Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Harper's Bazaar India

Norbert Kniat, born in Germany, has assisted photographers like Joachim Baldauf, Peter Calvin, and Markus Rössle. In this issue, he photographs our cover stars—Tahmima Anam, Tishani Doshi, and Fatima Bhutto—in ‘Stronger Together’, pg 140. “Working for Bazaar in London was a pleasant experience. To have these powerful women in front of my lens and to spend a very creative yet relaxing day together felt extremely special. I am sure the pictures show how great the atmosphere was that day.” Lauren Alice is a London-based makeup artist who has worked with celebrities like Taylor Hill and Dua Lipa. Here, she works her magic on our cover stars in ‘Stronger Together’, pg 140. “I had such a wonderful day working with Bazaar. It was fantastic to watch them have their Carrie Bradshaw…

READING LIST Brush up on your fashion history with this line-up of new releases. Dior by Marc Bohan: 1961-1989 is about the discreet Frenchman, Marc Bohan, lead designer at the house of Dior for over three decades, longer than Monsieur Dior himself. Another creative in the spotlight this year is Martin Margiela. One of the Antwerp Six, the celebrated designer is the subject of two ongoing exhibitions and now a book by Rizzoli titled Martin Margiela: The Women’s Collections 1989-2009. Meanwhile, Loulou & Yves: The Untold Story of Loulou de La Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent traces the dynamic relationship between the iconic French designer and his muse through the voices of over 200 personalities including Andy Warhol, Karl Lagerfeld, Manolo Blahnik, and Diana Vreeland. Francis Marshall: Drawing…

Renowned for their pioneering work in haute horlogerie, Jaquet Droz marks their 280th anniversary with the Parrot Repeater Pocket Watch. Three years in the making, this one-of-a-kind masterpiece features a family of macaws amid a lush jungle of vines, hibiscus, and waterfalls. The miniature painting technique in vibrant colours brings the artwork to life while engraving creates depth and detail. Accents of gold, painted, and applied by hand onto the dial, add refined glamour. More than its beautiful design though, the piece stands out for its unique mechanical caliber: An automaton that not only animates the scene, but also sets off chimes that ring the hours, quarter hours, and minutes. SEE WHERE TO BUY FOR DETAILS…

“We don’t know the debates in Tamil or Kannada or Bengali. That means none of us is reading Indian literature.” What defines the pulse of a country? Often, it’s great literature. The undercurrent of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy is the aftermath of Independence, while Ali Smith’s recent Autumn (2016) is as mucha chronicle of post-Brexit Britain as it is an unconventional love story. But if that’s the case, India’s narrative is limited—what we call ‘Indian literature’ doesn’t take into consideration the volume of writing in regional languages. As literary director of the JCB Prize for Literature, author Rana Dasgupta looks to make a difference. The country’s newest—and richest, at ₹25 lakh—prize for literature not only accepts translations but encourages them. Of four entries a publisher is allowed, two are…

It was their last week in London so they decided to make the best of it. A week full of stolen pleasures. She said she was going to drink coffee on the roof of their building every morning, even if it was raining. The view was spectacular, a selling point on an otherwise mediocre flat with damp in the hallway, a view they’d hardly ever used. He’d made a reservation for dinner that Tuesday, somewhere sentimental. A Thai place they’d been to when they’d first begun to see each other. Her parents had given him her phone number and he’d been too nervous to call so he’d sent a text message instead and Amna had responded without any pleasantries, just a time and a place. His stomach tightened when he…

It’s a snowy night on New York City’s Upper East Side. The evening’s setting is a cavernous, wood-panelled room where oil paintings of patriarchs in gilded frames adorn the walls. It’s arranged for a fabulous dinner party—rectangular tables set to perfection—where glamorous international editors and tastemakers will soon slink into their seats. It’s a sea of colour, dresses, and opulence laden with silks, velvets, gold, and sparkle. At the centre of it are the event’s hosts, three powerhouse women of the fashion and beauty worlds: Designer Carolina Herrera, her daughter Carolina Herrera De Baez, and model Karlie Kloss. They’ve invited the group, about 150 or so, from all over the world to experience Herrera’s latest fragrance, a new incarnation of the beloved Good Girl Eau de Parfum. In between courses…

FROM THE EDITOR “This feels like a SAARC conference,” said Fatima Bhutto, as we sat in The Sterling Suite of the Langham Hotel, London. We were on the concluding shot for the day and the accomplished women being photographed for Bazaar’s May cover had kicked off their shoes and were engaged in deep conversation. The entire day had been rather magical and there were many moments at which I thought to myself, “Make a note of that line. Write down that amazing sentence.” It is not often that you find yourself in a room filled with incredible minds that display independence and irreverence with an intuitive degree of consideration. I love that Bhutto’s observation rather succinctly described our crazy, ambitious production. Our delegates’ name tags read Fatima Bhutto, Pakistan. Tahmima…

