The latest trend in the fashion industry is not about a new dress, shoe or a bag. At the New York Fashion Week recently, acid-attack survivor Reshma Bano Qureshi walked the ramp for Indian designer Archana Kochhar.
Soon after, yet another survivor Laxmi Agarwal did the same at the London Fashion Week, while a Texas teen became the first male model with Down syndrome to walk the runway for New York Fashion Week. The fashion industry is not just about clothes and ‘traditional’ models anymore.
Archana says that her choice to include Reshma was to change the perception of beauty. “The whole idea behind me choosing Reshma to walk the runaway for me, is to give acid-attack victims confidence that they can live a normal life too. They must be able to walk the street, without anyone staring at them,” says Archana, who has also conducted a fashion show with wheel-chair models in the past.
Reshma herself says that the fashion industry is broadening its horizons. “I felt as though the reason that I was being asked to walk the ramp was because I had been attacked. But when I was walking the ramp with regular models, it felt as though I were one of them. When people see an acid attack victim, they stare intrusively, but here, people looked at me the same way they would look at another model.”
Transgender rights activist Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, who walked the ramp for the Lakme Fashion Week this year, says that fashion is becoming issue based. “I believe that fashion is about every individual’s style and perception. The clothes that I have modelled are mostly traditional saris and I think that fashion is a great way for saving art, culture and creating a platform for a cause.”
Normalising life for acid attack victims, Laxmi Agarwal says, will also help stem the problem in the long run. “Acid attacks happen because they want us to suffer and not live a normal life. If we prove them that we’re not suffering, the attacks could stop too,” says Laxmi.
Supermodel Nayonika Chatterjee adds, “Only recently did they start accepting dark and curly-haired models. For them to accept models like Reshma and Harnaam Kaur to walk shows regularly could take time.”
— With inputs from Dyuti Basu
