Masaba Gupta is perhaps an anomaly in Indian fashion, and with a new Netflix release, she becomes the only designer with a series title. How did a dorky teenager become a hot youth icon?
Illustration/ Uday Mohite
Minutes after Lakmé Fashion Week's (LFW) Gen Next retrospective show on February 11, Masaba Gupta—one of the 30 participating designers—ducked out of the staging area with her usual staff entourage. A few minutes into the quick exit, and the IT girl/judge on MTV Supermodel of the Year/designer was ambushed by an excited mob of fashion students hustling requests: "Ma'am, one selfie, please". This is normal for an A-list film star, but where do you see this mad fuss over an Indian designer?
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"I think she is a media personality, who also happens to be a designer," says Sabina Chopra, fashion consultant and LFW Gen Next mentor. "She is never out of attention; in a way, she always manages to be in the news for hanging out with celebrity friends or announcing a new collaboration."
Like it's the case with her seniors Manish Malhotra and Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the attention can partly be written off as an upshot of Gupta's celebrity connections. The daughter of actor Neena Gupta and West Indies cricketing great Sir Viv Richards, Gupta grew up being famous. Rhea Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor Ahuja are her mates and collaborators. She is managed not by a solo public relations executive, but Bollywood's top talent agency.
Gupta is more interested in the delicious pleasure of not caring about others, or her own hyperprivileged image. From the time she launched her label, characterised by abstract native prints and bold colours in 2009, she used fashion to build herself a persona. It integrates her background, her intuition and daring beliefs, the worlds of her work and being a woman entrepreneur, and her Instagram life. "The combination is the winner. She understands the time she lives in and adapts. That's a fine art," says Chopra.
In Netflix's fresh drop, Masaba Masaba, Gupta also fulfills her childhood ambition of becoming an actor. Directed by Sonam Nair, Neena and Gupta, in their unforced and unaffected normality, play satirical versions of themselves in a scripted show that blends fact and fiction. They make it all so easy.
Gupta's world has never been what you might call one-note. At the heart of her easy is a broad despair of endless self-scrutiny, soul-searching even, that she shares on her very modern celebrity Instagram account. It's a filtered yet unfiltered hot mess, of sorts, unfolding via chapters on her dorky younger self in pursuit of grown-up wisdom; her wildly speculated divorce with film producer Madhu Mantena; her ongoing struggles to fit (in). In an earlier interview, Gupta had told this writer: "It [taking ownership of your body and self] takes a lot of talking to yourself, a lot of conditioning and blocking out the noise of what people say or think of you to be at a place I am right now."
Masaba Masaba is a story that only she could tell, albeit on an even bigger digital scale. "She stands for a certain fearlessness, which is ahead of its time," says Nandini Bhalla, editor, Cosmopolitan India, as she draws subtle parallels between Gupta's personal Instagram account and the series. The idea to calibrate images to create an inclusive, immersive experience was first explored by Gupta in March 2015 with her Instagram-only fashion show titled, Sugar Plum. "Masaba is possibly the first [Indian] designer to master the art of social and digital media. She perfected the ultimate Instagram goal: authenticity. Her decision to openly communicate the personal struggle with her genetic [Indian-Caribbean] makeup, or the pain of divorce, continues to resonate with many young women."
Cosmopolitan India's July digital issue featured her in a two-piece bikini, befitting the cover-line: The Self-Love issue. "Boldness pays off," asserts Bhalla. "Apart from minor tweaks, the images are raw and untouched. It confirms body positivity in spades, and she [Gupta] wouldn't have it any other way."
"I wouldn't be in fashion if it weren't for Wendell sir," Gupta had said of her mentor, the late Wendell Rodricks, in a mid-day article, adding: "When I was starting out, everyone told me that my ideas were terrible; his stamp of approval made all the difference." To make it in premier league, as Gupta has done, you need to create more than pretty clothes. You need to establish a brand that has value in the name itself, so the customer who spends R750 on a reusable face mask or R1,800 on a Burn Babe perfume feels like they are buying a drop of that spirit. "The Masaba label is millennial Indianwear more than modern kitsch. She has been smart about analysing the retail landscape, positioning her label as a bridge to luxury, selling at sensible price points while maintaining a playful, friendly vibe with colours and prints," says Bhalla.
She is all the capital she needs. But a million dollar investment does not hurt. In July, Flipkart's co-founder Binny Bansal along with Patni Group's Apoorva Patni, Abhishek Agarwal of Purple Style Labs, and Salarpuria group's Apurva Salarpuria reportedly invested a $1 million in her label. Gupta is only 31, and already is a trademark that goes beyond her signature printed lehenga set. She is a cosmetic brand (Nykaa beauty), a jewellery brand (Amrapali), an accessories brand, a celebrity brand, and an Instagram brand (1M followers). And it is these versatile roles, that women relate to, because a woman in 2020 is—above all, a multitasker. Chopra says, "She has been able to carve out a niche, and in doing so, brought the right kind of attention to the fashion design space that was once considered a mom-and-pop industry."
What Else To Watch: 3 Great Fashion Docs on Netflix
JEREMY SCOTT THE PEOPLE'S DESIGNER A$AP Rocky calls Jeremy Scott "a big kid with a wild imagination". For the uninitiated, Vlad Yudin's documentary is a good introduction to the controversial designer. That he is the creative director at Moschino, and often dresses and regularly socialises with Nicky Minaj, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry is just a bonus. It's essentially a melt-your-heart rags to riches tale: Scott grew up on a livestock farm in Missouri with dreams of one day moving to a fashion capital and becoming a designer.
MCQUEEN Hailed as the most compelling, moving McQueen tribute, the film has Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui focus on the man behind the darkness, romance and beauty. Through exclusive interviews with the late British designer's closest friends and family, a dip into recovered archives, stunning visuals and soundtracks, McQueen is a thrilling portrait of an inspired yet tortured fashion visionary.
Pic courtesy/Benoit Peverelli for Chanel
7 DAYS OUT Director Andrew Rossi gives us an unprecedented, behind-the-scenes look into the making of Chanel's Spring/Summer 2018 Haute Couture show. From the studio to the brand's ateliers, and the ateliers of Chanel's Métiers d'art—the episode 5 of 7 Days Out follows the late Karl Lagerfeld and his team as they bring his dream-like haute couture creations to life.
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