VOGUE India October 2022

THIS ISSUE CELEBRATES 15 years of Vogue India and I’m so thrilled to have the Tamil queen of the runway, Ashley Radjarame, as our October cover star. This story is all heart as Nick Sethi captures Radjarame’s return to Puducherry, a city where she spent many summers. In ‘No Place Like Home’, we celebrate the beauty of the South and the artistry of Indian couture, where she steps off the international runway and—for the first time—into the designs of homegrown talent including the likes of Rahul Mishra, Amit Aggarwal (her favourite look), Bloni, Falguni Shane Peacock and Gaurav Gupta—plus a Gucci suit paired with a lungi. Nick and I decided to shoot away from the gentrified White Town that typifies this former French colony as a buzzing tourist spot, choosing…

NICK SETHI Florida-born photographer Sethi’s work focuses on capturing the essence of the human spirit. In ‘No place like home’, he shoots model and cover personality Ashley Radjarame against the vibrant backdrop of Puducherry. Page 62 ADITI MAYER Mayer is a photojournalist, writer and sustainable fashion activist whose work explores the intersections between style, sustainability and social justice. In ‘On a journey’, Mayer unravels the full life cycle of fashion production in India—from the village economy to the design and garment construction process. Page 30 Ashish Shah Shah is a photographer and filmmaker known for his evocative imagery of a new India. In ‘The pashmina trail’, he traverses the terrains of Ladakh with writer and sustainability activist Bandana Tewari to capture the people, traditions and textiles of the alpine region. Page 104 Sneha Mehta Mumbai-based Mehta covers…

“Happy Birthday, Vogue India. Thanks for making me a cover girl”Lilly Singh, comedian, actor, author“Here's to 15 years of blurring boundaries”Nimish Shah, creative director, Bhaane…

“THE LOOK WAS going to be a bare glam one, while being summer and sweat-proof, so the aim was to keep it minimal,” says makeup artist Kritika Gill. “Ashley has great skin to begin with, so a little goes a long way, like using The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream to hydrate and de-puff the under-eye area. The Benefit Hoola Matte Bronzer added warmth while the Dior Rouge made her cheeks pop with a hint of pink, accentuated by the Dior Addict Lip Glow.” Kritika’s secret trick for that natural glow? Use a light translucent powder on just the centre of the face, avoiding the high points.…

Throughout my travels in India, understanding fashion through the lens of agriculture has been a central focus. With a fashion landscape that is nearly 60 per cent dominated by synthetic materials derived from fossil fuels like polyester, we forget that fashion has historically been a product of agriculture. And South Asia’s agrarian soul means we have a lexicon of natural fibres that make the case for regional textiles—from the rain-fed kala cotton in Gujarat and desi kapas in Punjab to phuti karpas in Bangladesh (which is spun into the valuable Dhaka muslin). But while the environmental and economic pillars of sustainability have made headway in fashion conversations, cultural sustainability has remained at the fringes. Cultural sustainability underpins knowledge systems around a region’s biodiversity, its native fibres and its localised artisanal practices…

ISSEY MIYAKE WAS fashion’s true futurist. The Japanese designer, who died from cancer in Tokyo at the age of 84, researched, experimented and innovated to push design forward and make it as democratic possible. He achieved this by combining high-tech with traditional design. As he once told me: “I am always thinking of tomorrow.” This obsession was born in Paris, where he began his career in the mid-1960s. Miyake, who, as a child survived the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, studied at the Ecole de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture—the school that produced Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and Valentino Garavani—and he apprenticed in the studios of Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy. During those formative years, Miyake mastered the classic tailoring and draping of couture to create beautiful, one-of-a-kind clothes…