Innholdsfortegnelse for June/July 2025 i Harper's Bazaar India

I began writing this letter on a flight to Shanghai last month. Just a few hours into the journey, news of the Air India tragedy broke—and like so many around the world, I was left shaken. It was a jarring reminder of life’s unpredictability and the fragile nature of our existence. Our bodies are extraordinary vessels—delicate, yet endlessly capable. They carry us through joy, pain, monotony, and transformation. Sometimes it’s sheer physical strength that moves us forward; at other times, it’s the quiet resilience of the mind that teaches the body to persist. The casting process for this year’s Body & Beyond series went through several intense rounds. From the start, we knew we wanted to move beyond the typical ‘body’ narrative. We set out to tell stories that challenged…

I’ts just days ahead of Rkive City’s digital presentation at Milan Fashion Week and an exposition in Paris to present Reclaim the City S/S ‘26 collection. Ritwik Khanna is caught up in a meeting, and the team lets us take a look around the studio at The Dhanmill, Delhi, which also doubles up as his workshop. Some of the clothes on the racks are part of the new collection. There’s an eclectic mix of his signature recycled indigo-dipped denim, beeswaxed duck canvas, block-printed shirts, aged workwear, repurposed leather, and old parachute. My colleague points out—it’s a whole different ‘vibe’ from the designers we have been featuring in our ‘At the Atelier’ series. Khanna joins us midway to take us through the collection, and most importantly, decode the ‘vibe’ that Rkive…

As we bask in the summer sun and make most of the sunny afternoons, SaintTropez has an added reason for you to visit this coastal town on the French Riviera. Renowned chefs Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric have made a comeback at the LouisVuitton restaurant. Located at the White 1921 Hotel near the house’s historical store, the summer restaurant reopens with a reimagined menu and the latest LouisVuitton tableware serving luxury dubbed in culinary excellence. The restaurant continues to raise the bar for refined dining on the French Riviera. A Michelin-star restaurant, it is situated on the famed Place des Lices. The menu captures the essence of delectable flavours from all across the globe—from silky marbled tomatoes and ravioli filled with girolles, to roasted fowl with a fine velouté and…

No one captures the true essence of a British summer—think tank tops, flip flops, popsicles, and music festivals—better than Burberry. This year, the house has set the tone for the season with a new campaign that celebrates the legacy of British music festivals. Titled Burberry Festival, the campaign is a series of short films and portraits that showcases the joy of live music. Chief Creative Officer, Daniel Lee brings together a cross-generational cast of iconic musicians, including Liam Gallagher, Goldie, Seungmin, Chy Cartier, Cara Delevingne, for the campaign. Directed by Kim Gehrig, the casting highlights the brand’s rich heritage. “Think of the campaign like a collage,” says Lee. This nostalgic ode celebrates more than just silhouettes, it indicates how storytelling and narration reign supreme today. “Burberry sits at the centre…

Celebrating diverse artistic expressions, heritage, and innovation for decades, Swarovski is at the forefront of the cultural zeitgeist. The Swarovski Kristallwelten in Austria is a testament to the legacy brand’s ideology: To regard crystal not merely as a material, but as an inspiration. Inside the world of crystals, the Chambers of Wonder forge meaningful dialogues between artists and designers. Continuing the spirit of creative ingenuity, Swarovski Kristallwelten unveils a new Chamber of Wonder, Crystallizing Identity, created by renowned Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. The thought-provoking exhibition marks a significant milestone in Swarovski’s 30-year legacy of artistic collaborations. Born in Osaka and based in Berlin, Shiota draws inspiration from her personal experiences to expand into universal human concerns such as life, death, and relationships. Known for her immensely engulfing threaded installations, the…

In a world increasingly obsessed with velocity, Nikhil Mansata is an elegant anomaly—a creative who honours slowness as a crucible of imagination. Raised in the hushed rhythm of Calcutta by an interior designer mother, Mansata’s first encounters with fashion were through secondhand issues of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar, and Architectural Digest—coveted treasures that trickled in from theWest via friends and family. “I was voracious,” he recalls. “These magazines became my window into fashion, design, and luxury. They taught me who did what, including the role of photographers, stylists, editors. I learned how stories were built.” That curiosity would later unfurl across continents. Moving to London at 18 marked a significant pivot. If Calcutta was the quiet sketch, London became the bold brushstroke Mansata’s curiously inclined creative soul was seeking. Studying amidst…

