She hurried towards the west, almost in a straight line…momentarily pausing to settle her right foot in her chappals..giving little noticing time to whoever cared. With each step taken, the hem gathered a little dust..meanwhile the lookers looked on..the watchers watched..the talkers talked..the sellers sold..and just like that, she was gone…
Photo taken near Taj at Colaba.
She likes Swiss cows, Kate Moss, & shampoos that smell like chocolate; has a scary obsession with the color black, and thinks the fact that animals can “talk” to each other is cool; would wear a Manish Arora dress to her future kids’ open house; prefers late nights; doesn’t watch TV, doesn’t read newspapers – gets all her news & entertainment from Twitter; loves cupcakes, and Lykke Li’s Until we bleed; loves Murakami, Mohsin Hamid, and her childhood favourite Roald Dahl; is a stationery nerd, a part-time business management teacher, and her life’s wish is to own a zoo.
Ria Jaiswal, 22.
Why do you want to own a zoo?
Because I’ve always wanted a dolphin, a horse, an elephant, and an orca. So I guess the zoo would be the best way to have them. It’ll be more of a natural park.
And why an orca?
Once, when I was in 6th, I wrote a report on orcas for some competition on Discovery channel & ever since I’ve wanted one.
What happened to the competition? Did you get anything?
Nooo. It turned out to be a report writing thing where selected kids from the 5th/6th grade had to do a research on something…anything they liked, and submit a report on what they saw, what they thought, what they’d do, & stuff like that. God knows what they did with those reports, but everyone got a certificate of thanks.
How would you describe your style?
I like minimalist fashion but it’s not an everyday thing for me. In the photo..I really like the skirt. I think it’s the first proper high-waist skirt I owned. And I like that it’s body-con and navy+ it’s super comfortable!! Clothes I buy usually depend on my mood. I try to pick up a few various styles, so I’m not really restricted to one kind of “look” but I’m super finicky about the fits. I think I have to like the fit to really buy anything.
Now, I’d say, my style is becoming a lot more experimental. I make an effort to try out newer things, materials, etc…maybe leather, prints, dresses..more structured garments. I think I’d possibly, eventually, like to describe it as classy and experimental. Maybe like Alexa Chung with a mix of Emmanuelle Alt.
Can you cook? Where do you like to eat/hang out?
Not really, but I can make yum prawn curry and some chicken starters.
I love crepes at Suzette. I recently came across Fellas in Khar; I love it because it has all this health food. I also love Busaba & Asia 7 at Palladium. Hang out usually at Chai-Coffee, WTF in Versova, Blue Frog, & Prithvi Theatre.
Websites you check when you wake up
Twitter. Facebook. Gmail. In that order.
Magazines/blogs you read
GQ & CN Traveler. I’ve started reading Grazia a lot..it seems more approachable. Also, I used to buy every single issue of 17; had all issues except 3. Recently my mom gave all the 17s away as they were apparently eating up space.
Blogs..Oona’s blog before she discontinued, Fab-blab occasionally, Lovestruckcow, Fashiontoast, and The Dandy Project.
Work experience
My first job was an internship at an advertising agency during college. It was too random…would sit and do practically nothing all day. Then followed a corporate PR job. Best work experience was this 3 month long internship at GQ as a styling intern.
Top – Mango|Skirt- some random store in Australia|Bag – Forever 21|Footwear – Habit store, Colaba Causeway
Any mild OCDs?
I used to be a complete neat freak when I was in school. Now, not so much. But if I’ve left something in a particular way and someone messes it up, I get slightly annoyed, and sometimes I HAVE TO put it back to how it was.
Also, I hate wet feet and hands; have to always dry them. And if anyone around me has wet feet/hands..it bugs me.
Ria also hates peas and plain milk, is currently dying to order Murakami’s 1Q84, and in September she’s off to LCF to do her Masters in Fashion Entrepreneurship.
Blonde is a Germany based fashion magazine..available in Germany, Austria, & Switzerland. You can read all good things about it here on the fashion spot, and a bit about its last issue on Les Mads.
My runway photos from Lakme Fashion Week are part of an article-Indian Summer-in Blonde’s July issue. The article talks about 5 Indian fashion designers and their 2011 Spring/Summer collections. Designers are Little Shilpa, Shivan&Narresh, Sabyasachi, Masaba Gupta, & Manish Arora. Text is by Anna Baur with some insights & inputs by me.