From floral prints to silk worm threads, animal skins to plant fibres, what we wear is inherently a part of the natural world. Using over 300 diverse items, Fashioned from Nature, a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, traces the relationship between fashion and the natural world over the last 600 years. Alongside modern items such as a Calvin Klein gown made from recycled plastic bottles or a dress made from grape ‘leather’, there are historical garments like a cotton chintz jacket from the 1770s, which was painted and dyed in India. While examining ways in which designers are inspired by flora and fauna, it looks at sustainability in clothing. We spoke to curator Edwina Ehrman about the development of the show. Why was this the right…

IMAGES: PAYAL KHANDWALA she told the designer that the outfit was so comfortable she had to have more. That is a sentiment that Khandwala’s large number of loyalists will relate to. The designer’s Spring/Summer 2018 collection—filled with noodle-strap maxi dresses, roomy trousers, and dhoti jumpsuits—is aimed at confident, modern women looking for clothes that make them feel good and also let the body move with ease. The range is full of Khandwala signatures—the neat shapes, her use of rich handwoven silk, and her strong hand with colour. This time, the artist-turned-designer was inspired by Holi. “Our mood was a little more playful, younger, and more vibrant. Holi was the perfect starting point,” says Khandwala. The result is a burst of hot pink, vermilion red, electric blue, and chartreuse. Sheer silk…

This June, writer and Bazaar contributor Nadia Akbar releases her debut novel Goodbye, Freddie Mercury, which is narrated in the alternating voices of two protagonists: Bugsy, a rock DJ, and Nida, a college student. Read it for its daring, vivid portrayal of politics, youth, and sexuality in contemporary Lahore. Arundhati Roy’s first novel in 20 years, after her Man Booker Prize-winning The God of Small Things (1997), came with high expectations. And The Ministry of Utmost Happiness did not disappoint. It follows the lives of the many people who comprise the fabric of India: A transgender woman in Delhi, a resistance fighter in Kashmir, and a Maoist in Andhra Pradesh, among others. Sita’s Ramayana (2011) retold the myth from a feminist’s perspective while The Missing Queen (2013) placed it in…

At one instant it seemed to be within my grasp:Your love was a jewel I could reach out and feel.It made me come alive as nothing had before;I felt no need to keep it in a selfish clasp.I knew it was something no one could ever steal,It had no need for locks; it was a magic door. I sit here now and think of what I would have foundIf I had walked the way my heart still bids me go(The closest word I know is “paradise”),But here my body’s tied to a stake in the groundOf many yesterdays and not one tomorrow,And though it may implore and struggle, still it lies In all the mud of language that turns doors to wallsAnd makes the best of truths, despite us, false.…

On the local train platform that night, a man grabbed the chest of a woman in a tight braid and flowery sari. She cursed at him before he disappeared into the crowd. Afterward, she stood there heaving, patting down her blouse and rearranging her dupatta back to the way it had been. But Ankita did not notice the scuffle, because she was listening to the old filmi songs Harshan used to play, and thinking of how he sometimes sang along in a funny falsetto. She had not told him that tomorrow was her honeymoon. Ankita had not wanted to marry Dinesh. She’d fought harder against it than most, trying both tantrums and pleading letters. On the day she had to make her decision, the parents of another girl who’d wanted…

“In Bombay—or Mumbai” says Ashwani Kumar, translating as we speak, “you have languages gossiping with each other, like an extended family. You have Gujarati, with its rich literature; Marathi, a celebrated language; you have English poetry, you have Konkani, you have Bambaiyya Hindi…”—and Urdu, of course, which once formed the heart of this city’s film industry. And yet, for all this multiplicity of tongues, for all that translating is second nature for the people of this city, indeed for people of this country, Kumar noticed with dismay that his students—he teaches at the School of Development Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences—usually know nothing of literature in their mother tongues. Conversations between the four co-founders of the Indian Novels Collective—Amrita Somaiya, director of the lovely Kitab Khana bookstore; Anuradha Parikh,…

What do we really mean when we say ‘pornography’? That’s the question Richa Kaul Padte addresses in her debut book Cyber Sexy: Rethinking Pornography (Penguin Random House, out May), a study on the crossroads of media and sex culture. And as the co-founder and managing editor of online imprint Deep Dives, which features stories on sex, gender, and technology, she knows a thing or two about these intersections. On the other hand, London-based mythologist Seema Anand explores sexuality through India’s ancient narratives in The Arts of Seduction (Aleph Book Company, out June). In a candid conversation, Sandhya Mulchandani, veteran writer on the Kama Sutra, talks to the authors on the need for an open dialogue on sex. SM: Your books approach sexuality from distinct points of view. But both are…