I manifested it,” says Krishna Choudhary, the Creative Director and Founder of Santi Jewels, while sitting across me in his private, invite-only jewellery salon in London’s Mayfair district. We are currently poring over his latest art acquisition (something that has left me speechless for the past five minutes)—an extremely rare set of glass-painted Horus eyes that date back to 100 BC. But to ask Choudhary questions about pieces from his private collection is an exercise in futility, that will always be met with the designer’s signature candour. It is only through getting to know him that one can begin comprehending the force of this man, not just as an entrepreneur and designer, but as a true blue-blooded champion and preserver of lost crafts and heritage. In the rarefied world of…

How often do characters of a story walk off the page and into your life? In a Ruskin Bond book, the characters are the story—he begins and ends with them, and the story belongs to these vivid personalities. Take for example The Night Train at Deoli, it was published almost 40 years ago, but that girl with the basket is still standing on the platform, waiting for Bond to get off the train, take her by the hand and walk away with her. Same is the case in Love Is a Sad Song where Sushila lingers in Bond’s memory—still coy, still 16, and forever on the cusp of an unfulfilled promise. Or think of The Overcoat, where that soft and frayed overcoat, folded neatly by Julie, still lies by her…

ARIES MARCH 21-APRIL 20 In your career, a creative project or a new partnership will bring a sense of renewal and purpose. This month will be filled with soul connections—whether you’re meeting someone new or reconnecting with your partner. Karmic tip: Trust the magic of new connections—they’re divinely timed. TAURUS APRIL 21-MAY 21 You may feel stuck between logic and intuition. At work, outdated structures are breaking—allow yourself to think differently. In love, breakthrough moments come when you let go of old wounds. Karmic tip: Change your mindset. The limits you feel aren’t real. GEMINI MAY 22-JUNE 21 Chance encounters may influence both career and love. A surprising opportunity could shift your path. In relationships, joy and sensuality will take centre stage. Karmic tip: Be open to new opportunities. CANCER…

I listen to my body. It took time to understand what that means. But once you do, it changes everything. For 59-year-old Milind Soman, ageing is not a slow fade, it’s a rising force. In his 20s, he already held a clear vision of how his mind, body, and spirit would evolve by his 50s, a blueprint instilled by his parents with a scientific mindset who believed wholeheartedly that one’s body is what you make of it. And so for nearly three decades, Soman dedicated himself to that vision. Any discussion of Soman’s body would be incomplete without mentioning the 1995Tuff Shoes advertisement with supermodel Madhu Sapre, nude, entwined with a python, wearing nothing but sneakers, a now-iconic piece of controversial art that cemented his image and dominated conversations. Nearly…

Born in Peru, Perluchi by Lucia Picasso and Angie Poletti is a fashion brand that merges memories collected through time, eclectic travels, and nostalgia. At the heart of this curiosity, they collaborated with Ashna Mehta on the Bag Bijoux collection, which will mark one year since its launch on July 13. Ashna Mehta says, "I created Bag Bijoux as a way to customise my bag collection without damaging it. I designed and measured it specifically to clasp onto my Birkin bag strap, and it all started from there."…

My first encounter with ginseng—the root found in the misty hills of East Asia—was with a clarifying mask that quickly became a part of my daily ritual. Soon, ginseng appeared everywhere—from Korean beauty innovators to global brands. Buried underground for six years or more, the root transforms through steaming and drying into red ginseng, which is now a key ingredient in some of the most sought-after beauty serums today. TRADITION MEETS LONGEVITY Ginseng has long been central to Ayurveda and traditional Korean medicine, informs dermatologist Dr Deepali Bhardwaj, Founder, Skin & Hair Clinic. At a cellular level, ginseng acts as a quiet architect—rebuilding, renewing, and reinforcing the skin barrier. “It neutralises free radicals that speed up ageing,” says Niharika Jhunjhunwala, Founder and CEO, Clay Co. “It boosts collagen and supports…

ON HIS EXPERIENCE OF THE COVER SHOOT SAMAR RAJPUT, STYLIST “I approached the theme with a more intimate gaze. It’s a pleasure working with people who bring their full selves to the set. Styling for each was carefully considered and intentional—almost like a second skin: Symbolic, reactive, and a play of form, with choices that responded to the energy of each subject.” ON HIS EXPERIENCE AT BAZAAR DIALOGUES ANWESH BANERJEE, WRITER “The sheer, humbling thrill of being in London, in a room full of South Asian creatives, is an experience that words can hardly capture. What unites them is a shared drive to bring greater visibility to the treasures South Asia has to offer the world.” ON A COLOURED GEMSTONE PIECE SHE TREASURES RICHA GOYAL SIKRI, WRITER “A red spinel…