Below are the print-screens; my copy is on its way. Download the legible /hi-res pdf here. It’s in German. Kannst du Deutsch lesen? Ich kann. Ein wenig.
On the cover is Caroline West | Elite NY.
“Together with Manou from “wearabout”, India’s number one style blogger, we ventured into the colorful, vivid and diverse fashion-scene of the mega-city Mumbai to find countries five most exciting designers.”
Above: Shivan & Narresh. Below: Little Shilpa(left). Sabyasachi(right).
Below: Masaba Gupta (left). Manish Arora SS 11 Paris(right)
+ I’m featured in the magazine. Thank you Anna.
This is what the text on my page roughly translates to.
“What Scott Schuman a.k.a The Sartorialist is for New York..Manou of Wearabout is for Mumbai. The 27-year-old photographer and style blogger wanders with his camera through the 18-million-inhabitant city, always on the below-surface, chasing after good combination outfits; worn by models, homeless, working class, business people, trendsetters, students… ”. The style does not necessarily have to be in fashion, it must be aesthetically appealing..” in response to the question of what manou particularly values in Indian fashion. He further tells us: ”The interesting thing is that every state in India has different culture, language, tradition, and also a different clothing style. Therefore, it is here, everywhere, a wide range of different styles and combinations are born.” The results of his tour grazing can be found on wearabout.wordpress.com. Manou has photographed the most interesting collections at Lakme Fashion Week 2011 for Blonde and has given small useful insights on the big fashion scene in India.”
If only I could somehow find Armani’s wine shop and CK’s dhaba…this series would be complete.
Photos from Bombay and Jodhpur.
Rough Soul Chewing Gum: Let yourself go. Make your own destiny.
Photographed on Linking Road, Bandra.
Photos from Iewduh and Police Bazaar…taken in January.
Kong(Khasi for sister) is a respectful term, and can be used for any woman irrespective of her age.
Although Mary, my host in Shillong, painted this picture(of a Kong) in my head, and I think the two ladies below get closest to that.
This lady is also my host’s domestic help. She walks everyday from Polo Hills to Risa Colony and back. That’s roughly about…7kms. a day? She is in her 70s.
“Old-fashioned dresses worn by Khasi ladies of farming families comprise – the ka jympien, a body cloth wrapped round and fastened at the loins with a cloth belt that ends at the knees or just below it. Over this next-to-the-skin undercloth they wear the ka jainsem, sometimes made of muga silk, which hangs loosely from the shoulders down to the ankles and is not caught in at the waist. It has a built-in pocket for small personal articles and is kept in position by knotting at both shoulders.”
However, what most of the women are wearing here is a Jain-kyrshah - a checkered cotton cloth knotted over one shoulder; sort of an improvised apron.
Even in heaven people eat Kwai - a popular saying in Khasi. Kwai is paan made of betel leaf, areca nut, and lime. Everybody in Shillong eats it. It’s a part of their culture, and is addictive(in a good way I suppose). It’s available pretty much on every street, and in winters, you eat it with ginger; it makes you feel warm.
A Kwai addict is easy to identify – red lips!
Kwai eating lady on the left.
“If she is young, she will be buxom and comely, with powerful calves that are admired as beauty.” Couldn’t have been more honest with the description.
Below: a woman selling Khui(Khasi slang for cigarettes) and Kwai..in Police Bazaar.
“When it gets bitterly cold in the hills, Khasi women wear long feet less stockings; in cases of the poorer families, ribbons or cloth wound around the legs like putties or gaiters.”
Text in quotes + the scans are from the book Dwellers of the High Hills – The Khasis of Meghalaya.
There is a good deal of unsolicited photography involved in my last few posts+in the ones to come. If I’ve photographed you, and you want your photo to be taken down for whatever reasons…let me know.
Next…look forward to photos of the Church going, Sunday people; people from Laitumkhrah; and people at the fair at Fire Brigade Grounds.
I am also considering blogging about houses of Shillong, and the way the city looked in January. The houses there are different and I photographed plenty of them. It’ll be a sort of digression from what I’ve been doing so far on the blog…