ALISHA PAIS Though she’s been on the gig circuit for the last 10 years, the Mumbai-based singer-songwriter has yet to release a full album (you can listen to her singles on Soundcloud or YouTube). A turn on the reality music show The Stage in 2015, however, only increased the number of fans who instantly recognise, and sing along to, her soulful, acoustic tracks about “life, love, longing, and maybe a little bit of lust.” SABA AZAD AND IMAAD SHAH Under the moniker Madboy/Mink, their high-energy cabaret-style gigs are performances in themselves with riveting visuals, choreographed dance moves, and, of course, their unbeatably cool, catchy sound that’s a melding of Azad’s dreamy trip-hop vocals and Shah’s punk rock and electronic-influenced guitar and keyboard. Currently the duo is working on a yet-untitled…

The 1930s was a significant decade in the evolution of Bazaar. The editor at the time, Carmel Snow, brought in the trailblazing Diana Vreeland and Alexey Brodovitch who went on to give the magazine its seminal voice in both storytelling and design. It was the decade that Bazaar got an extra A in its name. The 1920s and ’30s also marked the reign of Erté, a Russian designer who studied art in Paris but found himself in fashion. Over a 60-year-long career, he rendered fashion with his distinct Art Deco illustrative style. It was the age of jazz, of postwar relief, and a carefree exuberance that emerged in popular culture in the United States. Erté imbued this free spirit in this 1934 cover while the editors expanded the scope of…

In 1947, Harper’s Bazaar became the first magazine to feature a woman in a bikini in its May issue. Diana Vreeland, the inimitable editor, had famously said that “the bikini revealed everything except her mother’s maiden name.” She had, in her comment, captured the essential reason why the bikini irked the world then—and continues to do so. What women wear has always attracted controversy, debate, even legislation. What women wear on the beach or the pool even more so. The history of swimwear is also a history of bans, arrests, uproar over bold bikinis, about the shape and size of the garment, how much is covered up, and how much is revealed. We’ve learned early on that women’s bodies are battlegrounds for politics, and the swimsuit is only the most…

We live in a hyper-connected world. Unquantifiable streams of information are available at a click or swipe. But if it’s easy to find inspiration with a cursory scan of results from a Googled keyword, the internet also makes it easy to see where inspiration has given way to replication and copying—in short, whether an ‘original’ design is actually a rip-off. Tapping into this has been the rise of the popular Instagram account, Diet Prada. Its impact has been explosive in an industry where advertisers have massive grip over what a fashion writer can and cannot say. Calling out designers and brands for copying, Diet Prada has created maelstroms. Not since the rise of blogging in the early 2000s has there been such a sense of the old fashion guard being…

IN HYDERABAD, FURSAT, OR LEISURE, IS A VIRTUE. Even as the city—once the capital of nizams and still a cradle of fine cuisine, exquisite jewellery, and all things beautiful—has grown into a modern metropolis, its people have held onto the decidedly unmodern philosophy of living in tune to a rhythm that is just a beat slower, and more cadenced. Which makes it even more fitting that Hyderabad is the city known for pearls. Because pearls, explains Krishnadas, can only be handled with fursat. The legendary jeweller, whose family has been in the business for 145 years, is at the helm of Kishandas & Co., purveyors of fine jewellery, known for their unparalleled work with pearls. When he speaks of them, Krishnadas’s eyes light up. He has been working with them…

Words of empathy at a time of upheaval. Stories of ‘the others’, narrated in their own languages. Voices of dignity, of courage, of self-expression. Words of empathy at a time of upheaval. Stories of ‘the others’, narrated in their own languages. Voices of dignity, of courage, of self-expression. Because what else can immerse you so deeply into the social, political, and cultural landscape of a period? This month, we also present the essential reading list, chosen by two powerful feminists; the women from the subcontinent whose works will broaden your perspective; and exclusive short fiction on love, sex, and identity by acclaimed writers, Indian and international. Read, understand, engage. The time is now.…

I GREW UP PRACTICING EMPATHETIC READING WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT. As an Indian-American woman—and, before that, an Indian-American girl—I had read lots of novels with lots of different kinds of protagonists. I felt their pain. I shared their joys. As it turns out, none of them were like me. I wouldn’t know that, wouldn’t truly understand that, until later in college, when I read Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy. Finally, here was a book that felt familiar, that accurately reflected at least some aspects of my experience, my culture, my essence. And yet, I had connected deeply with thousands of characters in hundreds of books before that. How? Part of the answer lies in the way that literature works. A few years ago, researchers at The New School in New…

