Trends of change

At the New York Fashion Week recently, acid-attack survivor Reshma Bano Qureshi walked the ramp for Indian designer Archana Kochhar. Soon after, yet another survivor Laxmi Agarwal did the same at the London Fashion Week, while a Texas teen became the first male model with Down syndrome to walk the runway for New York Fashion Week. If recent trends are anything to go by, the fashion industry is not just about clothes and traditional models anymore.

Archana says that her choice to include Reshma was to change the perception of beauty. “The whole idea behind me choosing Reshma to walk the runaway for me, is to give acid-attack victims confidence that they can live a normal life too. They must be able to walk the street, without anyone staring at them,” says Archana, who also conducted a fashion show with wheel-chair models in the past.

Reshma herself says that the fashion industry is broadening its horizons. “I felt as though the reason that I was being asked to walk the ramp was because I had been attacked. But when I was walking the ramp with regular models, it felt as though I were one of them. When people see an acid attack victim, they stare intrusively, but here, people looked at me the same way they would look at another model.”

Transgender rights activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who walked the ramp for the Lakme Fashion Week in April this year, says that fashion is becoming issue based. “I believe that fashion is about every individual’s style and perception. The clothes that I have modelled are mostly traditional saris and I think that fashion is a great way for saving art, culture and creating a platform for a cause.”

Normalising life for acid attack victims, Laxmi Agarwal says, will also help stem the problem in the long run. “Acid attacks happen because they want us to suffer and not live a normal life. If we prove to them that we’re not suffering, the attacks could stop too,” says Laxmi.

Supermodel Nayonika Chatterjee is doubtful that this trend can last in India. She states, “Only recently did they start accepting dark and curly-haired models. For them to accept models like Reshma to walk shows regularly could take time.”

Fashion designer Suket Dhir, however, is more hopeful that the recent trend is a sign that times are changing in the Indian fashion industry. “I think that, as the Indian fashion industry matures, it will also catch up to its international counterparts and these recent trends of breaking stereotypes on the ramp, such as Kareena Kapoor Khan walking the ramp while pregnant, or plus size fashion shows are an indication of that. It is sad that the fashion industry in India is sidelined and only the glamour quotient is highlighted. I think that we are facing changing times though and I am highly appreciative of that,” he says.

— With inputs from Dyuti Basu