Marco Polo didn’t go to China in search of cheap tricks,” says Kavita Parmar, designer and founder of XTANT. “He went to discover the best of China. Its culture, traditions, goods that spoke of the hands that make there.” Indeed, we’ve always understood the value of exchanging knowledge and goods across borders. Parmar isn’t interested in nostalgia or soft-focus ideas of tradition. She’s interested in systems and in rewriting them. And so she founded XTANT, the Mallorca-based gathering of crafts-focused people, in 2019, as a destination where selling didn’t feel like being a sell-out, but rather as feedback that your work was of value. Held every May in Palma at Palau CanVivot, Spain, it is part salon, part school, part slow-burning revolution. XTANT brings together textile designers, weavers, farmers, artists,…

Once prized for its natural beauty and spiritual symbolism, coral is making a vibrant comeback in contemporary jewellery. Polished to perfection or left in its raw, knotted form, coral is being paired with gold, pearls, and enamel for maximum effect. Think oceanic reds and blush pinks set against molten metals—a look that feels both ancient and fresh. As natural coral faces increasing environmental threats, its rarity has only added to its mystique and desirability.…

DHRUV KAPOOR For the first time Dhruv Kapoor’s earliest memories of fashion are rooted in everyday poetry: The quiet dignity of the “Sunday best” worn by people at home. There were no rules, only the beauty of instinctual self-expression. “It was incredible to witness how a simple combination could tell a story about the wearer,” he reflects. That fascination has now evolved into a life-long search of how clothes hold memory, duality, and meaning—all at once. As a student at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, he was enamoured with ManishArora’s electric flamboyance and Rohit Bal’s sculptural tailoring. But it was his engagement with Marc Jacobs’ era at Louis Vuitton and Nicolas Ghesquière’s Balenciaga that ignited a new awareness of restraint, asymmetry, and the unexpected. His time studying womenswear in…

Towards the end of our conversation, I finally point out the profoundly poetic quality of Deep K Kailey’s name. In its original vernacular, ‘deep’ can mean‘joy of light’, the word’s utterance softened by the touching of your teeth and tongue to enunciate the letter ‘d’. But in the hardness of the word’s English enunciation, it also strangely comes to indicate depth—adding a layer of lost and found meaning to the word. “Some days I bring light. Some days I go deep. It is similar to being of SouthAsian origin, and growing up in theWest. The magic is in the duality,” says Kailey with quiet reflection. The name’s straddling of this strange iridescent duality for me mirrors the core essence of Kailey’s path—an illuminating creative presence in the field of fashion,…

What happens when you stop centering your life around romantic desire? In The Dry Season, Melissa Febos turns to celibacy after a series of intense relationships, only to discover deeper pleasures—in solitude, creativity, and spiritual inquiry. Drawing on feminist history and her own past, she explores what it means to reclaim your body not for anyone else, but for yourself. Written with cultural criticism and intimate insight, this book invites us to imagine new ways of living—and loving—that aren’t bound to coupledom, but rooted in selfhood. Gunk by Saba Sams follows Jules, who’s been divorced from Leon for five years yet still serves shots alongside him at Gunk, a shabby student nightclub in central Brighton. Night after night, she watches Leon flirt with undergraduates—until he hires 19-year-old Nim to work…

Meaning ‘we’ or ‘us’ in Telugu, Manam Chocolate ushers in a new era of premium Indian craft chocolate that combines flavour, form, and texture. The award-winning homegrown brand is a collective of passionate craftspeople, be it farmers, fermenters, chocolate makers, chocolatiers, or storytellers. Each one of them add their expertise to enable the transformation of cacao from its origin as a fruit on a farm, to cacao bean to chocolate to endless confections. In an exclusive conversation, Ruby Islam, Manam Chocolate’s Head Chef, talks to Bazaar India about flavours, tradition, creativity, and what it really means to celebrate chocolate in a way that resonates far beyond the taste. “It’s not just chocolate as we know it; it is a medium for preserving stories, honouring ingredients, and looking forward without losing…

So, if they [poetry and fashion] were my pillars earlier, now they have become my wings. There are times when profound experiences make for the toughest retellings, especially when you have been tasked with writing down someone’s journey of trauma and healing. Much contrary to the breezy telephonic conversation two days before the cover shoot with the poet and performer, Navkirat Sodhi, my initial struggle to put it into words without either making her sound heroic or desensitising her experience, rattles me. It takes me a couple of days to finally put the dilemma to rest when I start addressing her as‘Navki’ (as she is referred to by her friends) in the story instead of ‘Sodhi’. I still can’t comprehend how it exactly puts my perpetually overthinking mind at ease,…

