Pillow Talk

(Style Court)

The September issue of Domino magazine profiles Montreal-based textile designer Anupama Swaminadhan, whose years-ago stint overseeing the production of couture fabrics in India informs her current work. Swaminadhan’s new line of pillows, stoles and other home accessories are created through kalamkari, an ancient Indian printing technique. The dyes used in the line are all-natural and come from vegetable and mineral dyes. For inspiration, Swaminadhan draws on India’s “[t]raditional temple art depicting mythological scenes and narratives.”

Domino also features Swaminadhan’s line in its back-of-the-book “Domino Deals” section.

More: Anupama Swaminadhan’s official site.

You Can Be My Brown Kate Moss…

The inaugural issue.

Condé Nast’s Vogue launches in India tomorrow under the helm of Priya Tanna. Of the launch, Tanna told Reuters recently, “We will raise the bar because we are the ultimate style-bible. More and more confident, successful women are moving from the ‘we’ culture to the ‘me’ culture.”

The inaugural issue is Bollywood-themed featuring a write-up by Sukhetu Mehta about the film industry. The issue also includes an article about an up-and-coming socialite on the scene, style advice from Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra and Preity Zinta and a reportedly gorgeous photo spread shot by Patrick Demarchelier of Gemma Ward frolicking on the set of Saawariya. (Though, when I heard the news of this shoot I have to admit to feeling a bit annoyed: I would have loved to see a desi model photographed by such a legend.) The cover itself features Bipasha Basu, Gemma Ward, Priyanka Chopra, Monikangana, Preity Zinta and Laxmi Menon.

Anyone waiting for the launch with bated breath? Are you excited to read it? I will try to find it in New York. Until then, report back!

More: Read an interview with Vogue India’s Editor-In-Chief, Priya Tanna on Forbes.com.

New Media & NY Fashion Week

Naeem Khan Spring 2008

New York’s Fashion week wraps up this Wednesday and if you weren’t personally invited, blogs might be your best bet for coverage of what’s happening and who’s showing up under the tents in Bryant Park. According to Women’s Wear Daily new media still only accounts for 10% of the overall issued media credentials at New York’s Fashion Week. But there’s no doubting that it’s a whole lot easier for the average fashion-watching web surfer to click into the blogosphere than it is to get into a designer’s show.

WWD‘s list of blogging bigwigs (Sartorialist, GoFugYourself) and relative newcomers (Fashionista–“style like you mean it,” Fashionologie–“the musings of a twentysomething American girl who wishes she could have a Freaky Friday incident and switch bodies with Phoebe Philo”) includes writers with fashion industry experience and those offering a perspective for women of color, size or limited budget (The Fashion Bomb–“all urban fashion…all the time,” Too Fat for Fashion—“fashion beyond sample sizes,” The Budget Fashionista–“an Ivy League-educated epidemiologist who had a love of fashion and lack of cash”). See the full article for more blogs that got on the list this year.

Hillary’s Handler: Huma Abedin

Abedin poses at the Watergate.

Vogue’s Age Issue (August) interviewed political insider Huma Abedin as a fashion exemplar in her 30s and offered a peek at the contents of her closet, suitcase and BlackBerry. The piece adds to the mystique surrounding Abedin, who was profiled this spring in The New York Observer‘s “Hillary’s Mystery Woman: Who is Huma?”, while placing her stage-center in two red dresses, a Vera Wang and an Oscar de la Renta. De la Renta often hosts Abedin and her employer Hillary Clinton at his Dominican Republic vacation home and, as he told the Observer, does not “want to die without seeing [Huma] in a strapless dress.”

Born in Kalamazoo, Michigan, into a “very traditional family” with a Pakistani mother and an Indian father, Abedin moved at age 2 with her family to Saudi Arabia where her father started an institute devoted to religious understanding and her mother helped create a private women’s college. With aspirations to become the next Christiane Amanpour, Abedin made her way as an intern to the White House in 1996, hoping to be placed in the press office. An assignment to the First Lady’s office hooked her to Hillary’s rising star, where she now plays an integral role in the presidential hopeful’s daily campaign schedule.

“I’m not sure Hillary could walk out the door without Huma.”—Mandy Grunwald, Clinton advisor.
“Huma does make the trains run on time.”—Bob Barnett, the Clinton’s longtime personal lawyer.
“I don’t know if it’s a chicken-or-the-egg thing—Hillary affecting Huma or the other way around—but together they work.”—Mary Steenburgen, longtime Hillary friend and actress.

Elsewhere: Gawker; Jezebel; Live Beautifully

Huma spotting: At a corn boil in Iowa. At Hillary’s side in KC.

Previously: “Hillary Brings Tanden On Board For ’08″

Vendors Warm Up to Hybrid Wedding Scene

The business of tying the knot.

How do you keep a ballroom’s fire sprinkler system from disrupting a wedding when the ceremony features a sacred fire (and the electric havan is presumably not an option)? Foxchase Manor manager Antonio Cecchi, whose staff assists with an average of 80 South Asian weddings a year, has perfected a technique. “The key is to keep the fire in a portable container, and then when you’re done, you carry it outside and close all the doors before blowing it out.”

