picking cichorium

Outfit by GABA, Lakme Fashion Week, Mumbai, October 24, 2008.

I have been on the quest for the cool Indian designers since I landed in Hyderabad over three months ago. Fighting of the human calculators and living in the “small town” of four million people does not exactly aid my mission.

Finally, a finding happened last weekend at Anonym, one of Hyderabad’s few interesting clothing shops. Mild pastels, necessary minimum of detail and extreme attention to comfort singled out GABA from all of the other stuff in the store. Aneeth Arora and Chinar Farooqui, the makers of the brand, use earthy colors and natural fabrics. In the midst of “new” India, full of screaming billboards and modern concrete mosters, GABA offers comfort of the “old,” which is similar across the cultures. A GABA woman radiates warm assertiveness, quiet happiness and relaxing well-being. At the same time, she is stylish, and… cool.

Twiggy by Richard Avedon

Surely I have two midterm exams tomorrow, and my arse will be viciously kicked by Indian MBAs, who, mind you, are no regular MBA students. Many of them are restlessly studying human calculators on steroids. From what I hear, some of them mumble stuff about fixed costs and increasing returns to scale in their sleep. You are right, that is an entirely different story; my point is, this post could not wait.

When Twiggy’s boniness meets Richard Avedon’s hunger for movement, one must postpone her life and take a look. Then one must go further,  gobbling up such photographer’s work. Sure, you can also google “Avedon” and come across all of these photos, but I really really wanted them on my page.

I was alerted to this spasmatic googling by Through the Eyes of Richard Avedon by NYT Style. Thank you!

A piece by Charu Parashar from the Indian Fashion Week 2008 (pic from Rediff News)

Juicy colors of the Land of the Pretty encouraged me to look up Indian fashion designers. I remember reading in the Economist long time ago that Indian fashion industry mostly sticks to the local market and does not yet make a furror internationally. Truly, I have found close to nothing on Indian fashion in the Western Media, but found lots of badly compiled reports in the Indian online editions. Dude, if there is one Indian industry that could be taken to a new level with ease, it’s fashion, especially its online representation. I see mountains of work for webdesigners and SEO specialists, but is there demand?

There is though one Western lady who is really into “Indian” fashion. She freaked me out in the mall the other day. Gee, and I thought I left her in New York. 

Barbie in Hyderabad Central

first things first – i have discovered Kawakubo for myself today. hotttt. 

Rei Kawakubo of Commes des Garçons. Autumn/Winter 2009/10. Paris

secondly, in case you are not in the mood for some more Barbie stuff, here it comes. 

Spotted: Barbie keeps celebrating her 50th bday in West Village.

the fluffy stuff in the lower right corner is Barbie’s new amazing outfit. it’s almost Kawakubo.

i can't quite tell whether Barbie's taste gets better and better every year, or stays the awesome same

Another piece from Fall/Winter 2009 by Kawakubo

 more of this Japanese designer’s stuff on NY Mag.

P.S. if i ever have a female child, and if she is allowed to play with stickdolls, I will give them to her naked. no corrupting child’s taste with ugliness.

I was once again alerted by the fabulous NY Mag programmers that the new look is coming to ALL of the NY Mag pages, one of which was the slideshow for the Chanel Couture Spring 2009 collection. This being the prettiest collection I have seen this year, I had to post. 

I also applaude NY Mag for picking up the story of Shaun Ross, a super hot albino model, just as NYT did last year.  I follow the albino threads in the news since my studies on South Africa. I hate the stupidity that arises in people because of the basic lack of education. Maybe Ross and other visible people like him could be an answer?

Shaun Ross is hot

According to some blogs, back in 2007 Connie Chiu of Hong Kong used to the world’s only albino model. 

Connie Chiu