I’m looking out the window, dreaming of love, when I overhear a girl say into her phone, “She told me to try plan B and I said plan A, B, C, D, all over.” A man fastidiously flicks his handkerchief at the justvacated seat next to me, even though this is a clean, airconditioned bus, and sits down. “Excuse me, which is the stop for Palace Grounds?“ “Not yet,” I say. We’re in Wilson Garden and he’s asking for Palace Grounds. He’s either stupid or a pervert. Maybe it’s a line he uses on girls. This could well be his job—waking up, putting on his nice, pinstriped office trousers and his button-down shirt, telling his wife he’s off to work, and then going up and down the city in buses…

On the very afternoon that Abdullah, a waiter at the Gulistan restaurant on Mohammad Ali Road, was about to give way under the massed weight of the miseries, stacked up one over the other like dirty dishes, of his aged parents in Mirzapur writing to him to ask, although very gently, for a little more by money order every month so as to keep up with rising costs, and his older sister in Faisalabad, who had been married three years to a dealer in copper vessels, writing at the same time—and some of the letters of her missive were smudged, no doubt from falling tears—that her husband was giving her trouble and was probably having an affair, all this over and above the dull ache in Abdullah’s own heart as…

The first song, the last song. Those are the most important—the beginning and the end. The wisened voice of her ustaad stays with her, reminding her to forget what’s popular, to ignore the trends, the synths, and the drum machines, and focus instead on her vocal talents. Start with a song that seduces the audience, so she thinks of the song Chura Liya Hai, from the movie Yaadon Ki Baaraat—something sexy, lighthearted, a tease to start the night. And to end, with her warmed vocals at their peak, a song to break the heart. Something that haunts after she has left the stage—In Aankhon Ki Masti, from Umrao Jaan, or maybe Chalte Chalte, from Pakeezah. Classic songs from the Bollywood of her youth; songs her mother sang to heal her…

Ziya us Salam explains how divorce works in Islam, in Till Talaq Do Us Part. Ritu Bhatia writes on being single in her late-30s, in Manspotting. Seema Goswami grips readers with her political thriller Race Course Road. Ira Mukhoty chronicles the women who helped build the Mughal empire in Daughters of the Sun. Sanam Maher reflects on the honour killing of a social media star in The Sensational Life & Death of Qandeel Baloch.…

The digital documentary, Amoli: Priceless, sheds light on India’s ugliest industry, one estimated at $32 billion: Commercial sexual exploitation. Helmed by National Awardwinners and acclaimed documentary filmmakers Jasmine Kaur Roy and Avinash Roy, it follows the search of a girl who went missing from Siliguri, West Bengal. Bazaar talks to them on the importance of telling this story, and the challenges that came with it. How did the documentary come about? JR: We have been making films in the development communication sector, and have worked on subjects dealing with social issues. When we were approached to discuss the idea of a film on commercial sexual exploitation of children, we were up for the challenge. The figures that came up during the research were mind-boggling, and what stunned us was that…

TAURUS APRIL 21-MAY 21 Ingenuity and daring should come naturally to you in mid-May. This may help you in areas in which you’ve become stuck. But you must consider the warning words of someone who would prefer you to deal in certainty and security. Not everything will be as straightforward as it first seems. LUCKY DAY 19th—a few kind words empowers another quite unexpectedly. GEMINI MAY 22-JUNE 21 Having been forced to keep secrets for someone experiencing problems, you might soon feel awkward. Mid-month you’ll become keen to take a different approach to handle areas that seem dark. Greater transparency is called for. LUCKY DAY 12th—by refusing to be bullied, you gain respect all round. CANCER JUNE 22-JULY 23 Enjoy the knowledge that others are willing to relieve you of…

The last time Michelle Williams and I met, we were sitting in the incandescent light of a Broadway dressing room… …It was the spring of 2014, and she had just begun what would be a long run in Sam Mendes’ stunning production of Kander and Ebb’s classic musical Cabaret; with Alan Cumming reprising his mesmeric turn as the Berlin nightclub’s emcee, Williams went out on a limb with her brittle, vulnerable interpretation of Sally Bowles, a role she made completely her own. “I’ve never worked so hard in my life,” she says, recalling that time with some astonishment. “I did that for a year, it was insane! After that I really needed a change of pace, or I’d have collapsed. I yearned for something a little simpler!” Two and a…