Be it fashion design, jewellery design, or interiors or whatever architecture, that is one of my main inspirations. I even did projects on Zaha Hadid’s building.”

Gemstones are the main element in her designs. Pavit incorporates the colour and class that these precious stones bring into a piece. “As a gemologist, gemstones are something that I really want to promote, especially the lesser-known gemstones which are rarer and more valuable than the known ones.”

With changing trends and styles, bold jewellery has taken a backseat lately with more minimalism and simplistic designs coming to the front. But Pavit believes there is a market for her niche. “I think there was always a niche market for artistic jewellery, which is something that I try to do. I know I’m targeting a niche market for people who appreciate art, but I think that market is getting bigger and there are more people who are looking at jewellery as art and not just an investment,” says Pavit. Following trends is not something that she abides by, and instead prefers to create her own trends. “All my pieces are inspired by ideas that come very spontaneously and that’s why I can’t be following a trend. If I do, then somewhere or the other I will be compromising.”

The jewellery designer goes by the term ‘jewellery popstar’ on Instagram, a term inspired by her iconic inspiration, Lady Gaga, as she hopes to become the first of her kind in the industry.

Hailing from Punjab, India, the colours that Pavit infuses into her works are inspired by the colourful nature and diversity of her country. She even designed an inter-cultural piece, which was the Indian tikka, inspired by Egyptian pyramids. “Tikkas are usually round or crescent shaped, so I ended up doing a triangle version of it, which has never been seen before and all the diamonds in it were also triangular. I love playing with shapes and colours.”

Be it on her Instagram feed or in her exhibitions, there is always a detailed story and history of the gemstone mentioned either in the form of a post or a QR code. Pavit goes by the principle of educating people about what they are wearing and adding more value to it through its rich history. “There’s a piece, which I have designed with my grandmother’s old stones, so that is something they really enjoy knowing about. Otherwise, it’s just a piece of jewellery. The story adds value to it.”

Miss El Salvadore’s costume caught the attention of the online Bitcoin community, with many pledging their support and rooting for her victory.

A Miss Universe contestant from El Salvador strutted onto stage this week wearing a bitcoin-inspired gold bodysuit, a glittering tribute to her country becoming the world’s first to adopt the crypto-currency as legal tender two years ago.

Alejandra Guajardo, the Salvadoran beauty queen set to compete at the global contest’s 71st annual event in New Orleans, shared photos and videos of herself in the costume on Instagram late Wednesday, complete with gold booted stilettos.In her post’s caption, Guajardo praised her homeland as “a country with a true vision of positive change for the future” while pointing to the government’s much-criticized decision to adopt bitcoin as legal currency in 2021 alongside the US dollar.Designed by fellow Salvadoran Francisco Guerrero for the “national costume” stage of the competition, the currency-themed outfit includes a staff topped with a golden bitcoin and a huge colon coin strapped to her back ringed by cacao beans.

The colon was the local currency for about a century ending in 2021, when the US dollar was adopted; in ancient times cacao was used as money across mesoamerica.

Guajardo showed off the eye-catching fashion during a preliminary session ahead of the pageant’s formal start this Saturday.

Guajardo’s costume caught the attention of the online Bitcoin community on Thursday, with many pledging their support and rooting for her victory.

To have a chance in the pageant, she must fare much better than bitcoin’s recent performance.

Last year, bitcoin’s value plunged over 60 per cent, even as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele continued to hype buying “the dip” to boost the government’s bitcoin reserves.

Bukele has made no secret of his ambition to make the Central American nation a crypto hub, complete with a bitcoin “city,” though adoption of the coin has faltered since being introduced as an official currency.

Sephora started modeling at 15 years old, which quickly became a real passion that she practiced alongside her art studies. At the end of her studies, she allowed herself to progress in photography, to put more and more of herself into it, until a sudden autonomy and recognition.

However, she continues her professional artistic journey. She trained as a jeweler in Geneva as well as a higher education in watch design in Switzerland.

Sephora is a designer of luxury products and a photo model. These two qualifications come together on her Instagram account linking photography and her passion for jewelry.

“Through being a photo model I like to be able to convey certain emotions and philosophical ideas. I also naturally like to share my passion for jewelry and watchmaking. It is a real pleasure for me to collaborate with beautiful brands and to share my findings with my community. So photography allows me to express myself, I share a piece of who I am and my inspirations.”

Find Sephora on sephoraschaffner.com
For more information info@sephoraschaffner.com