Harper's Bazaar India March 2023

THE Cinema ISSUE Lights, camera, action! What is it about the celluloid world that makes us love them so very much? “I think cinema, movies, and magic have always been closely associated. The very earliest people who made film were magicians,” Francis Ford Coppola once very wisely said. And in those few words, he summed up what makes the silver screen so extraordinarily fascinating… It is the magic. The escape. The ability to let us forget about our day-to-day worries and lose ourselves to the drama, beauty, emotions, and the make-belief, crafted together to entertain and delight us. Much like a fashion magazine. And much like the drama we call life. Which is why the 14thAnniversary Issue of Bazaar India is an ode to the inexorable draw of Indian cinema, through the ages.…

SASHA JAIRAM Mumbai-based Sasha is a fashion and an advertising photographer. For Bazaar India’s 14th anniversary issue, the photographer captures covergirl Kareena Kapoor Khan, and shares one of her fondest memories of the magazine: “I remember shooting Bazaar India’s January 2021 cover with actor Jacqueline Fernandez. It was simple and yet so different, just like this issue’s cover.” She further adds, “I am so grateful for the opportunity to share my vision and pay tribute to the magazine’s legacy.” VINITA MAKHIJA Vinita Makhija is a fashion stylist and writer with over a decade’s experience. For this issue of Bazaar India, in True Impressions, Vinita styles and pens a special report focusing on the rich textiles of India. She turns the spotlight on the country’s rich crafts that serve as an art form, and…

What’s life without whimsy? And when it is merged with couture, the results are splendid. This is precisely what the viewers were treated to at the Chanel Spring/Summer 2023 Haute Couture show. For the Maison’s creative directors, past and present, Gabrielle Chanel remains the source of endless inspiration—be it crafting a collection, deciding the finer details, or shaping an environment. This season, as the audience flocked the Grand Palais Éphémère in Paris—the setting for the Haute Couture show—they found themselves amidst wild animals. As the eye travelled across the enormous room, we discovered a rather peculiar mix. One could spot an elephant, a camel, a gigantic puppy, a large bird, and then some more… And upon careful deliberation, we had a ‘Eureka!’ moment. Chanel’s Creative Director, VirginieViard, had recreated a small…

Hard to conceive that some genius—by a mix of creative, non-conformist thinking and serendipity—chanced upon a wooden block, decided to carve a design, embellished it with natural pigments, and transferred it onto fabric, for no other reason than the sheer joy of beauty. Then, of course, it took many people, many decades and many interventions for block printing to be the refined art form and huge commerce that it is today. Even so, artisans, day in and day out, in a meditative trance, play with symmetry to bring designers’ visions to life on a printing table; in pretty much the same way our ancestors did. Fragments of many printed textiles (estimated to be between 11-14th century), and one that particularly looked like Ajrakh, were discovered at excavations sites in Al Fustat,…

It was Rekha starring as Chandni inYash Chopra’s Silsila [1981] that inspired several generations of filmmakers and actors to experiment with the virgin yardage. From white chiffon signifying purity, to its red variation implying seduction—Rekha’s character, Chandni, essays her moods through her drapes in the film. Later, Sridevi in Chandni [1989] and Mr. India [1987] draped her inimitable sensuality in an array of chiffon saris…either getting drenched in the rain or flowing in the breezy Swiss Alps. Over the years, the sari has been an anthropological piece signifying seduction, romance, rebellion, and power. A case in point being Madhuri Dixit’s beaded, deep-purple sari, worn with a backless, tie-up blouse in Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! [1994], which conveyed volumes about protagonist Nisha’s playful mood. Costume designer Ana Singh recalls that the sari…