The Washington Post’s “Two Cultures, Slowly Uniting In Matrimony” explores how, like Cecchi, photographers, dress designers and horse handlers have responded to the “rise of a hybrid wedding scene.” The story suggests that attempts to accommodate go in both directions, and have mixed results. Read the rest of this entry »

Celeb Sari Spotting: Katherine Heigl

Katherine Heigl (Just Jared).

Tipster M passes along this sighting of actress Katherine Heigl on hiatus from Grey’s Anatomy and wearing a sari for her upcoming film 27 Dresses, scripted by The Devil Wears Prada screenwriter Aline Brosh McKenna and directed by Anne Fletcher. The romantic comedy is the story of a single woman who has served as a bridesmaid 27 times, and takes the part once again for her sister’s wedding to the man Heigl’s character is in love with.

A closer look at some of the photos on Just Jared, the premise of the movie and the often heard bridesmaid’s complaint about hideous gowns all suggest that the film’s costume designer was shooting for somewhere below the stunning/elegant benchmark. Sari experts Nika and Natasha from the site’s comments section weighed in with their critique: Read the rest of this entry »

Rachel Roy Sample Sale, NYC

Looks from Rachel Roy’s Spring 2007 collection.

I know we don’t normally write about sales, but I got a little email from New York magazine in my inbox alerting me to the fact that Rachel Roy is having a sample sale today, June 20, through Friday, June 22, in Manhattan. Roy has found success with her lady-like designs, garnering praise from André Leon Talley of Vogue and socialites everywhere. I, for one, love her clothes and thought many of you New Yorkers might like the opportunity to buy them at reduced price.

According to New York magazine, “Rachel Roy’s bubble dresses (now $175), embroidered camis (now $100), and cropped pants (now $125) are up to 75 percent off.”

25 W. 39th St., near Fifth Ave., 14th floor (212.629.7170)

Nirali profiled the fabulous Ms. Roy in our May issue.

Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker

I’ve been waiting for a while now to see the preview shots for Sarah Jessica Parker’s new clothing line, Bitten, that she has produced exclusively for the Steve & Barry’s chain of stores … in keeping with true Steve & Barry’s tradition, each piece is $19.99 and less.

Browsing through the looks, I came across desi Bitten model Mutka for the brand. Lovely that models of all colors are used for this seemingly all-American looking line of clothes. (I’m feeling the fact that the online collection presents the models almost like personalities, listing the cities from which they hail.)

The clothes themselves are cute, non-assuming basic sportswear … if you want a simple shirt dress but don’t want to spend a ton, I think this line may be for you. But Sarah is definitely not pushing any style envelopes with this line. The accessories really seem to be making a lot of the promo shots … I hope the accessories are part of the line as well.

See all the looks on the official Bitten web site. Bitten by Sarah Jessica Parker debuts at Steve & Barry’s stores nationwide on June 7.

Specialtee Gifts For Your Grad

MuckItTees

I’ve been to about a bazillion graduations in my life (give or take). Seen friends and family graduate from high school, college, etc. I even went to a kindergarten ceremony once. (The grads wore pint-sized caps and gowns. Too cute.)

Anyway, I used to be all predictable and uninspired about buying gifts. I’d bring the usual. You know, like those tacky mylar balloons and some last-minute flowers from Costco. Really memorable. For about five minutes.

But this year I’m all about the upgrade (Beyoncé’s got nothing on me) and am going to be gifting things I would actually like to receive myself.

Like these fabbity fab T shirts from Muck it Tees. What better way to tell someone you think s/he’s “Sweet Like Gulab Jamun” than with words? On a shirt? And as a tasteful homage to the *hot* auntie crew, this edgy statement piece from T Shirt MoJo will win over hearts, guaranteed.

What will you be giving this graduation season? Tell us in the comments section below.

(And congratulations to the class of 2007!)

More:

Mental Floss merchandise will make you feel all warm and witty inside
Nirali features the creators of hipster desi clothing company Bad Karma
And J Crew has just come out with a line of henna-design tees (Le Cringe)

Kapadia’s Designs Sparkle

Award-winning cuff (MayaJewels.com)

The International Jewelry Design Guild has decided she is an enormously promising, “up and coming designer.”

But don’t let the “up and coming” bit fool you.

Chhaya Kapadia has already arrived.

Her pieces have recently been featured in W and Elle magazines—and her original design (the 22kt gold filigree and rosewood cuffs pictured here) stole the show at the Town and Country Design Awards in Las Vegas, taking home the T & C Gold Award.

Now in her early 50s, Kapadia is something of a late bloomer.

She studied colored stones at the Gemological Institute of America and spent time in the trenches (make that the mines) of Brazil, immersing herself in the world of gemstones. But before all that she spent years in corporate America, serving as a vice president at Citibank, a director at NASDAQ and even the executive director at Kaiser Permanente.

Three years ago she left the corner office behind to follow her bliss. The result? Her New York-based company Maya Jewels.

Town and Country calls Kapadia’s designs “innovative,” saying they demonstrate wonderful “use of materials such as wood, enamel and color stones formed into a truly unique collection of necklaces, earrings, bracelets, cuffs and rings.”

Check out her full collection here.

More:
The Jet-Set Jewels of Robindira Unsworth
Sikara Jewels founder Mousumi Shaw
From Rajasthan to the Red Carpet