I don’t, like resting, to be honest. Hillang Yajik moves with the ease of someone who’s done a hundred cover shoots before. One minute, she is power posing in Louboutins and an absurdly large glass of milk, and in the next, she is lifting a rock prop, Hercules-style, almost symbolic of everything she’s had to carry to get here. Very patiently, she sits through hours of hair and make-up and then shows up and shows us what “showtime” really means—happily murmuring assent each time she is asked if she’s alright amidst the endless parade of outfits, accessories, and directions that get increasingly elaborate and contrived as she goes along. As I watch her at the shoot, I have more questions than the ones I had prepared. How did a girl…

In a culture that rewards conformity and fragments the body into parts to be praised, corrected, or commodified, learning to inhabit one’s body as it evolves is a quiet act of rebellion. Especially when that body resists easy categorisation or societal norms. Bimini Bon Boulash knows this intimately. “My relationship with my body has been anything but linear,” Bimini tells Bazaar India during an exclusive conversation. “When I started drag, everything changed. Drag gave me a language to explore and unlearn—especially the rules I had grown up with about gender and identity.” Born in GreatYarmouth, a seaside town far removed from the glittering nightlife of London’s queer clubs, Bimini grew up in a place where difference wasn’t embraced but scrutinised. “It felt like I was a burst of colour in…

My vagina is like a Venus flytrap,” Lily confesses to Ola in Sex Education, struggling to make sense of her body’s resistance during an attempt at sex. Ola, in an awkward show of solidarity, tries to reassure her by admitting she has a single, stubborn hair on her nipple. “Do you know why this happens?” Ola asks. Lily, then says it’s probably because she puts too much pressure on herself. She reaches into her drawer and pulls out a box of vaginal dilators. If she’s patient, she explains, she’ll eventually be able to work her way up to the largest one, without pain. For some, this was just another moment in Lily’s coming-of-age story. But for many young Indian girls, it felt like the first time someone had put words,…

Canadian model Winnie Harlow, who rose to prominence in 2014, brought about a paradigm shift in the fashion and entertainment industries where uniformity has been equated with beauty for decades. Harlow has had vitiligo—a skin condition that causes the loss of pigment in patches—since childhood. While the fashion world has often positioned her as a symbol, she has insisted through her work that she is not a cause, and certainly not a diversity insert. Moving beyond projecting her as an inspiration, Harper’s Bazaar has time and again contextualised her journey and acknowledged her agency to narrate her experiences. She is not seen as a novelty, but as a professional. Harper’s Bazaar India has championed true visibility where diversity is not merely tokenised but celebrated. With this issue, we hope the…

…GO ‘BACK LACE’ WITH JEWELLERY Post Sabrina Carpenter’s backless with a ‘back lace’ look at the Grammy Awards 2025, we saw a trend shift in the making, and celebrities, like Janhvi Kapoor, further gave it a nod. It’s a break from busy necklines and a fresher take on flaunting your bling—it may not be new, but it’s set to go places and has got your back. …TRAVEL WITH TONER PADS The convenient way to exfoliation and hydration is cracked as toner pads mark their advent into our travel kits. The serum-infused potent yet soothing formulations make them a one-stop solution for all skin types. The Biodance Gel Toner Pads and Innisfree Brightening Pads are some of the many products currently on our radar. …TRY OUT THE GAME OF MAHJONG A…

There was a time when legacy in fashion meant something enduring: Slow-burning, deliberate, and deeply rooted in a brand’s identity. Creative directors were entrusted with more than just seasonal collections; they were the stewards of history, shaping a house’s language over years, even decades. Each collection wasn’t merely a product, but a carefully constructed chapter in an evolving narrative of artistry and innovation. Today, the pace has changed—drastically. Even the most historic maisons now operate on corporate clockwork, driven less by precision and more by content. The fashion calendar has always moved quickly, but now, the rhythm isn’t just dictated by seasons or fashion weeks. It’s dictated by TikTok trends, Instagram buzz, shareholder meetings, and the ever-refreshing homepage of Net-a-Porter. Creative directors, once given time to evolve a vision, now…

Italian luxury fashion house, Gucci, ushers in the season with three diverse launches—a campaign, a new bag, and an updated version of an iconic accessory. The new Gucci Lido campaign reminds us of slow summers while celebrating Italian coastal living. Set against Mediterranean backdrops, the campaign features actors Daisy Edgar-Jones, Aliocha Schneider, and David Jonsson. Photographer Jim Goldberg’s use of candid still shots and handwritten reflections add a narrative to the visuals while the video captures the essence of summer with scenes of friends arriving, boat rides, laughter, and the gentle rhythm of waves. This season, Gucci presents refreshed takes on its key handbag lines: The Gucci Softbit, GG Marmont, and Bamboo 1947 are now reimagined in seasonal materials such as raffia, wicker, and crochet, making them perfect for summer…

From Kavant & Sharart’s disc-shaped diamonds to Ox’s engineered Ourglass chains, new-age designers are reimagining the classics. No longer restricted to uniform rows of white diamonds, the modern tennis necklace experiments with coloured stones, unexpected settings, mixed sizing, and asymmetrical layouts. Worn solo or stacked, the modern tennis necklace is less country club, more cool girl—proof that timeless can still be totally on trend.…

Raised in the coal-rich town of Dhanbad—then in Bihar, now Jharkhand—interior designer, e-commerce entrepreneur and philanthropist Shalini Mishra grew up in a world where homes bore witness to culture, identity, and pride. With no restaurants to escape to, social life revolved around domestic spaces. “People invested heavily in their homes and the décor varied from one house to another, reflecting both aesthetic sensibility and personal pride,” she recalls as we connect over Zoom, from her London home. From my screen I find Mishra seated in a softly lit interior brimming to the hilt with an eclectic mix of art installations. But despite the museum-like quality of her own London house, Mishra’s upbringing was shaped by a humble, modernist 1960s-style home, and the rituals of Durga Puja pandal-making—sparking an early tactile…

For Yogesh Chaudhary, Director of Jaipur Rugs, carpets are far more than decorative accents. He, who heads a brand now internationally synonymous with Indian luxury, believes rugs are soulful artefacts, repositories of energy, memory, and meaning. “Each hand-knotted rug takes three to 12 months to make. It’s three to four artisans pouring their time, livelihood, and blessings into a single piece,” he explains to me, as we connect over Zoom. “There’s an energy that lives in the product.” That reverence for craftsmanship, and for the hands behind it, lies at the heart of Jaipur Rugs. What began as a modest family-run enterprise founded by Chaudhary’s father in 1978 has today evolved into a globally recognised brand at the forefront of India’s design renaissance. Chaudhary, who joined the company in 2006…

The age-old association of women with traditional roles is shifting as more women challenge societal expectations. Nineteen-year-old skateboarder Urmila Pabale is a prime example. Growing up, being told not to do something was reason enough for me to do it—call it rebellion or the pursuit of change. That same spirit made me instantly connect with Pabale. It’s rare to meet women who find their calling in sport, so when I did, I knew I had to seize the moment. I began by asking: “Why skateboarding?” “Since I was a kid, I was always into sports, not into studies at all,” she says with a laughter—the latter half of her sentence holds good for most of us. Usually, childhood hobbies fade, only to resurface with nostalgia. But for Pabale, her passion…

Dance doesn’t stop just because the body changes. It evolves with you, and you evolve with it,” Bijayini Satpathy tells me as I listen to her intently. But the line lands harder than I expected. As someone who trained in Odissi for eight years, I am aware how central the body is to the dance—the stamina it demands, the grace it expects, and the discipline it builds. But I have never really paused to think about how the body changes after those early years of training end. Or what it means to return to that knowledge, to stay with the form, even as the body evolves. It was during the Covid lockdown in 2020 when I first came across one of Satpathy’s dance videos on Instagram. Her practice felt less…

Why are we so scared to own our stories? I wanted to change that. “I was three when I styled my first outfit—mum let me choose it, and the store owner ended up photographing me. That was technically my first modelling job.” When we began casting for this cover series, Alicia Kaur was one of the first names that came to mind. I remembered seeing her on Instagram last year, where she casually named her breasts in a reel that, at first, seemed like a playful meme. But as the seconds passed, it became clear this wasn’t just another trend. Alicia was opening up about her breast enhancement surgery in the most candid way. It was unexpected, refreshingly honest, and in that moment, I thought: Wow. As women, we all…

For decades, the Indian obsession with fair skin has been unabashed. In the realm of beauty, years of conditioning have especially led generations to associate fairness with success, confidence, and let’s not forget, being lovely. Over the last few years, however, this archaic narrative has seen a major shift. Skincare terminology no longer promotes whitening or lightening, but rather, has evolved to brightening solutions, creating a paper-thin line between the two terms—one that is often blurred to feed into unrealistic beauty standards. ON THE BRIGHT SIDE “‘Brightening’ typically refers to skincare products designed to improve skin radiance, even out tone, and reduce the appearance of dullness, dark spots or pigmentation,” says Dr Anjali Mahto, Consultant Dermatologist and Founder, Self London. “Honestly, it’s a marketing term rather than a medical one.…