Archana on Bazaar Bride: (Un)Covered

Comment image 35


Bazaar Bride’s April edition was quite an unexpected one for two reasons, first for not featuring an actor and second, for featuring model Archana Akil Kumar in a very traditional look.

I, for one, absolutely loved it!

P.S. She is wearing a Rajesh Pratap Singh sari with a Suhani Pittie belt, PNG Jewellers arm cuff and bangle and a Fatherland nose pin.

archana-akil-kumar-bazaar-bride-rajesh-pratap-singh-april-2016

Photo Credit: Viral Bhayani

  • Like it? Share it!

35 Comments

  1. I LOVE Harper’s Baazar Bride covers. They are always unique and more importantly they don’t over edit their photographs.
    Nupur Mehta is doing a bang up job!

    Reply
  2. Amazing cover. So nice to take a brown skinned model and let her be brown and not photoshop that lovely skin colour away. We need more of this.

    Reply
  3. And this is how traditionally most of the Indian (or whatever the race was called before that) women looked like draping long cloth without a blouse and flowers. And prior to that topless. :P Now they make a big fuss about a blouse , when the blouse was in itself a British compulsion on the women to make them look “modest”. LOL! She looks good and I love the touch of Thiruman Srichurnam hinting at the Vaishnavism. ;)

    Reply
    • Dalit women were forced to go topless…Blouse wasn’t a British invention. Before colonialism, there was caste in the Subcontinent and as old as the Hindu scriptures.

      Reply
      • Ancient times they only had a tube top (Kacha) and a skirt (still you can see many women in Kerala in such attire just a thorthu (towel) over the blouse. No covering the bosom. Then came the long cloth (sari) which served as a two piece covering garment (without blouse). Agree about the lower caste going topless and being mentioned in old scriptures. In Kerala even the higher caste women (and in many other states too) didn’t wear a blouse until the 1930’s(I think), the upper caste women can obviously wear and afford jewelry which was used to cover the bosom but never used a blouse. Blouse was mostly brought in by the British Victorian thoughts AFAIK and my readings on it.

        Reply
        • Thanks, Avani. I will look into it more. Most of my (very new) knowledge about caste and casteist violence comes from Ambedkarite scholars, but caste practices is not sthing I am familiar with (not Indian, nor Hindu and grew up in diaspora). Have read about how recent parading Dalit women naked was rampant (and of course there are ex found even in contemporary times). I will look into it more.

          Reply
          • No worries. :) I would encourage you to read up on it. I did quite a bit of reading while in my sophomore year when my American friends were quite curious about Indian languages, culture and heritage ( contradictory nature of the past, religion, caste system, different races and also comparing it to the so called “conservative” present that Indians try to portray ) and I got fascinated enough to do my own readings on it. Didn’t want to say random things because I knew what we learn of Indian history in Indian schools are just an eye wash and mostly are not even close to the actual facts.

            Reply
      • Ya i remember my mom telling me the same thing, that ladies started wearing blouse after the british came to our part of the country (south west india) . Till then it was only saree no blouse.

        Reply
    • Avani,

      Bang On. The elaborate blouse with sleeves, tacks on the front and the back came in only with the British influence and also with the import of the sewing machine, until then everything was handstictched and it is difficult to (hand)craft blouses out of thin cotton that fit your upper half in the snug way that most blouses today do.

      I grew up in a somewhat rural part of Karnataka and saw many old women wearing sarees without blouses (or even skirts!!)- for them the saree was a one piece garment.

      All this hoo-ha over “one boob show” type comments would just not fly with those women. They had major side boob and didn’t give a damn :D

      Reply
  4. +100000 to all the comments praising this cover. Just like everyone I’m so happy to see a MODEL on the cover of fashion magazines. Colours are happy & vibrant. Love the skin tone of the model.

    Reply
  5. I’m surprised no one picked up on it, but am also glad it’s NOT a lehenga. Not every bride is a Punjabi, and about time the diversity of India got represented properly.

    Reply
    • I was just going to say that. Tired of seeing magazine after magazine with indistinguishable opulent lehengas presented in photos with a large group of models staring sullenly at the camera, all dressed in similar colours. Would love to see a 9-yard saree too sometime – there are several gorgeous drapes in India! :)
      This cover is gorgeous – love the saree.
      Could someone identify the necklace?

      Reply
    • You know Punjabi brides wear saris too right? Lehengas are not a “Punjabi” thing and Sari is not a “non-Punjabi” thing. Punjabi brides traditionally wore salwar kameezes (still do), shararas, lachas and ghararas..so yeah!!!

      Reply
  6. The cover is somewhat disturbing for me, she looks like a child bride…beautiful cover and unexpected styling that blew me away.

    Reply
  7. What a gorgeous gorgeous cover. I am in love with that saree. Did not know Rajesh PRatap Singh does such beautiful sarees. The jewelry the hair, the forehead design- all gorgeous and striking!

    Reply
  8. This is a gorgoeous cover. Love it. Love the colors of the sari, the background colors and the jewelry as well. And the flowers in the hair are the icing on the cake. I would wear this sari in a heart beat

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Avani Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *