South Asian New York Fashion Week, which was Sept. 8-14, was dominated by intricate, flowy lehengas worn on deep melanated skin and bejeweled turbans worn by prince-like Sikh men.
Lehengas are usually worn at weddings and feature short blouses, longer-length skirts and a matching dupatta or scarf, according to Vogue India.
It was a sight many at Fashion Week were not accustomed to seeing.
The February and September New York Fashion Week is an opportunity for designers to showcase the upcoming fashion season, according to a Feb. 13, 2015 Teen Vogue article.
Co-founder Shipra Sharma and Hetal Patel created South Asian New York Fashion Week as a way to highlight and share the history of South Asian fashion and culture, while celebrating the fashion pioneers who have been universal trailblazers, Sharma told Teen Vogue at the kick-off event for its Sept. 8 article.
At the September South Asian New York Fashion Week, Desi designs dominated the runaways with celebrated designers who showcased their designs on a global stage.
“South Asian Fashion Week is so important because it lets other people know that we exist, that [South Asians] exist and other people who are so accustomed to only seeing a very specific type of face and body being captured all the time,” said Kevin Ho, a San Jose State alumnus and photographer who shot at New York Fashion Week in 2020 and February this year.
Fashion week has predominantly featured white models who have worn fashion by white designers, according to a Feb. 24 article by the fashion magazine The Fashion Spot.
Only five of the more than 100 brands have featured models of color or non-white models, according to the article by The Fashion Spot.
“When you see someone that's outside of the very Eurocentric, white beauty standard, there's something triggered in your brain where it's like ‘Oh, this isn't a white person, and they can still exist in this space and do the damn thing,’ ” Ho said.
South Asian New York Fashion Week opened with India-based designer Mayyur Girotra, who incorporates colorful embroidery into high-fashion couture.
His lenghas, which are a combination of blouses and long skirts, were stunning depictions of Desi-elegance as models wore intricate geometric designs that brimmed with bright colors.
Sanjana Solanki, Desi SJSU business junior, talked about the lenghas’ eye-catching designs and how she could see herself wearing those pieces to her own wedding, where lenghas are usually worn.
“Mayyur Girotra was a designer [who] had some of my favorite designs,” Solanki said. “The designs were very beautiful and traditional, with the touch of that royalty feeling [that] had me thinking about what I would want to wear to my own wedding.”
Millie Barman, founder of the East Bay-based fashion company Desi Is Me, features the pieces, which are typically meant to be a special kind of outfit for wedding days.
Barman said she focuses on creating lehengas through her fashion brand and is inspired by the Indo-Western fusions at fashion week.
“What I really love about it is what my brand attempts to do is to bring it into a more casual everyday kind of wear,” she said. “The lehenga is just the ultimate piece that a young South Asian girl grows up wearing.”
Barman said she believes her brand is considered Indo-Western, so the brands at fashion week gave her inspiration to create modern pieces in the future because they featured traditional lehengas and sarees that had modern cuts.
Another designer showcase was Rivesse by Ishan Sanghvi, whose designs range from intricate to simple and modern suits for Sikh men.
Rarely are Punjabi men depicted in such a dignified way and Sanghvi’s portrayals of them on a global stage introduces the duality of brownness.
“One was joint showcasing more Pakistani work, and the other one was more traditional Indian styles,” Barman said. “But it was really beautiful to see both come to the show.”
There was a mix of both tradition and modern designs at fashion week.
Designers including Girotra showcased more popular heavy, ornate lehengas while others incorporated Desi designs on popular-Western wear such as pant suits.
“Even a lot of the smaller designers that were at the show, like emerging brands that came to showcase their work, it was nice because those were brands that are still kind of up and coming and, you know, as somebody who is in the space as a designer, these are brands that I was discovering for the first time,” Barman said.
Barman explained there needs to be more of a push for diversity within the South Asian community.
“In terms of diversity and seeing more different sized bodies and seeing different shades of people and I think that range of diversity was slightly lacking . . . people [also] wanted to see more Pakistani designers or more conservative styles,” Barman said. “So I think in both areas, both the models and designers, it can definitely be diversified more.”
Given that this is just the first South Asian New York Fashion Week showcase, Barman is excited to see how they continue to improve the show by including more diverse fashion designers.
There have been strides in diversity and inclusion at New York Fashion Week with the Council of Fashion Designers of America setting up an initiative to ensure inclusivity in all aspects of the industry, according to the council’s webpage.
The Council of Fashion Designers of America is a nonprofit organization composed of jewelry, womenswear and menswear designers, according to its webpage.
About 25% of all fashion brands featured at the event are Black-owned, according to a Sept. 9 Vanity Fair article.
The historical lack of diversity is what makes the first-ever South Asian New York Fashion Week so exciting.
Barman said she loved the incredible energy in the room.
“We have had one or two, you know, more Western brands that use Indian textiles and Indian prints and patterns that are featured in New York Fashion Week,” Barman said. “But again, that is, I think, one brand and it's one show but to have a fully dedicated show just [to] showcase South Asian fashion. I remember when I heard that I was very excited.”
